Senate Rejects Sanders’ Bid to Halt Arms to Israel Over Gaza Atrocities

The three relevant resolutions were defeated 18-79, 19-78, and 17-80. All of those voting in support were Democrats. (Republican Sens. Mike Braun and JD Vance, the vice-president-elect, did not vote.)

The vote is at odds with US public sentiment. As Sanders pointed out “poll after poll shows that a strong majority of the American people oppose sending more weapons and military aid to fund Netanyahu’s war machine.” Also, “According to a poll commissioned by J Street… 62% of Jewish Americans support withholding weapons shipments to Israel until Netanyahu agrees to an immediate cease-fire.” But the leadership of both US parties still embrace out of fear or commitment a 9/11 frame for guiding policy on the Israel-Gaza war.

In this frame, Israeli efforts to destroy Hamas – a militant Islamic organization guilty of war crimes – justify much greater IDF war crimes. Current estimates are that direct and indirect war deaths in Gaza may surpass 180,000. What seems obvious to much of the world – that Netanyahu is actually pursuing ethnic cleansing, which is a genocidal objective – hardly registers among US Democratic and GOP leadership. Common Dreams, Senate Rejects Sanders’ Bid