BREAKING: Senate Rejects Sanders-led Effort to Block Arms Sales to Israel
The vote forced senators to go on the record with where they stand on the Biden administration's unconditional support for Israel.
The US Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a bid to block part of a $20 billion weapons package to Israel.
The three resolutions that were part of the effort were expected to fail, but the votes gave a measure of the level of discontent among Senate Democrats over the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel. As many as 19 senators voted in favor of at least one of the resolutions.
The bills, known as the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, were led by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as well as Democratic Sens. Peter Welch (Vt.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), and Chris Van Hollen (Md.).
“The United States government cannot provide weapons to countries that violate internationally recognized human rights or block US humanitarian aid. That is not my opinion; that is what the law says,” Sanders said on the Senate floor before the vote.
It was the first time such a vote on arms sales to Israel was held, forcing Senate Democrats to go on record with where they stand on the unconditional US support for Israel, especially after 411 days of the war in Gaza, where the official death toll (a devastatingly feared undercount) in Gaza neared 44,000 on Wednesday, while the injured count stretched past 104,000.
The resolutions challenged parts of a planned $20 billion of US weapons sales to Israel, which includes the same types of arms the Israeli military has used in devastating tent massacres; the killing of Hind Rajab, her family members, and medics sent to save her; and other alleged humanitarian law violations.
Wednesday’s bills specifically sought to block the sale of tank rounds, mortar rounds, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) – sales that total about $1 billion. Nineteen senators voted in favor of blocking the 120mm high explosive mortar rounds, 18 supported halting the sale of 120mm tank rounds, and 17 favored blocking the sale of JDAMs.
A few other resolutions had been drafted to block other parts of the $20 billion package but were pulled from consideration so the votes could focus on offensive weapons to avoid bad-faith criticism that the moves would leave Israel wholly defenseless and to maximize support, two sources with knowledge of the decision told Zeteo.
Several Republican critics of the resolutions either demurred on questions of any red lines for Israel – the benefactor of billions of US tax dollars – or doubled down on their support. When asked about the 44,000 Palestinians killed, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Israel was killing “terrorists.” He told Zeteo he’d be a “hell no” against the arms sales resolutions.
Israel ‘Making Conditions Worse’
Wednesday’s votes came six months after the State Department admitted that it was “likely” Israel used US-supplied weapons in violation of international law – and chose to do nothing in response.
They also came a week after aid groups said Israel not only failed to comply with the Biden administration’s 30-day deadline to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza, but it made things dramatically worse. The US, however, concluded it would not make any policy changes, saying Israel took “steps” to improve the situation.
The Biden administration pressured senators to vote against Wednesday’s resolutions honoring US law in disapproving of additional weapons sales to a state accused of war crimes.
"If the Biden administration were in any way serious about wanting Israel to rein in its attacks on civilians and its starvation of northern Gaza, they would at the least welcome a strong vote from the Senate that they could point to in their negotiations with Israel as a sign that Israel has to change its modus operandi for the sake of the bilateral relationship,” Josh Paul, a former director for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees US arms transfers, told Zeteo just ahead of Wednesday's vote.
“The fact that, on the contrary, they are doing all they can to limit support for this vote clearly demonstrates that the Biden Administration does not only not want to use leverage, it does not even want leverage it could use,” he added.
“Fund Schools, Not Genocide”
On Tuesday, the chant, “Not another nickel, not another dime. No more money for Israel’s crimes!” echoed through the atrium of the Hart Senate Building in Washington, DC, as scores of protesters flooded the halls of power to demand senators support the joint resolutions. Red t-shirts read “Fund schools, not genocide” and “fund healthcare, not genocide” colored the crowd, which was made up of faith groups, mothers, healthcare workers, educators, students, veterans, and others; leaflets dropped from higher floors, read messages like “Stop arming Israel.”
"We have been told for years – decades actually – by our legislators that there's not enough money for the services we've been fighting for,” Jewish-American and mental health advocate Leah Harris told Zeteo. “Yet we have all of this money to bomb Palestine."
For weeks, critics had questioned whether the Biden administration’s 30-day deadline was, in fact, just a ploy by the administration to earn votes for the 2024 election – one that Vice President Kamala Harris ended up losing, with voters complaining either specifically about US support for Israel’s genocidal war, or more broadly of global disorder under the incumbent administration and a lack of focus on suffering in the US.
“As veterans, we understand firsthand the harms of the military-industrial complex. I have seen up close how America’s foreign policy of forever war harms people, both at home and around the world, with the genocide in Palestine pushing me to resign from the Army after nearly 12 years of service,” said Rebecca Roberts, an Air and Army National Guard veteran and member of About Face: Veterans Against the War.
Ironclad Bipartisan Support
That Wednesday’s resolutions failed after 411 days of US unconditional support for Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine only underscores how ironclad and bipartisan such commitment to violence has been.
Republicans, for their part, have stood en masse against any legislative or policy rethinking, while fomenting McCarthyism-esque attacks on students, educators, and dissidents everywhere – all while spewing genocidal and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. Democrats have been split, with a plurality, including the Biden-Harris administration, excusing Israel’s alleged war criminal behavior, or outright defending it.
Separately on Wednesday, hours before the Senate vote, the US, for the fourth time, vetoed a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution.
All of it – the UN veto and the rejection of Senate bills, at the president’s urging – came on Joe Biden’s 82nd birthday.
Senators who voted in favor of at least one of Wednesday’s resolutions:
Sen. Bernie Sanders
Sen. Jeff Merkley
Sen. Peter Welch
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Brian Schatz
Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Sen. Tim Kaine
Sen. Ed Markey
Sen. Martin Heinrich
Sen. Tina Smith
Sen. Angus King
Sen. Jon Ossoff
Sen. Mazie Hirono
Sen. Dick Durbin
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
Sen. Ben Ray Luján
Sen. Raphael Warnock
Sen. Chris Murphy
Sen. George Helmy
This story has been updated with additional details throughout.
I’m ashamed to be a citizen of the US. We don’t even support and adhere to our own laws. People in the US need housing, medical services and food and instead Biden sends taxpayer money and weapons to a genocidal government.
God bless Bernie.