Republicans Push for Another Resolution Affirming America’s Support for Israel, Even as Biden Pulls Back
Speaker Johnson plans to put an explicitly anti-cease-fire resolution on the floor in a matter of days.
House Republicans will again try to put pressure on President Biden and members of his party by putting a resolution on the floor that explicitly affirms support for Israel and denounces calls for a “one-sided” cease-fire. Mr. Biden has faced intense criticism in recent days since telling Prime Minister Netanyahu that there could be changes to American policy if more humanitarian aid and protections for civilians at Gaza are not approved by Israel.
The resolution, authored by a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Congresswoman Maria Salazar, calls out the president for his ambiguous threats to rescind support from the Jewish state.
The resolution says that Congress “opposes efforts to place one-sided pressure on Israel with respect to Gaza, including calls for an immediate cease-fire.” Ms. Salazar also says that the Biden administration made a mistake by not vetoing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2728, which was adopted after Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield abstained from voting.
The president has faced fierce criticism from Israel supporters and even fellow Democrats since the deaths of seven humanitarian employees with World Central Kitchen, and the tide has seemingly turned among congressional Democrats, who are now demanding conditions on military aid to Israel.
In the past, few Democrats have been willing to buck their party leadership and vote against pro-Israel resolutions. On October 25, the first resolution affirming America’s support for Israel came up for a vote. Just nine Democrats voted no, and six voted present on that resolution. All other Democrats voted for the measure.
Following the deaths of the World Central Kitchen employees, however, many more Democrats will likely vote against this pro-Israel resolution from Ms. Salazar. On Friday, Speaker Pelosi and 30 of her House Democratic colleagues signed a letter to Mr. Biden and Secretary Blinken, urging them to stop shipping arms to Israel following the World Central Kitchen incident.
“In light of this incident, we strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed,” the lawmakers wrote.
Ms. Salazar tells the Sun that a one-sided cease-fire will do nothing to ensure the future safety of Israelis and the release of the hostages. “The quickest way to improve conditions and provide effective humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip is a total Israeli victory over Hamas to pave the way for a return to peace,” she says.
The House will resolve that it “stands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.” The resolution also “reaffirms Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Not all Democrats agree with Mr. Biden, however. On Sunday — the six-month anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas — Democrats voiced their support for the Jewish state, saying that it has the unequivocal right to go after Hamas.
The House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, said in a statement that “Hamas must be decisively defeated so that the atrocities that occurred on October 7 never happen again and the hostages are safely returned home.” Nowhere in his six-month anniversary message does he call for a cease-fire, as Mr. Biden recently did.
In his own message marking the six-month anniversary of the attack, Senator Schumer also declined to call for a cease-fire with Hamas. Rather, he says that the terrorist group should accept the hostage release deal negotiated with America and the Qataris.
“Hamas has already been given a negotiated deal. Today, there is only one obstacle standing in the way of a hostage deal, and that obstacle is Hamas,” Mr. Schumer said. “They should say yes and free the remaining hostages.”