This commentary is by Oscar Vulte, a rising sophomore at Brattleboro Union High School and a fellow with Action Corps. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., introduced a resolution on June 24 requesting a report on Israel’s human rights practices in Lebanon since Feb. 28, 2026, under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act, which allows Congress to request a human rights report on any country receiving U.S. military aid. This is a fantastic piece of legislation, and Welch was right to introduce it. Unfortunately, since being referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, this resolution has not moved. This is sadly unsurprising considering that the chair of the committee is Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who is a staunch supporter of Israel, and the committee has never once advanced a measure conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel on its conduct. The good news is this: With a single motion on the Senate floor, Welch can get every member of the Senate to record their position on the resolution. The only requirement is that the committee has not reported the resolution within 10 days, a threshold it has cleared. The resolution might not pass, and even if it did, I don’t have much faith that our administration would do its due diligence or even attempt to lie convincingly. However, the point is to get our senators on record either voting for transparency in the human rights record of the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. military aid or essentially publicly burying their heads in the sand. A vote to table is still a vote on the record. In case you haven’t been following the atrocities in the Middle East, Amnesty International has reported that the Israeli military has expanded its use of “everybody-leave” orders — one order in May covered 15% of the country — and followed them with “don’t-come-back” directives barring residents from a zone covering 6% of Lebanon. Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs reported more than 1 million people still displaced as of June 7. On top of this, the Lebanese Health Ministry has reported nearly 4,000 deaths, including 247 children, according to UNICEF.  These atrocities — and moreover, this tactic of atrocity — are not new: Israeli strategists have a name for it. “Mowing the grass” — kisuach hadeshe — has circulated in Israeli security discourse for years and was formalized in a 2014 paper by two Israeli scholars as a strategy of periodic large-scale operations to degrade an adversary rather than defeat it. Beneath it sits the Dahiya doctrine, which calls for disproportionate force and for treating civilian villages as military targets. Meanwhile, the U.S. is providing the weapons, bulldozers, military intelligence and diplomatic cover for these doctrines of murder.  Welch’s resolution could prompt further action by Congress and lead to votes to restrict or cut off weapons for what U.N. experts say points to Israel’s pattern of ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon. Legislators who vote against this resolution — if forced to vote — would have to confront the political consequences of plugging their ears and shutting their eyes in the name of combating terrorism.  As Vermonters, we are uniquely positioned to help stop the U.S.-enabled ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon. Welch’s introduction of the resolution is a good start, but he now needs to force the vote. There isn’t much sense in waiting. Don’t get me wrong: The Vermont delegation is probably one of the strongest in Congress in terms of fighting for human rights and progressive values, but we as the constituency do need to nudge them from time to time and not just have blind faith that they are doing their best.  READ MORE Some might say that this is the wrong thing for Welch to spend time on, that it won’t pass and that it’s better for Welch to focus on policies for Vermonters that actually have a chance of success. I would rebut these claims by noting that stopping the blank check to oppressive foreign governments is critical for our democracy. Moreover, Vermonters’ taxpayer dollars should be funding construction of housing here, not destroying people’s homes in Lebanon. There is nothing more important than stopping what U.N. human rights experts have described as part of the same pattern of destruction initiated during what they term the genocide in Gaza. If this were 1941, would you say that stopping Nazi Germany should be a secondary pursuit to lowering taxes or passing a policy of paid leave? Both of those could be worthy pursuits, but not as important as stopping ethnic cleansing or genocide.  Welch should use his position in the Senate to force a vote on the Lebanon human rights resolution the same way Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., — joined by co-sponsors including Welch himself — has repeatedly forced votes on weapons transfers to Israel. Vermonters have a unique power and responsibility to ensure this happens.  Read the story on VTDigger here: Defund Israel’s decimation of southern Lebanon. ...read more read less