House defeats bid to end military aid to Israel as over 100 Democrats vote for it | Democrats
The House defeated a measure on Wednesday He cut military aid to Israel, but more than 100 House Democrats voted for it, in a severe rebuke of the longtime U.S. ally as accusations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s green-lit genocide in Gaza continue to roil the party ahead of midterm elections in November.
Republican congressman Thomas Massie’s proposed amendment to the spending measure would halt $3.3 billion in planned aid; Most of this amount would go to the Israeli army. However, the proposal was rejected by 314 votes to 104, with 10 MPs present. Massie was the only member of the GOP to vote yes.
The amendment received the support of 103 House Democrats, nearly half of the 212-member caucus, underscoring how sentiment in the party toward Israel and Netanyahu’s government has soured since the Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, which some international investigations determined constituted genocide.
That provision sparked an unusual divide among top House Democrats, with minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and caucus chairman Pete Aguilar saying they would vote against it. In a letter to members, Jeffries called Massie’s amendment “overbroad” but said he would not try to formally persuade other Democrats to join him in opposition, citing “strongly held views across the board on this important area of foreign policy.”
On Wednesday, House Democrat Katherine Clark said she would support Massie’s amendment, saying: “It’s clear the status quo is untenable.
We should not give blank checks for military aid to any country that does not comply with U.S. laws, interests, and values. The Netanyahu government has failed to meet that standard,” added Clark, the second-highest Democrat in the House of Representatives.
He was joined by Robert Garcia, the top Democratic member of the high-profile oversight committee, who said: “Netanyahu, like Donald Trump, is a corrupt authoritarian who should face criminal courts and not receive billions more for weapons.”
Greg Casar, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, sent a letter to his members Tuesday explaining his support for Massie’s amendment and encouraging them to join him. “The American people are crying out for an end to U.S. tax dollars subsidizing the Israeli military,” Casar said.
The vote comes as there are signs that voters in some Democratic primary elections are looking for candidates who will take a hard line against Israel and Netanyahu’s government and reject the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the powerful lobby that has supported candidates from both parties for decades.
In New York last month, primary voters unseated two House Democratic lawmakers and replaced a third retiring lawmaker with democratic socialists who have put discontent with support for Israel at the center of their campaign. This trend appeared to be repeated in Colorado, where longtime congresswoman Diana DeGette lost her primary to political newcomer Melat Kiros, who was critical of the incumbent government’s previous support for Israel.
The issue was also expected to be a factor in the Missouri primary early next month; freshman Rep. Wesley Bell faces a challenge from former congresswoman Cori Bush, whom he unseated two years ago in a big-spending race by Aipac-affiliated groups. In the race to replace retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters in Michigan, former public health official Abdul El-Sayed criticized his opponent, Haley Stevens, for her support for Israel.
Some Democrats who voted for the proposal criticized its wording, with Clark stating that it would cut humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, including those in Gaza.
“This is not an attempt to have a serious and necessary discussion about military military aid to Israel. This is nothing more than a show-off by Republicans in Congress who would rather score cheap political points than lead,” Clark said.
Former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime supporter of Israel who two years ago called on Joe Biden to stop arms transfers during the war with Gaza, called Massie’s amendment an “unfortunate choice” but ultimately chose to support it.
“The United States must be a force for security and stability. The American people rightly demand an end to a cycle of perpetual war, and the Netanyahu government cannot continue its current course. So, although this amendment is ill-conceived, I vote yes on the message it sends,” Pelosi said.
While his group opposed the amendment as a “political stunt,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel and pro-peace group, said the support it had garnered among Democrats was “a turning point.”
“Today’s vote reflects an emerging consensus in the party; the debate will no longer be about whether U.S. policy should change, but how it should change,” he said.
