Nearly all members of the U.S. House of Representatives are cosponsoring a bipartisan “Standing with Israel” resolution introduced on Oct. 10. The resolution expresses condolences for lost Israeli and American lives after Hamas-led terrorist attacks and “reaffirms Israel’s right to self-defense” and the United States’ standing commitments to Israeli security.
A group of ten representatives, dubbed the “Hamas Caucus” by the Manhattan Institute’s Ilya Shapiro, initially refused to cosponsor the resolution:
Representatives Gwen Moore and Melanie Stansbury later cosponsored the resolution, and Representative Bennie Thompson’s spokesperson told Legal Insurrection Thompson would cosponsor the resolution.
The resolution the remaining ten refused to cosponsor, H.R. 771, strongly condemns Hamas’s “massive, unprovoked war on Israel by air, land, and sea” and “calls on all countries to unequivocally condemn Hamas’ brutal war against Israel.”
The resolution expresses the House’s position as “stand[ing] with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists” and demands “Hamas . . . immediately cease these violent attacks and safely release all living hostages and return the bodies of deceased hostages.”
H.R. 771 also condemns Iran’s support for Hamas and reaffirms U.S. support for Israel and Israel’s right to self-defense.
“Hamas Caucus” members are cosponsoring the alternative “Ceasefire Now” Resolution, which calls “for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.”
The resolution “urges the Biden administration to immediately call for and facilitate deescalation and a cease-fire” and “promptly send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
Carson, who introduced the resolution, highlighted Israel’s blockade of “Gaza’s medical supply, food, fuel, water, and electricity” and accused Israel of planning “ground military operations against civilians,” while Pressley decried “the murder of innocent Palestinian civilians.”
Tlaib framed the resolution as “sav[ing] as many lives as possible, no matter one’s faith or ethnicity.”
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