A group of House Democrats have dropped their bid to block a sale of weaponry worth hundreds of millions to Israel amid escalating violence with terror group Hamas, Politico reported.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said on Tuesday he changed his mind about seeking to delay the sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, worth approximately $735 million, after the White House invited legislators to an “informal session” to be held Wednesday. Meeks had called an emergency meeting on Monday, after which Democrats agreed to send President Joe Biden a letter requesting that he delay the arms sale to provide some leverage for efforts to get Israel’s government to agree to a cease-fire.
“Now, after more than a week of hostilities, it has become even more apparent that a cease-fire is necessary,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on Tuesday. “There must be a serious effort on the part of both parties to end the violence and respect the rights of both the Israeli and Palestinian people.”
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., was also supportive of delaying the weaponry as a means to end the current conflict.
“One of the few levers we have is the arms sale,” Pocan told Politico. “And I think we have to figure out how to de-escalate at every cost.”
Though Israel’s counteroffensive has come in response to Hamas firing hundreds of rockets — indiscriminately — at areas of the country with dense populations, the Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee just want the shooting to stop, on both sides.
“I personally don’t think that they should be doing anything right now other than pushing for a cease-fire,” New Jersey Democrat Rep. Tom Malinowski, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said. “At this point, the only headline coming out of the United States should be pushing for a cease-fire.”
A spokesperson for the House Foreign Affairs panel said that the chairman hoped to “create an opportunity for members to engage in a candid conversation with the administration about the arms sale,” and said that the letter is “no longer necessary.”
“What we wanted to do is to have a dialogue,” Meeks said on Tuesday. “The purpose of the letter initially was to make sure that there was dialogue.”
One legislator who attended the Monday meeting told Politico that the munitions “wouldn’t be sent for months anyway,” and “the question is whether it would be wise to announce licensing now while the bombing is ongoing and we are trying to encourage a cease-fire.”
In the upper chamber, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed, D-R.I., added that the arms being sold are precision-guided, and could actually help reduce civilian casualties.
“The JDAMs are designed to make weapons precise,” Reed said. “In this conflict, that would seem to me to be a reasonable transfer. Frankly, this is not a mercy resupply. This was something they ordered routinely.”
House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said party leadership made no attempt to pressure Meeks into dropping his request, adding that it seemed “appropriate that those conversations be allowed to happen, and then we’ll see what takes place.”
“It’s vital we ensure our most important ally in the Middle East has the tools they need to defend themselves today and in the future,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon. “That is why I and others approved” the military aid, “and why I’m encouraging the administration to proceed with the sale as planned.”
Source: Newmax
