By Jonathan D. Salant, JNS
The amendment “would restrict our country’s ability to confront Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in the region who are sworn enemies of both the United States and Israel,” the House minority leader said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on Tuesday that he will oppose an amendment from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to eliminate roughly $3.3 billion in annual U.S. security assistance to Israel, arguing that the measure would undermine both American and Israeli security.
In a letter to House Democrats obtained by JNS, Jeffries said he would vote against Massie's amendment to the annual appropriations bill funding the State Department, national security programs and related agencies.
“It is overly broad in that it prohibits or would limit the use of funds for longstanding initiatives related to humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, peace-building and U.S. Embassy operations,” Jeffries wrote.
He added that the amendment “would restrict our country’s ability to confront Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in the region who are sworn enemies of both the United States and Israel.”
The amendment has drawn opposition from both the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and J Street despite their frequent policy disagreements.
“U.S. assistance to Israel, along with cooperative defense programs, has been massively successful,” AIPAC stated in a memo urging lawmakers to oppose the measure. “It has ensured Israel can defend itself. Assistance has created tens of thousands of jobs in the United States and helped Israel develop its own industrial base.”
Jeffries said Democrats who oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government should pursue other avenues to press for policy changes.
“The far-right Netanyahu government has isolated Israel from much of the world, severely damaged its standing in the U.S., jeopardized normalization efforts in the region and repeatedly undermined prospects for peace,” he said.
Looking beyond the current 10-year U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on security assistance, which expires in 2028, Jeffries said Israel should gradually assume responsibility for financing its own weapons purchases. He said any future security arrangement should preserve “Israel’s qualitative military edge against Iran and other malign actors in the region” and prioritize “mutually beneficial joint technology, innovation, research and further development of defensive programs like Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling.”
Jeffries acknowledged a difference of opinion among Democrats regarding the House amendment and said leadership would not push them to follow his lead.
“Moving forward, it is my strongly held view that for the good of Israel and the Palestinian people, American policy in the Middle East must change,” Jeffries said.
He added that “America’s commitment to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state and homeland for the Jewish people must remain ironclad.”
“Equally significant, the United States must strongly support the creation of an independent Palestinian state that provides dignity, respect and self-determination for the Palestinian people,” Jeffries said.
He also called for increased humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and an end to settler violence in Judea and Samaria.
“West Bank settlement activity and expansion is illegal under international law,” Jeffries said. “The reprehensible settler violence against the Palestinian people must end. All perpetrators of this violence, settlers or otherwise, should be sanctioned and held criminally accountable.”
