Some Democratic lawmakers are accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of taking “highly unusual” steps in order to continue sending weapons to Israel’s military without running the arms transfers by Congress.
The Arms Export Control Act (AECA) generally requires a presidential administration to notify Congress of foreign arms transfers in most cases and to allow Congress time to review the proposed arms transfers.
The State Department has circumvented this congressional notification process to provide weapons to Israel in recent weeks, citing an exception in the AECA that allows the secretary of state to skip the notification process if he or she deems there is an emergency requiring more immediate arms transfers.
On Jan. 26, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) sent a letter signed by 17 other Democratic senators and representatives and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—an independent who caucuses with the Democrats—demanding that the Biden administration explain its rationale for providing weapons to Israel without fully notifying Congress.
“It is highly unusual for the president to bypass congressional oversight through an emergency declaration. In fact, since the AECA was passed into law, an emergency declaration authority has only been used 18 times in nearly 50 years,” the Jan. 26 letter states.
“Yet in a single month this administration used the authority twice: first to approve the sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of 120mm tank ammunition worth more than $106 million and then to approve the sale of fuzes, primers, and charges worth $147.5 million that allow for the use of 155mm shells.”
The Jan. 26 letter raised added concern about the types of weapons that the Biden administration had supplied to Israel under these emergency authorities.
It noted a November letter that several civil society organizations sent to the U.S. Department of Defense expressing concerns that 155mm shells pose “a grave risk to civilians” and are “inherently indiscriminate” when used in densely-populated areas like the Gaza Strip.
The lawmakers further cited a report by Reuters that one of the publication’s journalists was killed in Lebanon on Oct. 13 by a 120mm tank shell fired by an Israeli tank crew.
The Israeli combat operations in the Gaza Strip came after Hamas gunmen breached the Israel-Gaza barrier on Oct. 7 and carried out numerous murders, rapes and kidnappings.
In their letter, the Democratic lawmakers expressed their dismay at the atrocities committed by Hamas but raised concerns about the reported number of Palestinian civilians killed in the Gaza Strip in the ensuing conflict.
They insisted that the notification processes in the AECA and provisions in other U.S. laws are meant to ensure that U.S. arms transfers to foreign nations “are consistent with the foreign policy interests of the United States” and that such arms transfers will not further aggravate a conflict or raise the risk that a recipient country violates international humanitarian and human rights laws.
The Jan. 26 letter called on State Department and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to explain the Biden administration’s reasoning for the emergency declaration they’ve used to permit arms transfers to Israel without the full AECA notification process.
The lawmakers also asked the Biden administration to explain how it determined that the arms transfers to Israel would not be likely to aggravate the conflict or lead to violations of international humanitarian laws.
The letter gives the State Department until Feb. 9 to respond.
NTD News reached out to the State Department for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
Gaza War Divides Democrats and Their Voters
Disagreements over the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip have contributed to rifts within the Democratic Party and traditionally Democratic constituents.
In October, when asked about the number of Palestinian civilian deaths, President Biden said, “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war.”
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) demanded an apology, saying the president’s words were “shocking and dehumanizing.”
President Biden rebuffed CAIR’s demand for an apology.
Later in October, the National Muslim Democratic Council (NMDC)—a group representing Muslim voters who support the Democratic Party—issued an ultimatum for President Biden to “take immediate action to secure a ceasefire” or risk losing their support.
This month, Mr. Sanders garnered the support of nine Senate Democrats on a measure that would have frozen U.S. military aid to Israel unless the U.S. State Department conducted a review of alleged human rights violations by Israel in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The resolution failed to pass in the Senate, with 37 Democrats voting against it.
Some pro-Palestinian activists repeatedly interrupted a Biden campaign rally in Virginia this past week, shouting over the president.
Pro-Palestinian activists also have gathered outside the White House and the homes of other Democratic politicians, in recent weeks, protesting and demanding a change of course on the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with CNN this past weekend, Congresswoman and House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said demands for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip reflect the objectives of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ms. Pelosi asserted that some pro-Palestine protest events are likely inauthentic and that certain activists may be plants of the Russian government. She further called for the FBI to investigate these activists.
CAIR criticized those comments from Ms. Pelosi, saying the former Democratic House Speaker “sounds delusional” and that her call for the FBI to investigate those protesters “without any evidence” is “downright authoritarian.”
In their Jan. 26 letter, the Democratic lawmakers gave President Biden credit for urging the Israeli government to take steps to reduce civilian casualties in the Gaza conflict but said continued arms transfers to Israel might be inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy goals.