(Headline USA) Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was preparing several resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel.
In a letter to Senate colleagues on Wednesday, Sanders said the U.S. could not be “complicit in this humanitarian disaster.”
Sanders’s resolutions would halt sales of missile systems, tank rounds and other weaponry, as well as new fighter jets to Israel, though its passage was highly unlikely.
“Much of this carnage in Gaza has been carried out with U.S.-provided military equipment,” Sanders wrote.
The letter followed an attack earlier this week on Iran-backed Hezbollah, presumed to have originated with the Israeli intelligence, in which hundreds of militants were injured and roughly a dozen killed after the pager devices they were carrying simultaneously exploded.
As Israel’s military campaign in Gaza grinds toward a second year, the outcome of lame-duck President Joe Biden’s efforts to broker a cease-fire deal and hostage release remain uncertain.
The resolutions from Sanders would seek to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strike on Gaza, which commenced shortly after Hamas’s surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year that left 1,200 people dead, and took 250 others hostage. The Palestinian terrorist organization still holds around 100 hostages.
The move by Sanders was designed to send a message to the Netanyahu government that America’s longtime bipartisan support for Israel was eroding. Sanders said he was working with other colleagues on the measures.
House Speaker Mike Johnson invited Netanyahu to deliver a speech before the U.S. Congress earlier this year, but about 50 Democrats boycotted it, along with the socialist independent Sanders.
Under the Senate rules, once Sanders introduces the resolutions next week, he can force a vote almost instantly for consideration. The measures were being proposed as a joint resolution of disapproval of the arms sales, which is a mechanism that allows congressional oversight of foreign affairs.
Sanders said he would have some backing for his proposal. But it was not expected to have support from a majority, 51 votes, in the Senate to pass.
In the House, blocking the Israeli arms sales would face even tougher odds, where Republicans hold the majority, and have largely sided with Netanyahu.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
