Today, Senator Bernie Sanders and J Street ramped up their efforts to convince senators to block arms sales to Israel ahead of expected votes on Wednesday.
Our community must continue to mobilize and ensure our senators know we strongly oppose this effort to undermine Israel’s security. I urge you to click here tonight to email your senators. Tomorrow, be on the lookout for an Action Alert to call their offices.
Earlier this afternoon, Sanders published an op-ed in The Washington Post, calling continued arms sales to Israel “morally wrong.” To make his case, Sanders points to the number of countries that have already stopped arms sales to Israel and calls for America to follow their lead to isolate Israel, undermining the longstanding foundation of this most critical and mutually beneficial alliance.
Also today, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami published his own op-ed, calling on senators to support Sanders’ resolutions of disapproval. Once again, J Street is playing politics with our ally’s security as its young men and women are fighting a war against Iran and its proxies.
“Voting yes on at least one resolution of disapproval sends a signal — seen throughout Washington, American politics, the Middle East and the world — that there is political will in Washington to object to the course of the war, to enforce American law and to use the leverage we have when Israel’s government consistently defies the American president’s will,” Ben-Ami writes, while ignoring that President Biden approved the arms sales the Senate is voting on.
The Biden administration said that these arms sales are “vital to U.S. national interests” and “will improve Israel's capability to meet current and future threats, strengthen its homeland defense, and serve as a deterrent to regional threats.”
By urging senators to oppose these arms sales, Bernie Sanders and J Street are deliberately trying to create daylight between America and Israel and signaling to our shared adversaries that they should continue their genocidal war to destroy the Jewish state.
Weakening our ally’s security as it’s engaged in a seven-front war against common enemies is dangerous for both America and Israel.
Israeli woman killed in continued Hezbollah attacks
An Israeli woman was killed and more than a dozen people were injured today as Hezbollah continues to attack Israelis with rockets, missiles and drones.
The woman, in her 50s, was killed when a Hezbollah missile struck a three-story building east of Haifa (pictured below on left).
Later in the day, a separate Hezbollah barrage at central Israel sent millions to bomb shelters, with shrapnel landing and sparking a large electrical fire in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan (pictured on right).
More than 100 rockets and missiles were launched into Israel throughout the day today.
This November alone, more than 750 rockets, missiles and drones have been launched into Israel from Lebanon — an average of more than 40 per day.
U.S. airmen awarded Silver Star for shootdown of Iranian drone attack against Israel
The U.S. Air Force has awarded 30 U.S. servicemembers who participated in the April interception of roughly 300 drones and missiles launched at Israel from Iran — in what is described as “the largest air-to-air enemy engagement by the United States in over 50 years.”
Capt. Lacie “Sonic” Hester, an F-15E instructor weapons systems officer, was awarded the Silver Star, making her the first Air Force woman to receive the U.S. military’s third-highest decoration for valor in combat (pictured below with her fellow decoration recipients).
Her pilot, Maj. Benjamin “Irish” Coffey, also received a Silver Star for his role in coordinating the shootdowns from their two-seat fighter. The pair used all of their air-to-air missiles as well as their fighter's machine gun to intercept Iranian drones.
“I first get hit with dread, recognizing the numbers we were seeing,” Coffey said, reflecting on what it was like facing an attack on a scale they’d never seen before while flying at low altitude at night. “This wasn’t a small-scale or a chest-thumping show of force. This was an attack designed to cause significant damage, to kill, to destroy, and now we are on literally the leading edge of firepower, able to try to do something about that.”
You can read the inside story of the U.S. combat operations and see a full list of awarded airmen here.
Documents found in Gaza detail Iran-Hamas connection ahead of October 7
A new report highlights the essential role Iran played in Hamas’ preparations for the October 7 massacre.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released the report (in Hebrew) yesterday based on documents found by the IDF in Gaza over the last year.
The documents highlight Iran’s significant control over activities in Gaza, its funding, arming, training and directing of Hamas’ terror operations, as well as its strategies to help Hamas overwhelm Israel’s defenses.
Video of the Day: October 7 Survivor Shares his Story
86-year-old Shlomo Margalit helped found Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his friends from childhood.
On October 7, he spent 12 hours locked in his safe room as terrorists tried to kill him and his wife.
The mission of AIPAC is to encourage and persuade the U.S. government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel.
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