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gregory meeks
After Oval Office Meltdown, Trump Cuts Off All US Military Aid to Ukraine
"Let's be clear—this is not about bringing peace," argued Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal. "Donald Trump is siding with Russia, Putin, and dictators across the world over our allies and the defense of democracy."
Mar 04, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump late Monday ordered a suspension of all American military assistance to Ukraine after his conduct in a televised meeting with the war-torn country's president in the Oval Office last week sparked international dismay and outrage.
Trump's decision reportedly impacts over $1 billion worth of weaponry and ammunition that was set to be delivered to Ukraine, which has been under attack by invading Russian forces since February 2022. The U.S. has provided more than $65 billion in military aid to Ukraine during the full-scale Russian assault, according to State Department figures.
The Associated Pressnoted Monday that the U.S. president's move "comes some five years after Trump held up congressionally authorized assistance to Ukraine as he sought to pressure [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy to launch an investigation into Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate."
"The moment led to Trump's first impeachment," the news outlet observed.
Democratic members of Congress argued that Trump's aid cutoff amounts to another instance of the U.S. president unlawfully withholding spending approved by lawmakers—and rejected the White House's claim that the move was motivated by a genuine desire for peace.
"Let's be clear—this is not about bringing peace," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who faced backlash in late 2022 over her handling of a Congressional Progressive Caucus letter urging the Biden administration to "seriously explore all possible avenues, including direct engagement with Russia, to reduce harm and support Ukraine in achieving a peaceful settlement."
"Donald Trump is siding with Russia, Putin, and dictators across the world over our allies and the defense of democracy," Jayapal said Monday. "This is a shameful day in American history."
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that "if President Trump was truly concerned with securing a just and sustainable peace deal for Ukraine, he wouldn't have conceded every piece of leverage the United States, our allies, and Ukraine held before even beginning negotiations."
"He wouldn't be siding with an authoritarian responsible for war crimes," Meeks continued. "And he certainly wouldn't be forcing Ukraine into surrender, while claiming it's a deal. Instead, he would have continued U.S. support for Ukraine to put it in the best possible position to secure a peace deal for Russia's illegal and unjustified war against it."
"Ukraine is left with impossible choices: fight a losing war without U.S. support, or submit to economic vassalage under the very powers that prolonged its suffering."
Trump's decision to suspend U.S. aid to Ukraine, which the Kremlin welcomed, came after Zelenskyy said in the wake of the Oval Office meeting that "an agreement to end the war is still very, very far away."
"The peace that we foresee in the future must be just, honest, and most importantly, sustainable," added Zelenskyy, who has demanded security guarantees from the West as part of any diplomatic resolution with Russia.
Trump, who is pushing for U.S. control of Ukraine's mineral wealth, responded furiously to Zelenskyy's comment, calling it "the worst statement that could have been made."
Trump's Oval Office blow-up and subsequent aid suspension led some to lament missed opportunities for diplomacy under U.S. President Joe Biden.
"It would have been better for Ukraine—and the world—if Biden had pursued diplomacy much earlier," said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. "But the Blob and the Democratic centrists shut down even any whisper of diplomacy."
Aída Chávez, communications director and policy adviser at Just Foreign Policy, argued in a recent column for The Intercept that "Trump's demand for 'payback' from Ukraine—treating the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II as if it's some unappreciated favor—presents U.S. foreign policy in its most naked form."
"As a result of the West's refusal to seriously consider diplomacy," Chávez added, "Ukraine is left with impossible choices: fight a losing war without U.S. support, or submit to economic vassalage under the very powers that prolonged its suffering."
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'Every Single Senator Should Be Supporting' Sanders Bid to Block Massive New Arms Sale to Israel
Sen. Bernie Sanders said he would introduce a joint resolution to block the proposed sale of $18 billion worth of warplanes and other weaponry to Israel.
Jul 12, 2024
As the Biden administration pushes Congress to approve an additional $18 billion arms sale to Israel even as it wages what much of the international community considers a genocidal war against the people of Gaza, Palestine defenders on Friday urged U.S. senators to support an effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders to block weapons transfers to the key Middle Eastern ally.
The Biden administration is urging congressional lawmakers to sign off on the sale of a package involving as many as 50 McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighters, as well as munitions, training, and other support, to Israel. The sale cleared a key hurdle last month when two holdouts—Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democratic member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the top Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrat—agreed to support the transfer.
If given final approval, the sale would be one of the largest to Israel since it began its nine-month assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attacks. More than 137,500 Palestinians have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israel's onslaught, which is the subject of both an International Court of Justice genocide case and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan's bid to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas Chief Yahya Sinwar.
The Biden administration has approved billions of dollars in U.S. military aid and more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October. This, atop the nearly $4 billion Israel already got from Washington annually.
"While much of the media is focused on the drama of the U.S. presidential election, we must not lose sight of what is happening in Gaza, where an unprecedented humanitarian crisis continues to get even worse," Sanders said Friday.
"Nine months into this war, more than 38,000 people have been killed and 88,000 injured—60% of whom are women, children, or elderly. The full toll is likely higher, with thousands more buried beneath the rubble," he continued. "Nine in 10 Gazans—1.9 million people—have been driven from their homes."
