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.
I was curious as well, so I looked it up. Apparently he grudgingly supported the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, despite firmly opposing a similar action taken in 1995 with Croatia. He called the bombing borderline unconstitutional, but added that such an operation seemed necessary to prevent an ethnic cleansing.
Not sure I would agree with the previous commenter since Yugoslavia doesn’t exist any more, so I doubt that a no longer in existence country has strong feelings about anything. I also believe the people would likely not want to reform a country that was created for them, especially since their actions in 1999 led to the country dissolving into two or three countries.
Well, he was also a part of blocking the military aid to Ukraine for all those months. But this one is good
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
So what was all that for?
Zionists will only stop when they eradicate all Palestinians, because they believe they have a god-given right to be there. For them this is business as usual.
Incorrect, Sanders has been a Zionist for his career, it’s been his one split with the american left wing.
For those who don’t know (there are probably a few) Bernie is Jewish, and his opinions better reflect the rest of us Jews than the crazies on the right (and left) and in Israel. I don’t have stats, but every American Jew I’ve talked to about this has been morally outraged and frankly mortified by Israel’s actions. We understand how it looks to the rest of the world. Don’t let the antisemitism arguments (usually pushed by Christians btw) fool you. Bernie is on the right side of this issue, as usual.
Fellow American Jew here. Very much agreed. Israel doesn’t represent us, even if it tries to say it does.
Texan Jew here. I’m surrounded by a sea of monsters.
I’ve made documentaries, art projects, and memorials for family members who were in the Holocaust. A few survived (literally, like, 3 of them), but multitudes more were killed. My family and community has praised me for my passionate interest and attempts to teach younger generations the dangers of complacency and compartmentalizing. One of my relatives even helped pass a law adding Holocaust Remembrance Week as part of the curriculum for every grade level in Texas.
We’ve seen this kind of destruction before, we’ve lived this oppression and violence before. We have discussed how our family might have changed had over 90% of them not been killed.
HOW THE FUCK IS MY FAMILY AND COMMUNITY OKAY WITH ANOTHER GENOCIDE???
The self-delusion, what-abouts, stereotypes, and straight-up racist insults.
“They’d kill us if given the opportunity”
YOU’RE ALREADY KILLING THEM
“These are really bad, violent people”
THEY ARE CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS AND THEY ARE DYING
“It’s not comparable to the Holocaust. Germany killed 6 million…”
THAT’S YOUR FUCKING CUTOFF???
WE GOTTA WAIT FOR 6 MILLION PEOPLE TO DIE BEFORE WE CAN EMPATHIZE WITH VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE??? Where was this sense of calm and nonchalance when Nazis were posting propaganda around town? How many of your kids need to be dismembered and vaporized before you say “this is more than upsetting, this is WRONG”??!
I swear, I’m probably less than a month away from hearing someone I once respected say “the Palestinian cries out in pain as they hit you.”
Omfg I feel you so hard on this with a few people, but am fortunate to not be in Texas.
“Never again,” my ass. Those types of people mean only “never again for me and mine.” Genocide is genocide is genocide, regardless of whether we’re the victim or not.
Another American Jew chiming in. Israel has never represented me. I’m from Indiana. I have far more in common with a Palestinian-American from Tuscon, Arizona than I do any Jew in Haifa.
i sorta inferred this about american jews because doesn’t israel give economic incentives to jewish people moving to israel? so the fact that you don’t live in israel says something
And within israel as well.
It’s the Christian zionists here in the US that support this genocide because they think it will help expedite the end of the world
For reference, see New Apostolic Reformation and Seven Mountains
Shit is beyond crazy and terrifying.
The (Seven Mountain Mandate) movement was generally supportive of the presidency of Donald Trump, with member Paula White becoming Trump’s spiritual advisor. White claimed that Trump “will play a critical role in Armageddon as the United States stands alongside Israel in the battle against Islam.”
Fucking crazy shit, these people are insane and are actively trying to destroy the planet.
This makes sense, because this isn’t an Israeli or Jewish endeavor. It’s Benjamin Netanyahu desperately provoking a war to maintain his grip on power, because as soon as he’s out of power he will have to be held accountable for his many crimes. Bibi would rather die in office than face that. It’s truly regrettable that his actions have soured the entire world’s opinion on Israel, but here we are.
Netanyahu is to blame for making the situation worse, and for actively working against a ceasefire, but I think it’s important to point out that the majority of Israelis appear to support his actions in Gaza. It’s definitely an Israeli issue and a Netanyahu issue.
