Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, stated on Friday that if Israeli leadership does not “do better” at stopping civilian deaths in Gaza, it might be “appropriate” to condition future years aid to Israel.
“We never want to witness the deaths of defenseless women, kids, or elderly people. That has occurred quite frequently here, Kelly said in a prerecorded interview that aired on Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“This is something that I specifically discussed with the ambassador, Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador, and I think it’s appropriate to put conditions on some of this aid,” Kelly continued. This was just a few weeks after the foreign aid package containing $26 billion in aid for Israel was approved by both chambers of Congress.
While acknowledging that “they’re getting more aid,” Kelly also pointed out that the Israeli military requires more precision weapons, such as “JDAM kits for Mark 80-series weapons, the sort of weapon that I dropped in combat over Iraq.”
He continued, “If we see the same number of civilian casualties [after that], that is an important concern of mine.”
Kelly connected his worries about civilian casualties to growing concerns from international relief organizations regarding the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north [of Gaza], and it’s moving south,” World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said to moderator Kristen Welker in a separate interview for “Meet the Press.”
Speaking with McCain “a lot about this,” Kelly said he will “continue to address this and push the Israelis to do better.” If they perform better, this also opens the door for additional food aid to be provided.”
“If the Israelis can do better on the field of battle, minimize civilian casualties, generate fewer mistakes — or their objective is no mistakes — in how they’re conducting this, it could assist in get the food aid to the innocent Palestinians,” he stated.
Welker also questioned Kelly regarding the availability of abortions in his state, where an 1864 abortion ban was recently lifted by lawmakers and Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs. Even after it has been repealed, the ban might temporarily remain in place due to peculiarities in Arizona state law.
Kelly told Welker, “I think women in Arizona have been by means of a really tough time,” before blaming former President Donald Trump for Arizona’s ban.
“This is all on him, that women in the state of Arizona lack the rights that they previously had,” Kelly stated.
President Joe Biden has called for codifying the 1973 standards set by Roe v. Wade, but there hasn’t been a federal standard for abortions since the Supreme Court overturned it in 2022.Democrats would need to take over the Senate and the House, as well as elect Biden to a second term, in order to accomplish this. Even in those cases, not much legislation passes the Senate without the sixty votes required to end a filibuster.
The other option is for 50 senators to agree to waive the filibuster for legislation pertaining to abortion, as there is very little chance that Democrats will win 60 Senate seats.
“After the election, I think we’ll still be in control of the Senate.” Furthermore, I believe it’s appropriate to reevaluate what needs to be done to advance issues like voting rights and choice in order to bring them to a successful conclusion,” the senator stated.
Kelly stated that he was “very concerned” regarding the possibility that Trump would attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election if he did not receive Arizona’s Electoral College votes, even though he was confident about keeping control of the upper chamber of Congress.
His comments followed last month’s indictment of multiple former Trump aides by the state’s attorney general for their alleged attempts to rig the 2020 election in that state.
“I have faith in our legal system’s ability to follow due process. And we all have to accept that process, no matter how this ends up,” Kelly remarked.