Dear Senator Jon Tester,

You — along with other Democrats campaigning this election season — have a genocide problem. The Democratic Party’s weak refrain that Biden and Harris are “working tirelessly on a ceasefire deal” has reached unstomachable levels of absurdity. No one believes it, least of all Benjamin Netanyahu, who clearly has no intention of stopping his rampage.

Israel has become a rogue state. While continuing to bomb Gaza into several levels of hell, it has now turned its barbarity on the people of Lebanon. The level of bombing goes beyond anything humanity has ever seen, aside from the U.S. attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It has been reported that Israel could have accomplished the same level of destruction in Gaza had it used just 10% of the munitions it dropped.

Two points you should be aware of:

• A June CBS poll showed that 61% of Americans want to stop sending weapons to Israel, including 77% of Democrats and nearly 40% of Republicans. Those numbers continue to rise.
• The U.S. is currently violating its own laws on weapons sales. The Federal Foreign Assistance act prohibits security assistance to any government that restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Leahy law prohibits weapons from going to military units that have committed gross violations of human rights.

By remaining silent on this issue, you are complicit in Israel’s crimes, along with most of the rest of your colleagues in the Senate. Not only that, but you are ignoring the will of your constituents and torpedoing your own re-election bid.

As your supporters and constituents, we call on you to:

• Co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ legislation to block U.S. weapons sales to Israel
• Call for an arms embargo against Israel
• Stand up and work for the rights of all people — including Jews, Muslims, Christians — to live peacefully as equals in their own lands.

The Biden administration’s response to this crisis has been not only weak and ineffective, but manipulative and disingenuous. They insist on repeating Israeli propaganda lies about mass rapes and beheaded babies, even though those lies have been debunked repeatedly by human rights organizations and independent journalists.

They also continue to pretend not to see what is before every one of our eyes. Any citizen of this country half aware of the news out of Gaza understands that Israel is violating the laws of war and prohibiting humanitarian aid there, yet this administration refuses to acknowledge that fact so that they can continue sending bombs.

Americans are not stupid. Montanans are not stupid. We see clearly that Netanyahu’s goal is to draw the U.S. into all-out war with Iran, which would be devastating for our country, for the men and women who would be called to serve in that war, and for the world. This must not happen.

The lack of U.S. leadership at this moment is terrifying. As a high-profile Senator with everything on the line this election season, you have the power to influence this situation AND to reverse the downward course of your campaign in the process. Your statement in support of an arms embargo would make national news, garner you enormous national and local support, and win you a place on the right side of history.

As your supporters and constituents, we urge you to take this step.