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US Lawmakers, Jewish World React to Biden’s Threat to Israel to Change US Policy Toward Gaza
US President Joe Biden, left, pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: Miriam Alster/Pool via REUTERS
Members of the US Congress and major Jewish and pro-Israel organizations reacted swiftly to US President Joe Biden’s administration calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and threatening to fundamentally change US policy toward the Jewish state, expressing both outrage and approval at the sharp shift in messaging from Washington.
In a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Biden issued his toughest public rebuke of Israel since its war against Hamas began in the fall, warning that US policy moving forward will be determined by whether Israel takes certain actions to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
According to a White House readout, Biden said that “an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians.”
It is unclear whether such a ceasefire is expected to be implemented unilaterally and unconditionally by Israel or come through an agreement with Hamas. Over the past few months, Hamas has rejected all ceasefire offers, while Israel agreed to a deal that would end fighting for six weeks and release 700 Palestinian terrorists from jail, in exchange for 40 hostages seized during Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
The readout also noted that Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.”
Without such steps, Biden threatened to fundamentally change the US-Israel relationship: “He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
Likewise, Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters on Thursday: “We will make sure Israel is never left without an ability to defend itself. At the same time, if there are not changes to their approach, it’s very likely we’re going to change our approach.”
Meanwhile, in a press conference in Brussels, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our own policy.”
Blinken also implied that Israel risks becoming “indistinguishable” from Hamas, a terrorist group committed to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, if it does not do more to protect Palestinian civilians. “If we lose that reverence for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we confront,” he said.
In response, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) made a sharp break with the Biden administration, arguing that US support for Israel should be unconditional. “In this war against Hamas — no conditions for Israel,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
In this war against Hamas—no conditions for Israel. pic.twitter.com/qCrqHT4pge
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 4, 2024
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) concurred, writing, “It’s Hamas that has rejected a ceasefire — not Israel. Instead of attacking our ally, Joe Biden should demand Hamas release the hostages.”
Without Hamas on board, it is unclear how a bilateral ceasefire would be reached. The only apparent alternative would be a unilateral ceasefire by Israel that would leave Hamas in power and all the hostages in Gaza.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, launched the current war with its invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, when the terrorist group murdered 1,200 people and took 253 others as hostages. Over 100 of those kidnapped were released as part of a temporary ceasefire agreement in November.
Israel responded to the invasion with a military offensive in neighboring Gaza aimed at freeing all the hostages and incapacitating Hamas to the point that it could no longer pose a major threat to the Israeli people. Hamas leaders have pledged to carry out massacres against Israel like the one on Oct. 7 “again and again.”
Some US lawmakers expressed regret at the rising civilian casualty toll in Gaza but noted Israel has gone to great lengths to minimize such casualties while targeting Hamas, which embeds itself in the civilian population and uses civilian sites such as schools and hospitals as its command centers.
“War is chaotic, and urban warfare more so,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) wrote in response to Thursday’s events. “I believe that Israel is doing as good a job as can be done and is working hard to avoid civilian casualties. Analysts indicate that Israeli efforts in this area are favorable to US military actions in Fallujah and Mosul. And of course, ISIS forces in Fallujah and Mosul were not firing rockets at the American homeland.”
In a statement to Jewish Insider, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said, “Every conceivable effort should be made to minimize casualties and maximize humanitarian aid for Palestinians in distress. But any attempt to fundamentally undermine the US-Israel relationship will only serve to benefit Hamas, which perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust — a fact that the world seems to have forgotten.”
Others, however, are supporting Biden in his sharp change of rhetoric. In an interview on CNN, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said he believes it is “at that point” where conditions on aid to Israel are prudent.
“If Benjamin Netanyahu were to order the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] into Rafah at scale … and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, I would vote to condition aid to Israel,” he said.
Coons is a long-time supporter of Israel and is considered a moderate Democrat.
Others offered more enthusiastic praise for Biden’s warning to Netanyahu.
“I commend President Biden’s call for an immediate ceasefire and warning to Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel must change course immediately, and that US policy toward Israel will depend on it,” Rep. John Larson (D-CT) said.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), on the other hand, argued that “calls for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ should be directed exclusively to Hamas.”
“Threatening or conditioning American support for Israel only serves to embolden Hamas and make a deal to pause fighting, free hostages, and surge aid harder to achieve,” the pro-Israel lobbying group added, hinting at the fact that such declarations from the US give Hamas leverage in negotiations.
The American Jewish Congress took a less combative approach.
“We welcome President Biden’s clarity and leadership in protecting America’s interests and in supporting our ally Israel at war while striving to mitigate the inevitable harm that a military conflict does to innocent people on all sides. The president speaks and acts like a true friend of Israel,” the group said in a statement.
“While Israel should hold itself to a higher moral standard, the fact remains that Hamas has methodically delayed negotiations and avoided the decisions that could have ended the war,” the statement continued. “Hamas does not share the American and Israeli concern for the innocent suffering in Gaza.”
The post US Lawmakers, Jewish World React to Biden’s Threat to Israel to Change US Policy Toward Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.