Playing politics with an ally

Congressional Democrats are in a tough spot. On the one hand, Jewish voters in states like Michigan are seriously doubting whether they want to support the party of Hasan Piker, Abdul El-Sayed, and Ilhan Omar. On the other hand, the party’s activist base is screaming for congressional leaders to stand up to Trump and Netanyahu, and promising more bloody primaries if they don’t, which will likely lead to more nominees like Michigan’s El-Sayed.

U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is trying to walk that tightrope with a clear lean towards the anti-Israel crowd. The law does not afford individual members of Congress a right to veto arms sales (nor could it constitutionally). But a longstanding tradition allows ranking members on certain committees an opportunity for consultation on such sales, including the right to ask that the sales be held over until briefings and further consultation take place.

In an unusual move, Meeks publicly exercised his “hold” and then explained his action in an X post. He accused the Trump administration of trying to sell “some of the most destructive munitions in our arsenal,” saying doing so “raises grave, unresolved concerns about how these munitions could be used in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon.” He called on the administration to provide “assurances that these weapons will be used by the Netanyahu government in accordance with U.S. law and with appropriate protections for civilians.”

Of course, Hamas provided no protections for Israeli civilians when it started this war on Oct. 7, 2023. In fact, quite the opposite: Hamas intentionally targeted civilians to incite maximum fear and anguish when it carried off old men, women, and children as hostages.

And despite what any biased United Nations special rapporteur or the International Court of Justice may say, Israel has acted in accordance with international law in conducting its war on Hamas. It is Hamas that intentionally uses humans, hospitals, and religious sites to shield its operators.

The hold jeopardizes a $2.8 billion sales package of munitions to the Israeli military. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been using up their stockpiles in the war in Gaza, now nearly three years running. These particular bombs are especially good for targeting tunnels and underground bunkers, two favorite tactics of the Gazan Hamas. Though we should all abhor civilian casualties, we should also condemn those who hide behind and amid civilians as an intentional part of their asymmetrical, nontraditional warfighting. Israel is doing its best to fight by the various international conventions and laws of war governing proportionality, collateral damage, etc. Hamas has no such scruples.

This is not the first time Meeks has pulled this move—he tried the same tactic in February 2025 and the Trump administration decided to proceed regardless. But it’s no accident this public hold is playing out two months before an election where liberal voter turnout is the name of the game in swing seats nationwide. Meeks and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries seem to be betting that juicing turnout in Dearborn will outpace losses among Jewish voters.

Maybe they’re right. But in the meantime, we’re letting down our number one ally in the Middle East in its hour of need. America has long embraced its role as the “arsenal of democracy,” and certainly democracy needs defending from the armies of darkness targeting the innocent civilians of the world’s sole Jewish state.

And it has done so in particular vis-à-vis our friends in Israel. In 1973, when the Arab nations all around Israel launched an invasion on Yom Kippur, President Richard Nixon ordered the U.S. military to ensure that then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and her fighting forces had what they needed—and the emergency resupply of tanks, planes, and ammunition allowed Israel to launch the counterattack that turned the tide of the war.

Let’s hope the administration embraces that legacy and doesn’t let congressional Democrats stand in the way of equipping our ally to defend itself from terrorists.

Editor’s note: This column has been corrected to reflect that Israel had already recaptured the Western Wall and the Old City of Jerusalem before the 1973 war.