WASHINGTON – The House was prepared Thursday to rebuke President Joe Biden for halting a shipment of bombs to Israel, voting on legislation that would seek to force the arms transfer as Republicans worked to highlight Democratic divisions over the Israel-Hamas war.
Seeking to discourage Israel from its offensive on the busy southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Biden administration this month suspended a weapons shipment of 3,500 bombs — some weighing up to 2,000 pounds — that are capable of killing hundreds of people in populated areas. Republicans were outraged, accusing Biden of abandoning the US’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Debate over the bill, rushed to the House floor by GOP leadership this week, showed Washington’s deeply fractured perspective on the Israel-Hamas war. The White House and Democratic leadership have struggled to garner support from a House caucus that ranges from moderates frustrated that the president is allowing any daylight between the U.S. and Israel to progressives outraged that he is still sending any weapons.
On the right, Republicans said the president had no business rebuking Israel for the way it uses U.S.-made weapons that are key in its war against Hamas. They were not happy with the fact that the Biden administration moved forward this week with a new $1 billion sale to Israel of tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortars.
“We are beyond frustrated,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. “I don’t think we should tell the Israelis how to conduct their military campaign, period.”
The House bill condemns Biden for initiating the pause on bomb shipments and would withhold funding to the State Department, the Department of Defense and the National Security Council until the delivery is made.
The White House has said Biden would veto the bill if it passes Congress, and the Democratic-led Senate appears certain to reject it.
“This isn’t going anywhere,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said this week.
Republicans have not been shy in trying to highlight Democratic divisions in the war between Israel and Hamas. Appearing on Capitol Hill ahead of the vote Thursday morning, House Republican leaders argued that passage of the bill in the House would increase pressure on Schumer and Biden.
“It is President Biden and Senator Schumer himself who are preventing Israel from getting the resources it desperately needs to defend itself,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Biden suspended the transfer of the bombs this month due to concerns the weapons could cause massive casualties in Rafah. The move highlighted growing differences between his administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over its handling of the war.
More than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed as Israel seeks to eliminate Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 others captive. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed if Israel attacks Rafah, the United Nations aid agency warned, because many have fled there in search of safety.
The heavy impact of the Israeli campaign provoked intense protests on the left, including on university campuses across the country and some directed directly against Biden. At the same time, a group of moderate Democrats in Congress expressed almost unconditional support for Israel. About two dozen House Democrats last week signed a letter to the Biden administration saying they were “deeply concerned about the message” sent by stopping the bomb.
Faced with the possibility of a significant number of Democrats voting in favor of the GOP House bill, the White House reached out this week to lawmakers and congressional aides about the legislation, including a confidential briefing on the security situation. .
House Democratic leadership also worked hard to convince rank-and-file lawmakers to vote against the bill.
“This is another political coup by the Republican Party in the House,” said Rep. Katherine Clark, a Connecticut Democrat who is second in House leadership. She said the bill would jeopardize national security by withholding funding from key defense agencies.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he believed “very few” Democrats would vote for the bill, saying it was more about political messaging than enacting an actual law.
As the general election campaign comes into focus, Johnson has turned to introducing partisan bills, including legislation on immigration, local policing and anti-Semitism, that aim to force Democrats to take tough votes.
Still, some Democrats appeared likely to support the legislation.
“The administration has been hesitant, so I will vote for the bill when it passes,” Representative Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, said this week.
Other Democrats who strongly support Israel said they have not decided how they would vote, criticizing Republicans for using it as a political tool.
“They’re just using this to try to hobble Democrats and make it look like they’re actually pretending to actually care about Israel,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat.
Another Florida Democrat, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, said he was also considering messages sent to the Jewish community in the United States.
“My community is now worried,” he said. “Things don’t happen in a vacuum.”
Historically, the US sent enormous quantities of weapons to Israel and only accelerated these shipments after the October 7th attack. But some progressives are pushing for an end to that relationship, arguing that Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide — a characterization the Biden administration has rejected.
“My fear is that our government and we as citizens, as taxpayers, are complicit in genocide,” said Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota. “And that goes against everything we value as a nation.”
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
