On Wednesday, Sanders introduced six resolutions blocking six sales of different weapons contained within the $20 billion weapons deal announced by the Biden administration in August. The sales include many of the types of weapons that Israel has used in its relentless campaign of extermination in Gaza over the past year.
“Sending more weapons is not only immoral, it is also illegal. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act lay out clear requirements for the use of American weaponry – Israel has egregiously violated those rules,” said Sanders. “There is a mountain of documentary evidence demonstrating that these weapons are being used in violation of U.S. and international law.”
This will be the first time in history that Congress has ever voted on legislation to block a weapons sale to Israel, as the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project pointed out. This is despite the U.S. having sent Israel over $250 billion in military assistance in recent decades, according to analyst Stephen Semler, as Israel has carried out ethnic cleansings and massacres across Palestine and in Lebanon.
The resolutions are not likely to pass; even if they did pass the heavily pro-Israel Congress, they would likely be vetoed by President Joe Biden, who has been insistent on sending weapons to Israel with no strings attached.
However, Sanders’s move is in line with public opinion. Polls have consistently found that the majority of the public supports an end to Israel’s genocide; a poll by the Institute for Global Affairs released this week found, for instance, that a majority of Americans think the U.S. should stop supporting Israel or make support contingent on Israeli officials’ agreement to a ceasefire deal. This includes nearly 80 percent of Democrats.
Bernie on the right side of history as usual.
It’s easy to rage against the machine on a moral pedestal. It’s harder to actually steer the machine in the right direction.
To be clear, I am supportive of putting things to a vote even if there’s no chance it succeeds. Get the votes on record. I think that’s an important archive that can be used later in election season to hold politicians accountable for their votes.
I like what Bernie and AOC are doing when they push for these kinds of votes.
But make no mistake. They can only do this from a position of being unable to effect any change. Under normal conditions, moves like this poison the well and make others on both sides less willing to work with you.
They have the luxury of grandstanding specifically because they have zero hope of garnering support.
Someone like a president can’t really do something like this without completely burning their political capital.
If only we had a president who is never going to hold office again and has nothing to lose right now… Damn our current pres is nothing like that
You realize his actions have a direct impact on Harris’ campaign… right?
Yes and Harris complicity in continuing the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the Westbank and now the invasion of Lebanon will be the greatest risk for her election. But they would rather hand over the US to Trump on a silver plate, than to stop killing Arabs.
You realise Biden’s current stance on Israel is unpopular by a vast majority of the Democratic voter base, right?
I couldn’t find much, but this poll seems to suggest the majority supports the US position on Israel. It’s surprisingly bipartisan.
Do you have another source maybe? This poll is from June, maybe you found something more recent?
Well, he was also a part of blocking the military aid to Ukraine for all those months. But this one is good
That was also good. America is not the world police.
Hot take: Global geopolitics within the current rules as we understand it don’t allow for countries to genuinely respect each other as equals. Might will always be right on the global stage regardless of whether it should be that way. So when it comes to picking a global hegemon, the United States is really not a terrible choice compared with the alternatives.
We are also a part of nato.
Ukraine is not, objectively could not qualify before 2014 when it became good for the US war machine for them to qualify, and most importantly, NATO should’ve disbanded in 1991 when the sole reason for its existence fell.
Yeah, our country is shitty. I get the main reason the US joined the allies had more to do with politics then ideology. But least some kind of good comes from the US backing ukraine.
Also just a little slow to come around to reality like always.
Edit… Down vote all you want I’m still a big Bernie fan but the whole US government has been on the wrong side of this war from the beginning. We treat Palestinian lives just like black and brown lives at home like they didn’t matter.
Lastly Hamas is not Palestinian I can support Palestinians and condemn Hamas.
this guy has been saying this literally since the beginning
Incorrect, Sanders has been a Zionist for his career, it’s been his one split with the american left wing.
what you said, even if were to be true, does not contradict what I said so your comment does not make any sense
He was criticizing the response since the beginning?
Frankly I was initially supporting them, as I am against Hamas but Israel lost the objective, didn’t destroy Hamas and didn’t get hostages out. So what was all that for?
Gaining more land, that is what it was for.
And so Netanyahu can avoid criminal prosecution.
Must be new to the long history of apartheid, genocidal, capitalist project that is “Israel”…
You don’t know what you’re talking about
And doing so in a way that is going to accomplish almost nothing while antagonizing and alienating the people who would let him otherwise get positive legislature passed.