
A group of 26 House Democrats on Friday wrote to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, expressing their deep concern about the arms shipment to Israel that was recently withheld.
The letter was spearheaded by US Representatives Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and Jared Golden (ME-2).
“We are deeply concerned about the message the Administration is sending to Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist proxies by withholding weapons shipments to Israel, during a critical moment in the negotiations,” the lawmakers wrote.
“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. At the same time, antisemitism is spreading globally like wildfire. We fear that public disputes with our critical ally only emboldens our mutual enemies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian-backed proxies. It also buttresses their agenda of chaos, brutality, and hate, and makes a hostage agreement even harder to achieve. Hamas still holds more than 130 hostages, including eight Americans, five of whom may still be alive,” they added.
“Just this week, Hamas fired multiple attacks at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, killing Israeli soldiers, forcing a temporary closure, and potentially preventing vital humanitarian aid from reaching innocent Palestinians. Stalling these shipments will allow terror groups to continue stealing humanitarian aid, ultimately putting innocent Palestinians at even greater risk. As the President confirmed after October 7, Hamas must be ‘eliminated entirely.’”
The lawmakers stressed, “With democracy under assault around the world, we cannot undermine our ally Israel, especially in her greatest hour of need. America’s commitments must always be ironclad.”
“We have a duty to continue to equip Israel with the resources she needs to defend herself and crush the terrorists who also seek to do America harm, free the hostages including the Americans, continue delivering critical humanitarian aid to innocent civilians in Gaza, and to stand by our democratic allies around the world. The President’s unyielding commitment to passing emergency supplemental funding for Israel showed the world our commitment. When we abandon these duties, we leave a vacuum of American leadership for our anti-democratic adversaries to fill,” they wrote.
The letter concludes with a request for a classified briefing about the decision “and to better understand how and when the aid that Congress has authorized and appropriated for Israel will be delivered.”
Earlier this week, a US official confirmed that the US had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on Rafah.
The shipment which was paused was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, a US official told The Associated Press, with the focus of US concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting.
A day later, President Joe Biden warned that he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Biden’s comments, made in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, were criticized not only in the Republican Party but also within Biden’s Democratic Party.
In addition, Israeli-American billionaire and Democratic megadonor Haim Saban on Thursday sent a personal letter to Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, in which he protested the decision to stop arms shipments to Israel.
Saban called the move to freeze the weapons shipments a "bad, bad, bad decision on all levels and called on Biden to reconsider.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)