I Never Thought I’d Support Blocking an Arms Sale to Israel

But here we are.

I’m a liberal Zionist. For me, that means I support Israel’s right to exist and thrive as a secure, democratic, Jewish state. After October 7th when I was working in the U.S. government, it meant supporting Israel’s right to respond to the horrific attacks of that day, and working in the months after to encourage the Israeli government to develop an effective day after plan that could create the political and security structures in Gaza that could replace and defeat Hamas.

Being a liberal Zionist also means advocating for Israel to uphold Jewish and liberal values—especially in its treatment of Palestinians. I’ve never hesitated to criticize Israeli government policies or push the U.S.—as Israel’s closest ally—not to blindly back those policies in international forums when they conflict with those values and, in my view, Israel’s long-term interests.

But I was never comfortable supporting legislation to block arms sales to Israel. I didn’t believe it would change Israeli behavior, that it was credible, or that it served U.S. or Israeli security interests—especially given the close cooperation between our countries. I spent much of my career, including at the Pentagon, strengthening the U.S.-Israel security relationship. To me, that relationship was sacrosanct.

Even when I considered joining J Street after serving as Jewish Outreach Director on the 2024 campaign, this was a sticking point. J Street’s position—that Israel, like all recipients of U.S. weapons, should meet basic legal standards around humanitarian aid and use of force—is entirely reasonable. In November 2024, after years of supporting every single arms sale that the United States made to Israel, J Street supported blocking an arms sale because it believed Israel no longer met those standards. That made me uneasy.

Now, my view has changed. And I suspect many of the 27 Democratic Senators (28 if you count Senator Slotkin) who voted last week to block one or two arms sales feel similarly.

The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Starvation is spreading. Images of suffering children are unbearable. Israel has a legal and moral obligation to allow humanitarian aid in. While there have been some improvements recently, it was vital for the Senate to send a clear message: this cannot continue. If it does, it threatens the U.S.-Israel relationship itself.

This message is even more urgent after six months of the Trump administration giving Israel a green light to pursue policies that have worsened the crisis. While I have written in the past about some of the mistakes that were made in the Biden administration, it consistently pressed Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. There never would have been a two-month blockade under Biden, nor approval for the disastrous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation plan, which only made things worse. As we are seeing now, pressing Israel to allow aid in isn’t just the right thing morally—it’s the pro-Israel thing to do. It could have helped Israel avoid the international backlash it now faces and the resulting Senate votes on arms sales.

It also matters which arms we’re talking about. The first blocked sale involved rifles that the Biden administration held up for over a year because they were slated for the Israeli National Police under Itamar Ben Gvir. Some were reportedly going to civilians, including violent settlers. Just in the past two weeks, two Palestinians—one a Palestinian American—were killed by extremists in the West Bank, including one by Yinon Levi, previously sanctioned by Biden but unsanctioned by Trump. We should not be arming people like this.

The second sale involved 1,000-pound bombs that could be used in Gaza. Israeli military officials themselves have questioned the strategic value of continuing the campaign there, and it is just not clear that anything is being accomplished at this point. Meanwhile there are reports now that Netanyahu is planning on giving the order to occupy all of Gaza despite IDF concerns. So why send more bombs?

To be clear: I would never support blocking missile defense systems like Iron Dome, Arrow, or David’s Sling, which save Israeli lives. And these blocked sales, at a time when Israel has sufficient stockpiles and has already dealt major blows to Hezbollah and Iran, do not materially affect its security.

The goal is to send a message—to the Israeli government and the Israeli people. The current path in Gaza and the West Bank is dangerous. It undermines U.S. and Israeli interests. It violates Jewish values. And it risks one of the pillars of Israel’s long-term security: the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Given the stakes, that’s a message worth sending.