As a New Jersey native, and dual Israeli-American citizen, paying taxes and voting in N.J., I was appalled by Senator Andy Kim’s recent vote to block arms sales to Israel.
Kim voted in favor of two resolutions that would block $8.8 billion in weapons sales to Israel. All Republicans and all but 15 Democrats voted against them. Kim’s vote, and his statement following, earns him reproach as the newest member of the Squad.
As much as Kim’s vote is wrong, his reasoning is worse. His statement following his vote noted, “I voted for these Joint Resolutions because while I support providing tools critical for Israel’s defense, I do not believe that these systems, which include those that can level entire city blocks and that have been used in incidents with disproportionate civilian casualties, achieve the primary objectives I’ve outlined. In fact, their use will make it harder.”
What are Senator Kim’s “primary objectives?” He listed these: “priority must be the safe return of hostages, including Edan Alexander, through a diplomatic agreement that also leads to a durable peace to end the suffering that doesn’t leave Hamas in charge of Gaza.”
Fortunately, Kim’s misguided views don’t carry much influence based on his committee assignments, but his position is dangerously wrong. It’s not just the naiveté of a freshman senator. Kim seems to believe that the resolution is through a diplomatic agreement that leads to peace. Why is he wrong? Because while the majority of the combat, and casualties, are in Gaza, Hamas has made clear its jihadi genocidal intentions. Hamas is not interested in creating a Palestinian Arab state, they are interested in the destruction of the Jewish state. Peace will not come through a diplomatic solution with Hamas, but a resounding defeat of its leaders and ideology.
Highlighting Kim’s mistaken reasoning, he implies that the specific weapons he objected to (“that can level entire city blocks”) would be used in Gaza. Let’s come back to that. What the war against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and others has shown is that they are all Iranian backed, armed, and funded proxies. Israel has successfully eliminated much of the threats posed by these Iranian tentacles. But to defeat Hamas and the rest, it’s the head of the octopus that needs to be defeated, the Iranian Islamic regime. These weapons that Kim voted to deny Israel could be necessary in such an operation.
Kim’s belief that peace can/should be negotiated is more than a freshman mistake. It’s a dangerously naïve policy. Indeed, it’s only through maximum military pressure and eliminating all the terrorist threats from Tehran to Gaza that there can even be a thought of peace. Anything less is appeasement.
Kim correctly called attention to Edan Alexander, one of the 59 hostages still in captivity in Gaza, kidnapped from Israel on October 7, 2023, 550 days ago. Like me, Alexander is a New Jersey native. Unlike me, he is the last living American to still be held in captivity, suffering inhuman torture and starvation by Hamas. If Kim thinks that his constituent in Gaza will magically be freed without maximum pressure, he is gravely mistaken and is dooming Eden Alexander to continued suffering. Hamas will only make a “deal” when they have something to lose. They understand only violence, and therefore any and all means to hasten their defeat and release ALL the remaining hostages, dead and alive, must be employed.
It's only through the use or threat of use of force that Hamas will yield. Israel should be given every means to do so, knowing that while indeed there are and will be civilian casualties, regrettably, the ratio of civilian to combatant (terrorist) deaths is remarkably low for any urban warfare in history, and that the IDF goes to painstaking depths to prevent civilian casualties. Conversely, Hamas disguises its terrorists as civilians and hides among them, using their own people as human shields. Because of this, all Gazan civilian deaths are Hamas’ responsibility.
The rest of Kim’s statement read like a rant that could have been written by any of the pro-Hamas Squad members.
“I have long supported systems like Iron Dome and David’s Sling that protect scores of Israelis from terrorist groups and other common adversaries like Iran and Iranian proxies. The threat in particular from Iran is real and existential, and systems to stop drone and ballistic missile attacks are vital.” What Kim means is that it’s OK for Israel to be attacked as long as it has good defensive weapons, but cannot go on the offensive to remove the essence of the threat.
“(Netanyahu’s) decision to resume military strikes and operations is not the path to take. There has been too much tragic loss of civilian life, including family members of New Jerseyans who grieve constantly and continue to be filled with deep worry about those still in Gaza.” Kim should be focused on actions, not words pandering to “little Palestine” in Paterson, to remove Hamas from Gaza, which is the core of the problem, rather than blame Israel.
“As I said before that hostages should never be used as leverage for negotiations, neither should humanitarian aid to civilians. Netanyahu’s decision to block all international aid from entering Gaza is wrong.” Except Senator Kim, that Hamas steals the aid for itself, leaving Gazans to suffer. And it’s not the job of Israel to provide aid to an enemy entity, when still engaged in the very existential war that Hamas launched 18 months ago.
“Around seventy percent of the Israeli people want a return to a ceasefire and the return of all hostages, and America should stand with them. But the Israeli government is going the opposite direction with no viable exit strategy or plan for post-war Gaza other than support [for] Trump’s reckless plan.” I don’t know the source of Kim’s statistics, but this Israeli (and tax-paying NJ native) wants Hamas to be defeated. To blame the Israeli government for not having a “viable exit strategy” in a war that Israel didn’t want, and make it partisan, is simply foolish.
Highlighting that, Kim’s own solution sounds more like a Christmas wish list than any viable strategy. “We should work closely with our diplomatic partners to press Hamas to return to a ceasefire, with our Israeli partners to expand normalization, and with regional partners on a political solution that replaces Hamas as the governing entity of Gaza. We should build out larger frameworks to further isolate Iran and minimize its risk to the region.”
When legislation providing billions in aid to Israel came up in Congress last year, then-Congressman Kim voted in favor. In an email the week before the vote, Kim sounded as if he was the most pro-Israel he can be. Now he’s flipped, earning him the distrust of many N.J. voters who understand that Israel’s fight is one between good and evil. At best, Kim does not understand this. At worst, he’s never been there and is a fraud. Either way, it's not a good look for New Jersey’s flip-flopping freshman senator.
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