We’re Not Fooled By Evasive Bureaucratic Doublespeak - Stop Arming Israel

Senator John Hickenlooper’s September 7th letter to constituents about Gaza illustrates how this body deflects responsibility while enabling atrocities. His words are a case study in obfuscation. He frames Gaza as a “humanitarian crisis” rather than what it is: genocide carried out with U.S. weapons and funding. By calling only for food, water, and medicine while voting for billions in military aid, he disguises complicity as compassion. Under the Genocide Convention, the United States has a duty to prevent genocide—not to arm it while sending token aid. He shifts blame to others—pointing at Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff—as if the bottleneck lies with the executive branch. But Congress controls the purse. Senator Hickenlooper voted for massive weapons transfers to Israel in April 2024. Blaming others is a convenient fiction to avoid owning the consequences of those votes. His invocation of “bringing the hostages home” creates false symmetry between Israelis and Palestinians. Overwhelmingly, the victims are Palestinians—tens of thousands killed, starved, and displaced by U.S.-backed bombardments and blockade. Balancing hostage concerns against genocide is not moral leadership; it is rhetorical cover. On settler violence, he reduces systemic colonization to the behavior of a few extremists. International law is unambiguous: all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal (Fourth Geneva Convention, Art. 49(6); UNSC Res. 2334). Settler violence is not incidental—it enforces a war crime. By failing to call settlements illegal, he sanitizes colonization while promising only to “press” Israel to rein it in. Finally, his fallback on a “two-state solution” is hollow. Annexation and settlement expansion, funded by U.S. tax dollars, have made it impossible. To invoke it without consequences is to repeat a talking point while Palestinians are stripped of land, rights, and life itself. This pattern—press, urge, consider—fails both international and U.S. law. The Leahy Laws, Arms Export Control Act, and Foreign Assistance Act prohibit assistance where gross human-rights abuses and war crimes occur. Settler attacks, mass bombardments, and deliberate starvation all qualify. Congress has the legal tools. What it lacks is the political will. We demand that you: • End all U.S. weapons transfers and funding to Israel until it complies with international law. • Publicly acknowledge settlements as illegal war crimes. • Enforce U.S. laws—Leahy, AECA, FAA—without exception for Israel. • Fulfill the duty to prevent genocide by taking immediate, binding action. Anything less is complicity. Hickenlooper’s letter shows how Members of Congress soften the truth and shift responsibility. The people you represent demand more: accountability, legality, and the courage to stop arming crimes against humanity.