Support H.R. 3565 – the Block the Bombs Act – A Statement from Jewish Voice for Peace Action. August 6, 2025 (2 of 2)

JVP delegation meeting with U.S. Congresswoman Diana De Gette in Denver. I participated. We asked her to co-sponsor H.R. 3565 the “Block the Bombs Act”. she said she would look into the bill more carefully. She also spoke of other ways to cut U.S. military aid to Israel through intervening in the budget process.

_______________________________________

Part One

These are personal reflections on a meeting with U.S. Congresswoman Diana De Gette (D-Denver) this morning (Hiroshima Day – August 6, 2025). The meeting was organized by the Front Range chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace JVP). I was asked to participate and was glad to do so).

The strengths of the meeting: I have little doubt that Diana De Gette is – and here I’m choosing my words carefully – truly horrified by the genocide and starvation unfolding before the eyes of the world in Gaza, done overwhelmingly with U.S. weapons, financial and political support of first the Biden and now the Trump Administrations.

De Gette’s willingness to meet with the JVP delegation, to engage in serious – and I would add – constructive dialogue is noted, something that De Gette herself mentioned that many members of Congress refuse to do.

While De Gette is hesitant to come out and co-sponsor H.R. 3565 (see Part One for details), the “Block the Bombs Act” that would cut U.S.  military aid to Israel of certain military equipment, she was open about finding ways to cut military appropriations to Israel through the budgetary process.

About a year and a half ago, just at the outset of Israel’s genocide against Gazan Palestinians was shifting into high gear, I met with Rep. De Gette as a part of another delegation. At the time, we were asking her to support a ceasefire resolution being introduced to Congress. Like today, while she refused to sign on to that resolution, she did not sit idly by and did issue her own independent statement, essentially calling of the same thing – I believe, if I remember correctly – she called for a “cessation of hostilities” which is more or less the same thing. And she did follow up on that initiative at the time.

The main weakness of the meeting: It is very simple, obvious. That the arms flows (the financial and political aid) continue, makes a mockery out of the calls for humanitarian aid. Without cutting U.S. military and other aid to Israel, all De Gette’s concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza means little

Put another way (as I see it), firstly, unlike some of her other members of Congress from Colorado (Neguse, Petterson come to mind) she is well informed on the Gaza genocide and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general. And although she has moved gingerly to criticize U.S. policy vis-à-vis Israel in Gaza and has, stayed far away from defining Israel’s campaign as “genocidal” or speaking of Israeli’s policies as “ethnic cleansing” for Palestinians from their homeland, still, has been more responsive to stopping the horrors Israel is inflicting on Gaza – with U.S. weapons, financial and political support. I have to note – or at least it seems to me – that her take on Gaza to a considerable degree corresponds to those articulated by Jeremy Ben Ami, the national leader of the liberal Zionist organization, J-Street. Ben Ami, after hesitating for so long, had recently publicly state that what Israel is doing in Gaza is a genocide moving that organization in opposition to more mainstream pro-Zionist Jewish organizations

I have my own ideas as to why she is moving in this direction, at turtle speed perhaps – but she is at least approachable in ways that others in Congress aren’t.

The main weakness of the meeting: It is very simple, obvious. That the arms flows (the financial and political aid) continue, makes a mockery out of the calls for humanitarian aid, and this at a time when the Trump Administration has, for all practical purposes, given the Netanyahu “a greenlight” for intensifying its ethnic cleansing and genocide of Gaza. Without cutting U.S. military and other aid to Israel, all De Gette’s concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza means little. In fact, the most effective way for the United States to pressure Israel to stop the genocide and permit the massive amounts of aid needed in is to cut the arms supply. Not long ago I read (but where?) that since October 2023, there have been more than 400 flights of arms shipments from the United States to Israel. Nor realistically can aid be delivered as long the slaughter of Palestinians continues – as it does, daily. For example, yesterday (August 5,2025), it was reported that 135 civilians were killed by the IDF and U.S. mercenaries working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (that is neither humanitarian, or from what I can tell, actually a foundation).

Still, it was a constructive meeting, not the kind of kabuki theater I have experienced in past meetings with other members of the Colorado Congressional delegation (Bennet, Crow, Hickenlooper, Neguse, Petterson) that I have attended where the only answer one could get from these members of Congress was “What about Hamas?”