Top Democrats in the House and Senate have held up a $2.8 billion sale of 40,000 heavy bombs to Israel.
Key Takeaways
- Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has placed a hold on the proposed $2.8 billion arms sale to Israel.
- The package consists of 40,000 2,000-pound — one-ton — bombs, among the most destructive conventional munitions in the US arsenal.
- Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has separately refused to clear the sale, citing unresolved concerns over compliance with US and international law.
Shaheen Places Hold on Bomb Sale
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has placed a hold on a proposed $2.8 billion US weapons sale to Israel, joining her House counterpart in holding up the massive transfer of heavy bombs.
The Hill reported Friday that Shaheen had exercised the hold amid concerns over Israel’s actions in Gaza and Syria and escalating settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Semafor had previously reported that Shaheen placed the hold in July.
The proposed Trump administration sale consists of 40,000 2,000-pound bombs. The Biden administration previously withheld a shipment of similar munitions over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza and the risk to civilians.
Shaheen told CNN that Democratic lawmakers shared concerns about Israeli policy across the region.
“All of us share concern about what Israel is doing … what they’re doing in Gaza, their bombing in places like Syria, and what that means for any peaceful solution in the Middle East,” she said, according to The Hill.
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‘Netanyahu Needs to Hear from America’
Shaheen also sharply criticized the Israeli government’s response to escalating settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“Netanyahu needs to hear from America that we don’t like what he’s doing,” she said.
“We don’t like what’s happening in the West Bank where settler violence is killing Palestinians, sending them out of their homes, disrupting basic infrastructure. And the Netanyahu administration has basically done nothing to address that,” Shaheen added.
As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Shaheen can use the congressional review process to hold up major arms transfers while the State Department seeks to address lawmakers’ concerns.
Meeks Refuses to Clear 40,000 Bombs
Shaheen’s position means the proposed sale is now being held up by the top Democrats on both congressional foreign affairs committees.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced this week that he would not clear the same $2.8 billion package.
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Meeks said the proposed transfer of 40,000 2,000-pound bombs raised “grave, unresolved concerns” about their potential use in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon.
“The Trump administration has not provided sufficient assurances that these weapons will be used by the Netanyahu government in accordance with US law and with appropriate protections for civilians,” Meeks said. “I therefore will not clear this sale at this time.”
The congressional holds do not amount to a permanent cancellation of the sale. They instead create an obstacle within the customary congressional review process for major arms transfers, during which the administration typically works with senior lawmakers to address their objections.
(PC, The Hill, AA)
Why is the US government supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians ? UNBELIEVABLE AND UNCONSCIONABLE when the American public is against Israel?
What do common people around the world believe America to be ?! The best country in the world ? COME ON ! Time to wake up !
Because Israeli violence is our violence ( UK and USA). It is a brutal demonstration of western values as a deterrent to those both home and abroad that resistance to the supremacists will not be tolerated.
Yes! Almost every country in the world has now turned against us. If we don’t shape up, an alliance of all those countries may bomb us. Then we would wake up.
Dissolve Israel. End Zionism.
Never forget that Jews are carrying out genocide,land theft,torture and atrocities in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria.
Yes, the Israelis are holding around 10,000 Palestinians as hostages in their prisons, torturing them with attack dogs, starvation, sexual humiliations, and no communication with their families. Many of those prisoners have no charges against them.
Why does the United States have 40,000 one ton bombs in the first place. There’s more to life than destroying it.
Beautifully stated!!!
NOT EVEN 1,000,000 ACCURSED bombs can weaken the forces of history and the desire of a People to be FREE…….BOTH of which are converging in Palestine……….The UTTER MORAL BANKRUPTCY of the so-called West is glaringly visible in that their ONLY POLICY is a huge quantity of bombs to keep THE KILLING And The GENOCIDE going…..they cannot admit that israel is a FAILED idea based in a CRIMINALLY RASCIST ideology that NEVER could have succeeded from day 1………..they have NO MEANS to ” save ” israel, and the longer the zionist nightmare exists the MORE bloody will be its FALL………..the zionists are doomed, as they themselves in their most private fears must now realize…..
Hear, hear! The rats are fleeing the sinking ship!
Yes. Dissolve Israel. End Zionism.