More than two dozen House Democrats led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer informed nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan Friday they have been “deeply concerned” about President Biden’s resolution to withhold military help from Israel.
Gottheimer (D-NJ) and 25 of his fellow lawmakers wrote in a letter to Sullivan obtained by The Post that “withholding weapons shipments to Israel … only emboldens our mutual enemies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian-backed proxies.”
“Seven months after October 7, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust, Iranian-backed terrorist proxies continue to fire rockets and mortars into Israel and at Americans from all directions,” they wrote. “At the same time, antisemitism is spreading globally like wildfire.”
Biden, 81, introduced Wednesday he wouldn’t provide arms to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conflict effort if their military forces moved ahead with an invasion of Rafah, the final stronghold of Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
“I made clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gotten into Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem,” he informed CNN’s Erin Burnett.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed reporters on Thursday that the paused cargo included 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs.
“He does not want certain categories of American weapons used in a particular type of operation in a particular place,” she mentioned. “We have to make sure that we protect those 1.5 million civilian lives (in Rafah).”
“We are especially focused on the end use of the 2,000 pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza,” she added. “We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment.”
Netanyahu, in a video message on Thursday that didn’t point out Biden, vowed of Israel: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”
The House Democrats mentioned the president’s resolution “buttresses” the Iranian terror proxy’s “agenda of chaos, brutality, and hate, and makes a hostage agreement even harder to achieve.”
Hamas kidnapped 240 folks throughout its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel that led to the bloodbath of 1,200 folks, together with 33 US residents.
More than 130 stay hostages within the Gaza Strip — together with 5 Americans. It is unclear what number of of that quantity are alive or lifeless.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have additionally been killed within the dense city warfare, in response to figures supplied by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, which doesn’t distinguish between terrorists and civilians.
“Stalling these shipments will allow terror groups to continue stealing humanitarian aid, ultimately putting innocent Palestinians at even greater risk,” the Democrats additionally mentioned.
“As the President confirmed after October 7, Hamas have to be ‘eliminated entirely,’” they added, reminding Biden of his other commitments to America’s closest ally within the Middle East early within the conflict.
“When we abandon these duties, we leave a vacuum of American leadership for our anti-democratic adversaries to fill,” the members declared.
Gottheimer and the opposite Democrats requested a categorised briefing to debate the matter additional and obtain assurances for when the $17 billion in military help for Israel handed by Congress final month “will be delivered.”
A spokeswoman for Sullivan didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
