WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday rejected attempts by Sen. Bernie Sanders to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza because of the rising number of civilian deaths there.
Vermont lawmakers and a compact group of Democrats tried to bring a bill to the Senate floor that would block the sale of some tank and mortar shells and shrewd bomb kits to Israel. The first attempt to block the sale was overwhelmingly rejected, and two subsequent attempts also failed.
Sanders called for a halt to sales and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “didn’t just wage war on Hamas.” It has waged an all-out war against the Palestinian people.”
To become binding, the measures, known as joint resolutions of disapproval, would have had to pass both chambers of Congress and withstand a presidential veto. Congress has never succeeded in using the joint resolutions to block all arms sales. But the vote served as a test of Democrats’ broader frustration with the war and President Joe Biden’s handling of relations with Israel.
The lawmakers’ move comes after Netanyahu passed a 30-day deadline earlier this month for the Biden administration to meet certain U.S. goals and improve the treatment of war-captured Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Among the U.S. demands was that Israel lift a near-total ban on delivering aid to starving civilians in the hard-hit northern Gaza Strip.
Leading global aid groups say Israel – which relies heavily on U.S. arms and military aid – has fallen far brief of U.S. demands to allow sufficient numbers of aid trucks and has otherwise worsened conditions for civilians.
This includes Israeli lawmakers re-banning the main UN agency that provides aid to the Palestinians.
U.N. officials said as the end of the U.S. deadline approached that the entire population of northern Gaza was now in imminent danger of death from starvation, airstrikes or other threats.
“We expect there will be some consequences if things get any worse,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said ahead of the vote on the measures. Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Peter Welch of Vermont also joined Sanders’ call.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor he would “strongly oppose” the measures.
“Israel must protect itself not only today, but also tomorrow and next year and beyond,” Schumer said. “It has been a cornerstone of American policy to give Israel the resources it needs to defend itself against its enemies. We should not deviate from this policy today.”
Sen. Ben Cardin, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, read what he described as a message from the White House urging lawmakers to reject the measures.
The move to block arms shipments to the US ally came at a fine time in Middle East ceasefire negotiations and would “put wind in the sails of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas at the most inopportune moment,” Cardin quoted the White House as a warning.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also spoke out in favor of rejecting the bills. “This signal will be seen by the enemies of Israel and the enemies of peace that if they just stick with it, they will win,” he said.
Centrist and progressive Democratic lawmakers and Sanders have made repeated attempts throughout the more than year-long war to persuade the White House and Congress to condition U.S. arms sales to Israel on better treatment of Palestinian civilians on the offensive.
The Biden administration has stepped up its warnings, calling on Netanyahu to do more to spare civilians in airstrikes and other attacks and to ensure more aid reaches Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war.
The death toll in Gaza since then reached nearly 44,000 as of Wednesday. Health authorities in Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and combatants when recording deaths.
Aside from pausing a planned shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, Biden – at 82, a staunch supporter of Israel since its contemporary founding – has rejected calls to limit military support for Israel.
Sanders, sitting in the Senate, said the continued flow of U.S. arms to Israel for war violates U.S. law and undermines U.S. standing in the world.
Other governments will tell Americans, “Don’t give us advice, don’t criticize us, if you’ve used your tax dollars to support mass child hunger,” he said.
Republicans are firmly behind Netanyahu and will control both chambers of Congress next year when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The roughly $18 billion in U.S. military support to Israel during the war was a politically controversial issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, and Republicans vowed to maintain their support for Israel undiminished.
Trump has pledged sturdy support for Israel and called on Netanyahu to quickly end the Gaza war. He has provided few details about his plans in this regard.
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