Three bills by independent Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont were shot down by the U.S. Senate. These bills would have stopped the U.S. from selling $20 billion worth of arms to Israel.
At the end of September, Sanders introduced three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs). These came almost a year after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s offensive on the ground and in the air in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people.
Gaza has been hurt a lot. More than 1.8 million Palestinians are suffering “extremely critical” levels of hunger, which has led the UN to warn that famine is about to happen.
Sanders made one last plea to senators in a passionate speech on the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday evening. He told them not to ignore the humanitarian crisis and the U.S.’s support for “mass starvation.”
Sen. Sanders’ S.J. Res. 111 bill was thrown out on Wednesday night by a vote of 18 to 79. There is a lot of support for Israel in the upper house, so the motions were not likely to pass. But they show that Democrats don’t agree with what President Joe Biden says about the war that is still going on.
The Jewish senator spoke out against the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who limits sending aid and uses the military. He says Israel is going too far in its right to protect itself and breaking international law.
Sanders has also said many times that he doesn’t like how the Biden administration is supporting the war and handling it. He is also angry that the government isn’t holding Israel accountable.
Four resolutions tried to stop the transfer of U.S. tank rounds, water rounds, and guidance kits attached to the “bombs dropped in Gaza” to Israel. Sanders, along with Senators Peter Welch, Chris Van Hollen, and Jeff Merkley, said this at a news conference on Tuesday.
The U.S. is “complicit” in the war, its crimes, and its breaking of international law, he said.
Because of these steps, the US would not have been able to sell $20 billion worth of weapons to Israel. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) says that the US has given Israel more than $310 billion in military and economic aid, with at least $228 billion going to the military. The United States backs Israel with all its might.
“The United States government is currently in violation of the law, and every member of the U.S. Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for the resolutions,” Sanders said on the day of the vote.
The Vermont Independent said that the U.S. is breaking the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act by sending weapons to countries that violate human rights or stop the U.S. from sending aid.
The United Nations and many humanitarian groups have told the world about Israel’s violations, especially the rules it has on sending aid. Israel has said that it will help by giving food and other things.
Sanders wrote this week in an opinion piece for the Washington Post, “The need is greater than at any other time in the conflict; the volume of aid getting into Gaza in recent weeks is lower than at any point since the war began.”
The senator went on, “All of this is horrible and wrong.” But what hurts even more is that a lot of this killing and damage was done with U.S. weapons and was paid for by American taxpayers. The United States has given Israel $18 billion in military aid and more than 50,000 tons of weapons and other military gear just in the past year.
