Vote Explainer – Israel Security Assistance Support Act

Transparency is vital to democracy. Below please find explainers for key votes I took in the 118th Congress.

Last week, I voted against H.R. 8369, the Israel Security Assistance Support Act. which would make it impossible for the President to pause or cancel the delivery of weapons to Israel. I’m fully committed to our alliance with Israel, and I’ve always said that Israel must defeat Hamas. But nobody gets carte blanche, and the U.S. must hold Israel to the same standards when it comes to security assistance as any other country.

Arms transfers are an important tool of American foreign policy. We provide security assistance because supporting our allies and partners makes America safer. But when that assistance may be used in ways that harm our interests and goes against our values, the President has the right and obligation to withhold those transfers. 

The President is not restricting all weapons transfers to Israel. In fact, the White House recently approved a new tranche of arms transfers, and the President has made clear that the U.S. will continue to supply defensive equipment, like interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome system. But the bottom line is that Israel should not be using 2,000-lb bombs in a dense urban environment like Rafah. When the U.S. fought a counterinsurgency in Iraq, we never used any bombs close to this magnitude. 

This decision is not without precedent: President Reagan withheld arms transfers to Israel multiple times when he disagreed with how those weapons were being used. 

Yet again, Republicans are politicizing our relationship with Israel. This political stunt weakens confidence in the U.S.-Israel relationship and does nothing to make Israel or the United States safer.