Pro-Palestine groups argue the ‘Ceasefire Compliance Act’ is too modest in its effort to get Israel to stop killing Palestinians. AIPAC, meanwhile, hates it.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is lobbying against modest legislation meant to ensure Israel complies with the supposed Gaza “ceasefire” deal it keeps violating, according to correspondence obtained by Zeteo.
Moderate Democratic Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) is leading the bill, called the Ceasefire Compliance Act, which was released Monday. The legislation aims to stop Israel from violating the Gaza ceasefire deal, negotiated by Donald Trump. Israel has already allegedly violated the deal hundreds and hundreds of times.
Some pro-Palestine groups and lawmakers, meanwhile, argue the bill would not actually stop Israel from continuing to kill Palestinians in Gaza – and that it’s a distraction from other measures that would cut off the transfer of heavy weapons to Israel, which is internationally accused of committing genocide.
The Ceasefire Compliance Act would direct the US government to conduct reports every 90 days to ensure that the Israeli government is complying with the ceasefire deal, is not inhibiting aid into Gaza, does not annex more territory in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and is taking steps to stop settler violence there. If the US finds Israel to be violating any of the conditions, the bill would stop the sale or transfer of US weapons to Israel for use in the West Bank or Gaza – and stipulates that weapons previously transferred to Israel couldn’t be used in Gaza or the West Bank, either.
“The legislation aligns US policy with American values and interests, reduces civilian harm, supports humanitarian access, and makes a durable regional peace more likely by promoting dignity and security for Israelis and Palestinians,” Casten tells Zeteo in a statement.
The bill offers some exceptions.
As a general matter, the bill would ban the use of US weapons in Palestine if Israel is found to be violating the ceasefire. If Israel violates that ban, a full ban on all offensive weapons transfers would take effect. But the president can waive that full ban if he determines that doing so is vital to the “national security” of the US.
The legislation also does not prevent the US from sending Israel defensive military aid, and other aid such as intelligence gathering and sharing.
Progressive lawmakers and pro-Palestine advocates find the bill to be too deferential to the vehemently pro-Israel Trump administration, and worry it might undercut the momentum of more aggressive measures to rein in Israel, like the Block the Bombs Act.
Casten’s colleague, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who introduced Block the Bombs, is among the members critical of the bill. “I continue to encourage my colleagues to join Block the Bombs. The Ceasefire Compliance Act is not the bill we need: There is no ceasefire in Gaza; the legislation endorses Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and empowers him with a waiver; the existing end use restrictions have proven ineffective, and by the bill’s own standard, based on all that has transpired, a weapons embargo would already be justified,” Ramirez tells Zeteo in a statement. “Lastly, the biggest shortcoming of the legislation is that it was drafted without the voices of Palestinians, once again silencing those affected by the genocide and displacement. We must continue to maintain focus on Block the Bombs.”
Nevertheless, AIPAC is pushing back against the Ceasefire Compliance Act, and urging lawmakers to oppose it.
In correspondence reviewed by Zeteo, AIPAC has argued the bill wrongly focuses only on Israel and ignores Hamas; that it fails to recognize Israel’s “legitimate use” of US weapons for security; and that it distorts the conditions in Gaza, where Israel has killed tens of thousands of people, and potentially hundreds of thousands, since Oct. 7, 2023.
The bill mentions how Israel’s military operations led to famine in “parts” of Gaza. AIPAC argues this fails to give Israel credit for how much aid it’s letting into Gaza. AIPAC describes the “charge” of famine as “an intentional, reckless, and unhelpful mischaracterization of the challenging humanitarian situation there.”
Several international humanitarian bodies – including the United Nations-backed body that monitors food crises worldwide – declared famine conditions in Gaza.
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AIPAC’s opposition to the bill is striking, for one, because the pro-Israel lobbying group is functionally staking out the position that they are opposed to ensuring Israel complies with the ceasefire deal. If the group was confident that Israel was complying with the ceasefire, there would be no risk of the US government – no less one led by the vehemently pro-Israel Trump-Vance administration – blocking any aid to Israel.
As with the group’s apparently blunderous attacks on otherwise pro-Israel Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski in a recent New Jersey primary election – leading to the victory of pro-Palestine Democrat Analilia Mejia – AIPAC seems to be demanding no daylight at all between US policy and Israel’s interests.
While AIPAC opposes the legislation, the Ceasefire Compliance Act has support from the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group J Street.
“We welcome the growing number of members of Congress who are willing to go on the record in support of policies that condition arms to Israel to incentivize compliance with the ceasefire and US law,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami tells Zeteo in a statement. “The Ceasefire Compliance Act builds upon years of J Street’s advocacy calling the ‘blank check’ approach into question, beginning with our 2019 Conference, in which J Street pressed presidential candidates to publicly commit to restricting US aid to Israel so it could not be used to annex the West Bank.”
J Street has not endorsed Block the Bombs, but Ben-Ami says this measure and the Ceasefire Compliance Act are “aligned in the overall effort to ensure accountability and oversight.”
The bill was released with the following co-sponsors: Democratic Reps. Becca Balint, Don Beyer, Troy Carter, Joaquin Castro, Madeleine Dean, Chris Deluzio, Lloyd Doggett, Veronica Escobar, Valerie Foushee, John Garamendi, Sylvia Garcia, Jared Huffman, Marcy Kaptur, Ro Khanna, Doris Matsui, Betty McCollum, Jim McGovern, Chellie Pingree, Emily Randall, Jan Schakowsky, Mark Takano, Mike Thompson, Jill Tokuda, Derek Tran, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
