U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday that he had moved to block the sale of $8.56 billion in offensive American weaponry to Israel, citing the country's deadly and destructive assault on the Gaza Strip.
The Trump administration earlier this month notified Congress that had approved four sales: $6.75 billion for joint direct attack munition (JDAM) guidance kits and thousands of small diameter and 500-pound bombs; $688 million for additional JDAM kits and small diameter bombs; $660 million for 3,000 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles; and $312.5 million for high explosive artillery shells.
"It would be unconscionable to provide more of the bombs and weapons Israel has used to kill so many civilians and make life unlivable in Gaza."
Sanders (I-Vt.)—who also battled the Biden administration's efforts to arm Israel as it waged an assault on Gaza widely decried as genocidal—revealed that he responded to the Trump approvals last week by filing joint resolutions of disapproval (JRDs).
That move started a clock, giving the Senate Foreign Relations Committee just 10 calendar days to consider the JRDs, after which Sanders can force a floor vote on a motion to discharge the resolution from the panel. Both that motion and final passage would require a simple majority in the chamber, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans.
"Israel had the right to defend itself against Hamas and respond to the barbaric October 7, 2023, terrorist attack, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took over 240 hostages," Sanders said in a statement, before taking aim at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently visited with President Donald Trump at the White House.
"But Netanyahu's extremist government has instead waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people, killing more than 48,000 and injuring more than 111,000—the vast majority of whom are women and children," the senator continued. "Tragically, much of this carnage has been carried out with American bombs and weapons."
"Netanyahu has used our bombs to damage or destroy almost 70% of the structures in Gaza, including hundreds of schools," he noted. "All of this has been done in clear violation of U.S. and international law. With Trump and Netanyahu openly talking about forcibly displacing millions of Palestinians from Gaza—in other words, ethnic cleansing—it would be unconscionable to provide more of the bombs and weapons Israel has used to kill so many civilians and make life unlivable in Gaza."
Since taking office last month, Trump has not only promoted a potential U.S. takeover of Gaza and welcomed Israel's leader to Washington, D.C., but also targeted the International Criminal Court (ICC) with sanctions for issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over their assault on the Palestinian territory, where a fragile cease-fire took effect last month.
Sanders previously forced three votes on JRDs about arms sales to Israel in November, when former Democratic President Joe Biden was still in the White House and Independents including the senator from Vermont gave Democrats slim control of the chamber. Only 17-19 of the Senate's 100 members supported the resolutions; none of them were Republicans.
Although those resolutions didn't advance to the House of Representatives, Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian said at the time that "never before have so many senators voted to restrict arms transfers to Israel, and we are extremely grateful to those who did. This historic vote represents a sea change in how elected Democrats feel about the Israeli military's campaign of death and destruction in Gaza."
Sanders revealed his new resolutions on the same day that U.S.-based Democracy for the Arab World Now disclosed its efforts to pressure ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate Biden and his former secretaries of defense and state, Lloyd Austin and Anthony Blinken, for "aiding and abetting" Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