The state of Israel in its inception was colonisation, apartheid, massacre, white supremacy, and genocide. Netanyahu is certainly a monster. But look at the rest of his cabinet. Listen to an interview with Israeli citizens even before October 7th in the way they speak about Palestinians and Arabs.
Israel is thoroughly and consistently sick from beginning to end, top to bottom. It’s a depraved machine of terror that runs on the blood of innocent people.
It seems to me they’re a country built on 19th century white colonialist values (Jewish white colonialism is no better than the once much more common Christian kind) and which has never evolved from those values but rather kept going until reaching the natural conclusion: Genocide.
(It’s not by chance that Israelis keep claiming that they have “Western Values” - it’s really just a politically correct way of saying “white values”)
Israel is similar to South-Africa, except that they were never forced to stop and just kept doubling down on the racism and violent oppression of the ethnicity they victimize.
I blame mainly the US and Germany for the continued support of Israel’s white colonialism and it’s natural outcome of Genocide.
his actions have soured the entire world’s opinion on Israel
Oh it began way before that…
I realize this is very sensitive issue and things have likely changed since april, but the last time I saw this polled Jewish Americans support Israel’s response to Oct.7 about 62%, 33% oppose
Granted, since april and just off the top of my head, Israel has bombed a number of Gaza refugee camps, killed the Hamas negotiator, conducted two terror attacks against Lebanon, and now is talking about sending ground troops in across the border,… so… yea maybe things have changed
But im glad to have Sanders pushing for this though, I think it carries more weight coming from him.
Ugh that’s shameful, and super disappointing. But thanks, I hadn’t seen a poll on American Jews as recent as April so I’d bet those numbers haven’t changed much. Seems the Jews I’m around have a very different relationship with Israel than the majority.
I’ll hazard a guess that your circle is one mainly of highly educated city folk.
Quite independently of Religion, Education and one’s level of exposure to all sorts of people and complex social environments (which normally comes with big city life) seem to be the biggest deciding factors about people having or not “traditional values” (read: conservative) and the excessive and blind tribalism that makes them more likely to find excuses to support Genocide along ethnic lines “when our side does it”.
The irony is that Israel’s actions ultimately make Jews worldwide less safe.
Bernie is Jewish,
So is Jon Stewart.
We coulda had the OG and instead they chose HRC. SMH
Fun fact: Sanders consistently out-performed Hillary in head-to-head matchups against Trump.
The same establishment that derailed Sanders and propped Hillary up were the same ones trying to force Biden down our throats while castigating any dissent.*
*I know the progressives supported Biden until the end, but this was purely a strategic reason where if anything, their calls for Biden to step aside might’ve had the opposite effect.
Yes. 2016 was rock paper scissors for elections
How much did Bernie outperform Trump? Do you have links to hand?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding your analogy but how was Hillary better than Bernie?
Whew, more salt than the dead sea.
So long as you learned from your mistake, little buddy :)
Say here’s another fun fact! More Sanders supporters would go on to support Hillary than did Hillary supporters go on to support Obama in 2008 when she lost the primaries.
Guess they didn’t get over it :(
I don’t often downvote comments, as I think that often that’s just a censorious way to say “I disagree”. But this comment so obviously adds nothing of value to the conversation, and indeed poisons it with petty grievance. So I feel totally justified in downvoting this comment.
I won a porterhouse from a steakhouse over Hilary losing.
I’d rather I hadn’t won. The bet was made in primary season, and that Hilary would get the nomination and lose the election. (There was a second part that said if Bernie won the nomination he’d be POTUS)
I’m in tinfoil hat territory, but it’s logical that Hillary was promised the Sec State position and superdelegate support for conceding to Obama and not making it a convention fight. It explains why the r’s only attacked her for 8 years outside Obama, they knew they didn’t have to attack any other potential candidate.
I don’t think that’s tinfoil hat at all. I mean it seems like a very logical explanation and the same thoughts I had when I was watching it happen.
I still remember when Hillary went to Obama before conceding and most were speculating it was going to be about a cabinet position and her running after Obama did.
Call your senators. Let them know you support restricting arms to israel
Doesn’t matter. The lovely Christians where I live would throw a fit because most of them want Israel to do even more damage.
Bernie is always on top of these things, and you have to respect him for that.
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.
Even though 80% of Democrats are for this kind of bill watch, the majority of Congress vote against it, including the Democrats.
Goes to show Republicans (more so of course) and Democrats represent their donors more than the ppl who vote for them
