Senate Democrats say one thing but do another on foreign aid to Israel

Some Senate Democrats are talking the talk but not walking the walk on foreign aid to Israel.

The US Senate is debating a $95 billion foreign aid package after several months of infighting and delays by their House counterparts. The package would allocate $26.38 billion to fund Israeli defense systems — something progressive Senator Bernie Sanders isn’t too happy about.

Mr Sanders announced this week he is introducing amendments to significantly cut the amount of aid Israel would receive, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has created a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.

Many of Mr Sanders’ Democratic colleagues have expressed similar concerns about civilian deaths and humanitarian aid — but not enough to consider amendments or delay the multi-billion-dollar deal, they told The Independent just minutes before the US Senate voted to strike down the possibility of adding any amendments to the aid package.

“I think it’s beyond belief that, on an issue where the majority of the American people don’t want to continue to support Netanyahu’s war machine slaughter of women and children in Gaza, that we couldn’t even get an amendment to deal with that,” Mr Sanders told The Independent.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 200 hostages. In response, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 33,400 people, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The United Nations says the territory is on the brink of a “man-made famine”.

Mr Sanders’ amendments would mandate that Israel not receive unfettered military aid for its war campaign in Gaza and would