{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3811", "House Democrats write Biden urging  \u2018immediate and significant shift\u2019 of Israeli military strategy", "2023-12-20", "2023", "2023-12", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Chrissy Houlahan", "H001085", "houlahan.house.gov", "houlahan", "https://houlahan.house.gov/press/documentquery.aspx", "page_html", "Originally posted by The Hill.\n\nA half dozen national security-focused House Democrats sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday demanding he double down on efforts to make an \u201cimmediate and significant shift\u201d in Israeli military strategy.\n\nThe group said the administration\u2019s pressure campaign to temper the Israeli military strategy in Gaza has not been effective, and the lawmakers demanded stronger action using \u201call our leverage.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe are deeply concerned by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s] current military strategy in Gaza. The mounting civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis are unacceptable and not in line with American interests; nor do they advance the cause of security for our ally Israel,\u201d the letter reads.\n\n\u201cWe also believe it jeopardizes efforts to destroy the terrorist organization Hamas and secure the release of all hostages,\u201d the lawmakers continued.\n\nThe statement was signed by Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). All are members of the House Intelligence, Armed Services or Foreign Affairs committees.\n\nThe letter marks a rise in tensions between Biden and Congress over Israel, as support for the Biden administration\u2019s response to the conflict wanes.\n\nIsrael has continued a brutal ground offensive into southern Gaza in recent weeks after a brief cease-fire resulted in about half of the hostages held by Hamas being released. As international pressure to return to a cease-fire mounts, the Biden administration has urged the Israeli military to abandon the mass military campaign and scale back to limited operations.\n\nBut the Israeli government has shown no signs of heeding that advice. The lawmakers said they have seen \u201cno significant change\u201d in Israeli strategy from U.S. advising.\n\nThe military action, alongside reports of torture of Palestinians in Gaza and an increasing humanitarian crisis, have created concerns \u2014 including within the Biden administration \u2014 that the invasion of Gaza could serve to embolden support for Hamas instead of eliminating the group.\n\nThe lawmakers compared the Israeli operation to the failed U.S. \u201cwar on terror\u201d in Afghanistan, where a continued American military operation saw the Taliban return to power 20 years after the conflict began.\n\n\u201cWe know from personal experience that you can\u2019t destroy a terror ideology with military force alone,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cAnd it can, in fact, make it worse.\u201d\n\nAt least 12,000 Palestinians have died since the outset of the war in October; about 70 percent of them were women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly the entirety of Gaza\u2019s 2.3 million population has been displaced from their homes and requires humanitarian aid, the United Nations said.", 1, "2026-04-08T14:14:11Z", "2026-04-08T14:23:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3811"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.338577225804329, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}