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Democrats are reportedly “not happy” that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) is pushing for a vote on a war powers resolution to limit U.S. support for Israel’s war on Lebanon, according to an Axios report on Wednesday.
The resolution, which is likely to face a vote on Thursday in the House, calls for President Donald Trump to end all U.S. participation in Israeli military operations in Lebanon, including removing U.S. forces and ending any intelligence sharing with Israel in Lebanon.
But according to lawmakers and aides, this resolution has engendered more opposition within the Democratic Party than Iran war powers resolutions.
“The United States is assisting this destruction [in Lebanon] through the weapons, intelligence, logistics, and diplomatic cover it provides the Israeli government,” Tlaib’s office explained in a press release.
Tlaib wrote on X on Monday that, “Our country should not be assisting or supporting indiscriminate bombings and forced displacement anywhere, including Lebanon.”
According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Israel’s war on Lebanon is “quickly turning southern Lebanon into the ‘next Gaza.’” Israel has killed over 3,400 people and displaced over 1.2 million in Lebanon since its latest war on the country began in March. But Israel has been engaged in a lower-scale but longer-term war on the south of the country since 2024.
On Monday, Iranian state media announced that Iran would be ceasing negotiations with the U.S. due to Israel’s expanded war on Lebanon. Earlier that day, Israel had threatened to bomb the Lebanese capital, Beirut, while expanding its occupation of the south of the country.
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Although Trump said later on Monday that he had spoken to both Hezbollah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that Beirut would not face strikes, Netanyahu said that Israeli forces “will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.”
The U.S. government, meanwhile, has been working to pressure the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, pushing for the demilitarization of the one group that has the ability to defend the south from Israel’s incursions. In February, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East held a hearing entirely focused on dismantling Hezbollah, with Democrats like Brad Sherman saying there is a “historic opportunity” to disarm Hezbollah in the wake of the genocide in Gaza. But this ignores realities in Lebanon. Beyond the fact that Hezbollah is the sole group with the capability of defending the south from Israel’s occupation, disarming Hezbollah would likely lead to civil war in the country.
Still, Democrats’ widespread agreement with disarming Hezbollah might be a factor in their seeming opposition to Tlaib’s resolution.
In a statement to Axios, Tlaib said: “Poll after poll shows that the American people do not support our government sending a blank check and unlimited military assistance to the Israeli government as it massacres thousands of innocent civilians and demolishes entire cities and communities.”
“Members of Congress should listen to them,” particularly as Israel’s campaign in Lebanon “threatens to prolong the disastrous war with Iran,” she said.
But top Democrats in the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees are likely to vote no, which will likely sway other Democrats to vote no.
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