Tell the Senate:
Block Offensive Weapons Bound for Israeli
Win Without War
(June 27, 2024) — When it comes to Gaza, the US government can do so much more to save lives, Friend. The latest failure to use its influence for good is an effort to move forward with an $18 BILLION arms package that includes 50 F-15 fighter jets, air-to-air missiles, and JDAM kits that retrofit unguided bombs with precision guidance. [1]
Approving these weapons sends a deeply troubling signal that the US government is not truly interested in limiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brutal and spiraling Gaza war. Even as the Biden administration increases pressure on the Israeli government to secure a ceasefire that can open the path to peace, it’s undercutting US policy by rewarding PM Netanyahu and his far-right ministers for killing tens of thousands of people in Gaza, spurring a famine, and doing little to bring home the hostages or shore up the long-term security of Israelis and Palestinians.
The good news is that any Senator can force a vote to block this arms sale — but the window is tight. There’s just a 15-day congressional review period for arms sales like these.
We expect formal notification from the State any day now, and that’s why we’re organizing a petition to everyone in the Senate today. If one of our champs on the Hill opposes this sale and rallies others to do so, they’ll need to be ready to move fast.
As terrible as the carnage in Gaza is, it isn’t our only consideration. Right now, PM Netanyahu is actively considering opening a new front of this already horrific war on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Moves like this only ensure further violence and have the potential to trigger an even more catastrophic regional war — including one that pushes the United States and Iran closer toward direct conflict.
Decision-makers from the Capitol to the White House to the Pentagon have said they are furiously urging the Israeli government to do more to protect people in Gaza and get the hostages home. But without crucial changes to a US foreign policy that has spread more weapons around the world for years, those words ring hollow.
Building the level of support we need on Capitol Hill to change this status quo is an uphill challenge, but we’re making incredible progress — it’s how we’ve tied this arms package up since it was initially announced in April. But now that the deal is moving forward, we must return to work.
Here’s what’s at stake: F-15s, which can carry some of the heaviest conventional bombs in Israel’s arsenal, are a part of the IDF’s air war in Gaza, and US-made JDAM kits have already been linked to multiple possible war crimes, including airstrikes that killed children in their homes. The IDF is already misusing these weapons, and there’s no reason they should be entitled to more.
The US government should be laser-focused on ending the violence, getting the hostages home, ensuring no one goes hungry in Gaza, and saving lives. It’s people like you who can push US foreign policy toward those goals and encourage 5, 17, or even 51 Senators to speak out against the violence we’re witnessing by passing legislation to block this sale.
The potential for the US complicity in more violence and suffering couldn’t be higher, but when a whole movement of people fed up with the failed violence-first status quo speaks out time and again, decision-makers can’t ignore the reality that it’s time to choose a different path.
How do we know? We’ve done it before. Together, we built a coalition of activists who demanded change and successfully got bipartisan majorities in Congress to vote against weapons sales and military aid to Saudi Arabia in the face of incredible suffering and violence in Yemen. If we did it once, we can do it again — and we will if we work together.
Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team
Footnotes
1. The Washington Post, “Key Democrats approve major arms sale to Israel, including F-15s”