"Many people have been displaced four or five times, and most do not have homes to return to, with more than 60% of residential buildings damaged or destroyed," he added.
"Israel continues to restrict the entry of [United Nations] humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza, prevent the entry of key humanitarian items, and obstruct aid workers' access to many areas," the senator noted. "These restrictions have prevented aid organizations from setting up a sustained, effective response."
Sanders stressed:
Yet, in the midst of this horror and violations of international law, the United States continues to send billions of dollars and thousands of bombs and other weapons to support this war. We, as Americans, are complicit.
We must end our support for Netanyahu's war. Not another nickel to make this horrific situation even worse. I intend to do everything I can to block further arms transfers to Israel, including through joint resolutions of disapproval of any arms sales. The United States must not help a right-wing extremist and war criminal continue this atrocity.
Palestine defenders backed Sanders' effort.
"Every single senator should be supporting Sen. Sanders upcoming joint resolution of disapproval against an $18 billion weapons giveaway to Israel, which would further enmesh and implicate the U.S. in Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," Institute for Middle East Understanding policy director Josh Ruebner said on social media.
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Progressives Push Back as Biden Admin Works to Bypass Oversight of Israel Arms Transfers
"The Biden administration should provide the same transparency around arms transfers to Israel that it has for Ukraine and other countries," said Rep. Cori Bush.
Nov 10, 2023
Democratic U.S. lawmakers, including prominent progressives, are pushing back against an attempt by the Biden administration to circumvent congressional oversight of arms transfers to Israel, which has received an unspecified quantity of American weaponry since the October 7 Hamas-led attack.
Members of the watchdog group Women for Weapons Trade Transparency (WWTT) reported last week that the White House's October 20 supplemental funding request "sought permission to unilaterally blanket-approve the future sale of military equipment and weapons—like ballistic missiles and artillery ammunition—to Israel without notifying Congress."
The waiver would apply to the $3.5 billion earmarked in the request for Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel. As the WWTT members explained in In These Times: "This means the Israeli government would be able to purchase up to $3.5 billion in military articles and services in complete secrecy. The House included the waiver language in a bill that splits off Israeli military aid from the rest of the package."
Josh Paul, a former senior State Department official who resigned in protest last month over the Biden administration's decision to rush weapons to Israel, called the proposal "an insult to congressional oversight prerogatives."
"I've never seen anything like it," Paul told the WWTT members.
The White House's waiver request has drawn backlash from congressional Democrats, including some lawmakers who support arming Israel as it carries out massive atrocities in the Gaza Strip and faces growing accusations of genocide.
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, toldThe Washington Post on Thursday that he opposes "the administration's request to write into law waivers of congressional notification of foreign military financing, including for Israel."
"There is no reason we cannot both ensure needed U.S. assistance is provided to Israel in an expeditious manner and ensure Congress is able to fulfill its constitutional oversight duty," said Meeks.
Progressive critics of the administration's unconditional support for the Israeli government have also spoken out against the White House's attempt to evade congressional oversight of military assistance.
"At a time when thousands of civilians are being killed by weapons provided by the U.S. government, the American people deserve to be fully informed about what is being provided to other countries, including Israel, with their tax dollars," Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), the lead sponsor of a cease-fire resolution in the House, told the Post. "The Biden administration should provide the same transparency around arms transfers to Israel that it has for Ukraine and other countries."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein reported earlier this week, the administration has done nothing of the kind.
"Whereas the Biden administration released a three-page itemized list of weapons provided to Ukraine, down to the exact number of rounds, the information released about weapons sent to Israel could fit in a single sentence," Klippenstein wrote.
Israel is the top beneficiary of U.S. weaponry and military aid, receiving nearly $4 billion a year under a deal inked during the Obama presidency.
In the wake of Hamas' October 7 attack, the U.S. quickly moved to transfer small-diameter bombs, Iron Dome interceptor missiles, and other munitions to the Israeli military.
On October 31, the State Department approved a $320 million sale of guided bomb equipment to Israel, despite a directive barring U.S. arms sales to countries that are "more likely than not" to use the weapons to attack civilians.
The Biden administration has admitted to being intentionally vague in divulging the exact quantity of weapons it has sent Israel over the past month.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, told reporters on October 23 that U.S. military assistance is flowing to Israel "on a near-daily basis" and that the administration is "being careful not to quantify or get into too much detail about what they're getting—for their own operational security purposes, of course."
But experts toldThe Intercept that the administration's stated justification for shrouding the arms transfers in secrecy is bogus.
"The notion that it would in any way harm the Israeli military's operational security to provide more information is a cover story for efforts to reduce information on the types of weapons being supplied to Israel and how they are being used," said William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft who focuses on the arms industry.
"I think the purposeful lack of transparency over what weapons the U.S. is supplying to Israel 'on a daily basis' is tied to the larger administration policy of downplaying the extent to which Israel will use those weapons to commit war crimes and kill civilians in Gaza," Hartung added.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told the Post on Thursday that the administration's refusal to be forthright about new arms transfers to Israel is unacceptable.
"This is particularly concerning, given the wanton killing of civilians, and constant reports of war crimes and human rights abuses, likely using U.S. weapons," said Omar.
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