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US House Democrats Demand Biden Administration ‘Suspend Offensive Weapons’ to Israel
US Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) hold a news conference. Photo: Reuters / Erin Scott
A group of 20 Democratic lawmakers in the US House on Tuesday sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urging the Biden administration to “suspend offensive weapons” to Israel due to the country’s military campaign in Gaza.
The letter, signed by some of the most strident critics of Israel in Congress, called for the outgoing US administration to withhold critical offensive weapons from Israel, citing dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where the Jewish state has been fighting Hamas terrorists for the past 14 months. The lawmakers said that Israel has “failed” to address “concerns over Gaza” and that the Biden administration should “reconsider” sending more weapons to the long-time US ally and lone democracy in the Middle East.
The message was spearheaded by Reps. Summer Lee (D-PA) and Greg Casar (D-TX), the incoming Congressional Progressive Caucus chair. Among the other signatories were some of the most outspoken critics of Israel in Congress, including: Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (NY), Cori Bush (MO), Joaquin Castro (TX), Lloyd Doggett (TX), Veronica Escobar (TX), Jesús García (IL), Al Green (TX), Sara Jacobs (CA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Hank Johnson (GA), Jim McGovern (MA.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Mark Pocan (WI), Ayanna Pressley (MA), Delia Ramirez (IL), Rashida Tlaib (MI), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ).
“We believe continuing to transfer offensive weapons to the Israeli government prolongs the suffering of the Palestinian people and risks our own national security by sending a message to the world that the US will apply its laws, policies, and international law selectively,” the lawmakers wrote. “Furthermore, a failure to act will put Israeli lives in danger by prolonging [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war, isolating Israel on the international stage, and creating further instability in the region.”
The letter also condemned Israel for allegedly blocking humanitarian aid transfers into Gaza, saying that an average of 42 trucks per day have entered the enclave.
Experts have rejected such claims, arguing there is no evidence suggesting Israel has blocked humanitarian aid into Hamas-ruled Gaza.
“The facts are that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has facilitated the delivery of more aid to territory controlled by the enemy than any military in the history of warfare, despite knowing with certainty that doing so is actually strengthening Hamas and making the IDF’s job harder,” John Hannah, former national security adviser to US Vice President Dick Cheney, recently told The Algemeiner.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said in October that Israel has delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation a year ago. He also noted that Hamas terrorists often hijack and steal aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.
In Tuesday’s letter, the lawmakers also criticized Israel over its polio vaccination drive in Gaza, asserting that the Jewish state contributed to escalating “violence” which forced delays in the vaccine distributions. The letter also claimed that Israel did not provide “access to northern Gaza” during the vaccination efforts.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 556,000 children under the age of 10 received two doses of the polio vaccine, representing 94 percent of the target population. The vaccination campaign was a “remarkable achievement given the extremely difficult circumstances the campaign was executed under,” according to the WHO.
Israel has insisted that the evacuation of northern Gaza was a necessary step to preserve civilian life as it continued its military campaign against Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the war with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. Though critics have labeled the evacuation orders as “forced displacement,” Israel argued that these advanced warnings were evidence of the Jewish state’s commitment to protecting innocents.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas, which rules Gaza, has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the IDF.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
However, the letter lambasted Israel for allegedly bombing hospitals, schools, and places of worship in Gaza without once mentioning Hamas or any of the terrorist threats that Israel faces.
The missive represents the latest attempt by some Democratic lawmakers, particularly from the party’s progressive wing, to forcibly wind down the Israel-Hamas war by cutting off the Jewish state’s access to certain American arms. In the year following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, Democratic politicians have adopted an increasingly adversarial stance against the Jewish state. While the vast majority of Democratic officials expressed public agreement with Israel’s right to go to war against Hamas, many liberal lawmakers have nonetheless accused the Jewish state of “indiscriminately” bombing Gaza civilians or inflicting mass “starvation” on the beleaguered enclave.
Tuesday’s letter came days after a group of 77 Democrats in the US House sent a letter to Blinken and Austin demanding that the Biden administration provide an assessment of Israel’s “compliance with all relevant US policies and laws,” suggesting that the Middle East’s lone democracy and Washington’s closest ally in the region is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
The post US House Democrats Demand Biden Administration ‘Suspend Offensive Weapons’ to Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
The post Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.