Top Foreign Affairs Dem wants ‘assurances’ before approving F-15s for Israel

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Tuesday that he wants “assurances” before approving the sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel amid its war with Hamas.

“I’m waiting for assurances,” Meeks said during a “CNN News Central” interview. “When I go back to Washington, D.C., I wanna make sure that I know the types of weapons and what the weapons will be utilized for.”

“For example, I think it’s enough — it’s enough for what has been taking place in Gaza,” Meeks continued. “I think that Hamas needs to let the hostages go now, and there should be a pressure on Hamas to let the hostages go, I think that’s what the people in Israel are crying for. And I think it’s enough to have the indiscriminate bombing taking place.”

The Biden administration has been considering a new arms sale to Israel, The Hill confirmed last week. The report comes amidst mounting pressure on the White House to stop weapons sales to its long-time ally in the face of civilian casualties in Gaza. The potential sale would include up to 50 new F-15 fighter jets and 30 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, Politico first reported.

Meeks’s remarks come less than a week after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she would move to block the sale of F-15s to Israel, in the wake of an Israeli airstrike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza last week.

“I think it is clear that Congress has a responsibility to act. We have legal tools here. And as I said, we cannot approve the sale of arms to a country that is in violation of our own laws on this. And that includes access to humanitarian relief,” Warren said in an interview on “CNN News Central.”

“This is a moral question; it is also a legal question. Congress has responsibility here, and I’m willing to take that responsibility,” she added. 

The Hill has reached out to the White House.