Sanders’ Resolution Forces Senate Vote To Block U.S. Arms Sales To Israel

Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a resolution on Wednesday that will force a vote in Congress to block billions of dollars in offensive American weapons sales to Israel ― a significant escalation by the Vermont independent as the Biden administration continues to arm the country in its expanding military campaigns that most of the international community has decried.

Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Peter Welch (Vt.) joined the lawmaker in sponsoring the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, which Sanders described as essentially the only tool that Congress has to block American weapons transfers that don’t follow U.S. and international law.

The Pentagon notified Congress last month of five possible foreign military sales to Israel totaling more than $20 billion, a record-breaking series of potential arms transfers to a country that for almost a year now has used U.S. weapons to pummel Gaza and the Palestinian people in response to a deadly attack by Hamas. The Israeli military has also blocked most humanitarian aid from entering the territory, and has significantly escalated attacks in the occupied West Bank and neighboring Lebanon.

“Israel clearly had the right to respond to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on October 7th … But Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged all-out war against the Palestinian people,” Sanders said in a statement. “Netanyahu has bombed hospitals and schools, starved children, destroyed infrastructure and housing stock, and made life unlivable in Gaza. The United States must end its complicity in this atrocity.”

The arms sales targeted in the resolution include $262 million in Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs),