WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bernie Sanders is preparing several resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel, a longshot effort but the most substantive pushback yet from Congress over the devastation in Gaza ahead of the first year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war.
In a letter to Senate colleagues on Wednesday, Sanders said the U.S. cannot be “complicit in this humanitarian disaster.” The action would force an eventual vote to block the arms sales to Israel, though majority passage is highly unlikely.
“Much of this carnage in Gaza has been carried out with U.S.-provided military equipment,” Sanders, I-Vt., wrote.
As the war grinds toward a second year, and with the outcome of President Joe Biden’s efforts to broker a cease-fire deal and hostage release uncertain, the resolutions from Sanders would seek to reign in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault on Gaza. The war has killed some 41,000 people in Gaza after the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, and abducted 250 others, with militants still holding around 100 hostages.
While it’s doubtful the politically split Senate would pass the measures, the move is designed to send a message to the Netanyahu regime that its war effort is eroding the U.S.'s longtime bipartisan support for Israel. Sanders said he is working with other colleagues on the measures.
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Under the Senate rules, once Sanders introduces the resolutions next week, he can force a vote almost instantly for consideration. The measures are being proposed as a joint resolution of disapproval of the arms sales, which is a mechanism that allows congressional oversight of foreign affairs.
Sanders said he would have some backing for his proposal. But it is not expected to have support from a majority, 51 votes, in the Senate to pass.
In the House, blocking the Israeli arms sales would face even tougher odds, where Republicans hold the majority, and have largely sided with Netanyahu’s approach to the war with Hamas.
I liked Bernie in 2016. I was reluctantly willing to give him a pass when he endorsed war criminal Hillary Clinton and then again war criminal Joe Biden. The pass was, "I'm disappointed in this grampa but he is an old liberal, I guess I shouldn't have expected more from him. We'll move on without him."
But then he has refused to call the genocide a genocide and has steadfastly supported the genocidal Democratic Party. This isn't a matter of throwing the baby out with the bathwater or a "circular firing squad". Refusing to oppose genocide marks someone as a bad person. He's not on the Left's side, he's just interested in whitewashing the US's image.
This thing he's doing now? Would have been great if he did it right away and denounced the Biden Administration for committing genocide. But now, and when he still refuses to use the g word, it's way too little way too late. This is just an empty PR gesture.
And the thing is, principled people have to reject these empty gestures because they aren't just pointless, they're part of the Democratic Party's long-standing pattern of supporting as awful and reactionary an atrocity as it can get away with, then softening its stance and pretending to kind of oppose it a little in order to trick the masses into trusting that this is progress, the Dems will save the day. I saw this with Iraq too and to paraphrase one of the war criminals behind that atrocity: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice -- well, you won't fool me again. If we don't stay focused and condemn Democratic politicians then people will be mislead into thinking they can still achieve a better world by supporting the Democrats, who are totally going to move left.
It's a lie. A ruse. The Left must oppose the fascist, imperialist, genocide-loving Democratic Party and strip away its support.
I could say more but I encourage you to just read the other comments on this page; I see good comments that are older than this one you wrote which can explain more.