How Is Hakeem Jeffries’ Silence On Gaza Genocide Any Less Complicit Than Trump’s And The GOP’s?

Must The Price of Congressional Leadership Be Paid In Palestinian Blood?

On Thursday, Maxine Waters became the 46th member of Congress to co-sponsor Delia Ramirez’s Block the Bombs Act. The bill would prohibit Trump “from selling, transferring, or exporting certain defense articles or services to Israel, except in specified circumstances. Defense articles covered by the prohibition include BLU-109 bunker busting bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) assemblies, and 155mm artillery ammunition. Defense services directly related to such articles are also covered. The President may sell, transfer, or export such defense articles or services to Israel if (1) a law is enacted specifying the purposes for which such articles or services may be used, and (2) Israel provides written assurances that the defense articles or services will be used for those specific statutory purposes and in a manner consistent with certain other laws, including international human rights laws.”

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that no Republicans have signed onto the bill. These are the Democrats who have:

Delia Ramirez (IL)

Sara Jacobs (CA)

Parmila Jayapal (WA)

Mark Pocan (WI) 

Becca Balint (VT)

Andre Carson (IN)

Greg Casar (TX)

Lloyd Doggett (TX)

Veronica Escobar (TX)

Maxwell Frost (FL)

Chuy Garcia (IL)

Jonathan Jackson (IL)

Hank Johnson (GA)

Summer Lee (PA)

AOC (NY)

Ilhan Omar (MN)

Ayanna Pressely (MA)

Jan Schakowsky (IL)

Lafeefah Simon (CA)

Rashida Tlaib (MI)

Nydia Velazquez (NY)

Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ)

James McGovern (MA)

Chellie Pingree (ME)

Danny Davis (IL)

Don Beyer (VA)

Al Green (TX)

Ro Khanna (CA)

Judy Chu (CA)

Valerie Foushee (NC)

Jamie Raskin (MD)

Joaquin Castro (TX)

Paul Tonko (NY)

Mike Thompson (CA)

Bennie Thompson (MS)

Mark DeSaulnier (CA)

Robin Kelly (IL)

Val Hoyle (OR)

Jared Huffman (CA)

John Garamendi (CA)

Suzanne Bonamici (OR)

Mark Takano (CA)

Seth Magaziner (RI)

Mary Gay Scanlon (PA)

Madeleine Dean (PA)

Zoe Lofgren (CA)

Not a single member of Hakeem Jeffries’ leadership team saw fit to sign onto the bill— not one. Too busy collecting checks from AIPAC presumably. What does it mean when congressional Democratic leadership refuses to sign onto a bill that simply says America should stop sending the bombs being used to bury entire families alive in Gaza? It means that for all their talk of “values” and “democracy,” they are willing accomplices in genocide. The Block the Bombs Act doesn’t end U.S. aid to Israel, doesn’t cut off all military support— it only draws a line against the most indiscriminate weapons that shred human beings into unrecognizable pieces. If Jeffries and his team can’t bring themselves to support even that, then their moral compass is shattered beyond repair.

Genocide is not an abstraction. It is the charred remains of children in Rafah, the leveling of neighborhoods in Khan Younis, the starving of tens of thousands by design. Every bomb sent is a political choice— made here, in Washington, by leaders who know exactly what those bombs do. History will not remember their evasions, their excuses or their fundraising hauls. It will remember who stood against the machinery of mass death, and who greased its wheels.

I asked some of the Blue America-endorsed candidates whether or not they would have co-sponsored the bill and why. Among those I reached, the answer was unanimous— not what AIPAC and its allies want to hear but very much in line with what Democratic voters are saying. Central Valley progressive Randy Villegas, for example, told us he’d “be a proud co-sponsor of this bill because, because like most Americans, I don't believe that our tax dollars should be used to bomb children and civilians. Americans are sick and tired of funding endless wars across the world, and witnessing the devastation that our tax dollars are funding in the palm of their hands.” Similarly, Emily Berge, the progressive local elected official facing MAGA Republican Derrick Van Orden in western Wisconsin told me she would have signed on as a sponsor— and plans to in the next Congress. “The ongoing genocide in Palestine keeps me up at night,” she said. “The photos and videos coming out from there are absolutely devastating, heartbreaking and sickening. They tell a story of needless cruelty inflicted against civilians. Medical aid and food are being blocked, the military is using unnecessary force against not just civilians but also journalists and doctors and Gaza is a shell of what it once was. It is morally wrong to fund genocide, no matter the country. This bill would add more oversight, accountability and transparency. All things that are needed in government.”

Across Wisconsin, in the southeast corner of the state, Randy Bryce is taking on Trump/AIPAC stooge Bryan Steil. “As a member of Veterans for Peace,” Bryce told me, “I am opposed to military conflict. mI am so glad to see familiar friendly people sign on to this. What’s going on in Israel is a genocide. I support the right of Israel to exist but oppose what their leader (Netanyahu) is doing just as I oppose vehemently what Trump is doing to the country that I Served.”