The Biden administration is aggressively pushing senators to bless continued U.S. weapons shipments for Israel ahead of a first-of-its-kind vote in Congress on the policy, HuffPost has learned ― and administration officials are suggesting lawmakers who vote against the arms are empowering American and Israeli foes from Iran to the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, which the U.S. treats as terror organizations.
HuffPost obtained a copy of talking points the administration is circulating on Capitol Hill ahead of a Wednesday vote on several tranches of military equipment that President Joe Biden wants to send Israel. The White House sent the document to multiple Democratic Senate offices on Tuesday, two Senate aides who requested anonymity to speak frankly told HuffPost.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is also privately pressing senators to endorse the ongoing flow of military equipment to Israel, according to one of the aides.
Several influential senators ― among them Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) ― are urging colleagues to vote for legislation that disapproves of Biden’s arms deals. They cite Israel’s use of American support to cause massive civilian casualties and its severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, which they say violate U.S. and international law.
The effort is serious enough that the White House has launched a pointed pushback. “Disapproving arms purchases for Israel at this moment would … put wind in the sails of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas at the worst possible moment,” the document from the Biden administration reads.
The document additionally appears to endorse continued fighting despite the administration’s public narrative that it is seeking settlements to end the deadly Israeli military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Now is the time to focus pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and stop the war,” it reads, referring to the more than 100 hostages whom the Palestinian armed group continues to hold after they were captured during its brutal Oct. 7, 2023, attack inside Israel. “Cutting off arms from Israel would put this goal even further out of reach and prolong the war, not shorten it,” it continued.
The document also echoes a frequent talking point deployed by Israel’s defenders to deflect attention from its conduct: “Hamas can stop the war tomorrow by simply releasing hostages, starting with older men, including an elderly American citizen, Keith Siegel, and women, young and old.”
In Lebanon, the document adds, a prospective truce “is only possible because of the military pressure Hezbollah is under.”
“These Resolutions are particularly untimely and counterproductive as we are working to secure a cease-fire in Lebanon,” it reads, saying a vote against American weapons for Israel “would jeopardize those talks.”
The administration has previously promoted the idea that military pressure will force Hezbollah to cut a deal with Israel, only to see Israel escalate attacks across Lebanon in an expanding war that has badly damaged the already-struggling country, while Hezbollah has continued to strike Israeli targets in response. Similarly, administration officials this summer urged Congress to limit criticism of Israel by saying it would boost Hamas and hurt the chances of a cease-fire ― yet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ultimately torpedoed hopes of an agreement.
Reached for comment about the talking points, spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond. Neither did a spokesperson for Schumer.
The hawkish narrative from the Biden administration dispels hopes they will alter their policy of near-unchecked support for Israel’s offensives following Oct. 7 in response to widespread concerns about the toll of those campaigns, which are fueling apparent war crimes and global outrage.
“They are too ashamed to put these arguments on White House letterhead.”
- Senate aide
On its face, the Wednesday vote is a rebuke of only three specific sets of air and ground munitions Biden wants to send the Israelis. It’s a relatively minor package compared to the billions in equipment he has shipped to them over the past 13 months. And it’s near-certain the legislation blocking the weapons would not pass, as Republicans and ardently pro-Israel Democrats oppose it.
But the vote represents the first time ever that Congress is even considering barring an arms shipment for Israel. And coming in the dying days of the Biden presidency, with lawmakers free of the pressure of an imminent election, it represents a chance for Democratic senators to symbolically break with their party leader’s policy.
Anti-war legislators and activists have been pushing to win as many votes as possible for the bills, setting a goal of securing upward of 20 votes to include around half of the Senate Democratic caucus and signify growing skepticism on Capitol Hill.
Two previous efforts to get senators on the record questioning the war received the endorsement of 18 and 12 Democratic senators, respectively, for proposals from Van Hollen to require greater scrutiny of how countries use U.S. weapons and from Sanders to mandate a State Department report on Israel’s human rights record. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) provided a lone Republican vote for the Sanders pitch.
On Tuesday evening, the Times of Israel first revealed the administration was lobbying senators to vote against the bills, citing two U.S. officials. Notably, the officials were unnamed and the document obtained by HuffPost is not an official White House “Statement of Administration Policy” or SAP, the standard format for guidance to legislators on pending legislation.
“The fact that they didn’t send a formal SAP is a sign that they are too ashamed to put these arguments on White House letterhead,” a Senate aide argued.
The effort aligns Biden’s team and Schumer with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has run ads opposing the legislation.
The document suggests some recognition among Biden’s staff of the devastating effects of their current policy. With upward of 43,000 Palestinians dead, nearly 2 million displaced and Gaza rendered uninhabitable, humanitarian groups recently reported aid entering the Palestinian enclave “has fallen to an all-time low,” and U.S. nudges to Israel to enable supplies to reach those in need have borne little fruit.
“We appreciate the concerns Senator Sanders is raising and why he seeks to disapprove these sales,” the document reads. “And we are working constantly on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. We still believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and well-being of civilians.”
Rather than outline how the administration will use U.S. leverage as Israel’s chief backer to change its behavior, however, the talking points revert to emphasizing mutual enemies who are widely disliked on Capitol Hill.
“We strongly disagree that the answer is to disapprove badly needed arms sales that Israel needs to defend its country against Iran and Iran’s terrorist proxies,” the document continues.
Sanders seemingly predicted anxieties around Iran would be referenced to undercut the bills. In a Washington Post op-ed published on Monday, he wrote: “There are those who will argue that blocking these offensive arms sales will only embolden terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as their sponsors in Iran. I would respectfully disagree.”
Sanders continued, “You do not effectively combat terrorism by starving thousands of innocent children. You do not effectively combat terrorism by bombing schools and hospitals. You do not effectively combat terrorism by turning virtually the entire world against your country.”
Earlier on Wednesday morning, the U.S. vetoed the latest effort to pass a cease-fire resolution for Gaza at the United Nations Security Council.