Bernie Sanders Is Leading a Bold New Effort to Block Arms Sales to Israel
The senator has more allies than ever in his fight to hold Israel accountable and save lives in Gaza.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is seen at a press conference on upcoming Joint Resolutions of Disapproval aimed at blocking certain offensive weapon sales to Israel in Washington, DC, on November 19, 2024.
(Nathan Posner / Anadolu via Getty Images)For the better part of a year, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been calling on Congress to block additional military aid and arms sales to Israel in order to save lives in Gaza. In January, he responded to the Biden administration’s request for an additional $10 billion in aid to Israel by announcing, “Enough is enough. Congress must reject that funding. The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.” A month later, after voting against a $95 billion supplemental appropriations bill, he said, “So long as this bill contains [funding] to enable Netanyahu’s right-wing government to continue its horrific war against the Palestinian people, I will keep voting NO.”
The fight Sanders continued to wage through 2024, in a Senate where aid packages for Israel have for decades sailed through with little or no opposition, was often lonely. But Sanders is not so lonely anymore.
The senator and former presidential candidate is being joined by a growing number of senators, and activist groups, who support an effort to win approval of a trio of historic Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs), which would block the sale of certain offensive US weaponry to Israel. The JRDs—which are expected to be voted on today—are the only legislative remedy available to senators seeking to thwart the Biden administration’s efforts to sell an additional $20 billion in arms to Israel, and Sanders says:
There is no longer any doubt that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s extremist government is in clear violation of U.S. and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Out of a population of 2.2 million, over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and 102,000 injured—sixty percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Israel has destroyed 70 percent of the housing in Gaza, the civilian infrastructure, the health care system, and hundreds of schools. It has bombed every one of Gaza’s 12 universities.
As horrific as the last year [since the October 7 Hamas attack] has been, the current situation is even worse. Today, Israel continues to restrict the flow of food and medicine to desperate people. Tens of thousands of Palestinians face malnutrition and starvation. The volume of aid reaching Gazans is lower than at any time in the last year. Blocking humanitarian aid violates the Foreign Assistance Act as well as the Geneva Convention.
Sanders is still waging an uphill battle. Even now, the vast majority of senators are unwilling to break with the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government on the issue of arms sales.
But Sanders now has prominent allies in this fight, including Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who has expressed deep frustration with the lack of accountability for Netanyahu’s refusal to comply with US demands for an increase in humanitarian aid—including “food, water, and basic necessities for desperate Palestinian civilians.” Warren noted last week, “Despite Netanyahu’s failure to meet the United States’ demands, the Biden administration has taken no action to restrict the flow of offensive weapons.” She added, “The failure by the Biden administration to follow U.S. law and to suspend arms shipments is a grave mistake that undermines American credibility worldwide. If this administration will not act, Congress must step up to enforce U.S. law and hold the Netanyahu government accountable through a Joint Resolution of Disapproval.”
Three additional senators—Democrats Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Peter Welch of Vermont, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland—plan to support resolutions that propose to block sales of 120mm tank rounds, 120mm high-explosive mortar rounds and JDAMs, the guidance kits attached to many of the bombs dropped in Gaza. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) is also expected to back at least one resolution.
A number of organizations are urging the Senate to back Sanders’s initiative, including J Street, the progressive Jewish advocacy group that bills itself as a leader of America’s “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy movement” and that has considerable influence with liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill. On Monday, J Street called on Senators to vote yes on at least one of the resolutions in order “to send a message of disapproval of the Netanyahu government’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the disrespect it has shown to the Biden Administration and international law, as well as of the US administration’s failure to enforce American laws and use leverage to rein in Netanyahu’s policies and actions.”
“Voting yes on at least one resolution of disapproval sends a signal—seen throughout Washington, American politics, the Middle East and the world—that there is political will in Washington to object to the course of the war, to enforce American law and to use the leverage we have when Israel’s government consistently defies the American president’s will,” says J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami.
The group Jewish Voice for Peace, which has been far bolder in its opposition to Netanyahu and the Israeli assault on Gaza, is also pushing for “yes” votes in favor of the resolutions. “The grief, sorrow, and pain is endless. And it is funded and enabled by the Biden administration, which continues to arm the Israeli government. Congress must intervene,” says JVP. “For the first time in U.S. history, there will be a vote in Congress to block weapons to Israel. Senators Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch, and Jeff Merkley have introduced Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop a $20 billion weapons shipment approved by the Biden administration.”
The move by Sanders and his allies has drawn considerable support from religious, civil rights, and peace organizations that have histories of advocating for peace in the Middle East, such as the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Arab American Institute, and Peace Action. Some of the nation’s largest unions are also throwing their weight behind the resolutions.
In a particularly bold statement issued Monday, the Service Employees International Union, which represents roughly 2 million workers and has long worked closely with the Biden administration and Democrats in the Senate, urged senators to support the resolutions. “SEIU members have made clear that they want an end to taxpayer dollars being used to fund military aid that enables attacks against innocent civilians in Gaza,” declared SEIU International president April Verrett. “It’s time for Senators to take action to help bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict.”
That peaceful resolution will remain out of reach, argues Sanders, if the US keeps failing to stand up to Netanyahu. “Clearly, what is happening in Gaza today is unspeakable, but what makes it even more painful is that much of this has been done with US weapons and American taxpayer dollars. In the last year alone, the US has provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of military equipment,” Sanders said on Monday. “In other words, the United States is complicit in these atrocities. That complicity must end, and that is what these resolutions are about. It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use US taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of US and international law and our moral values.”
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