Ahead of Wednesday’s pivotal vote, Senator Bernie Sanders claims that US taxpayer monies are being used to finance Israel’s “atrocities” in beleaguered Gaza.
A day before their Senate campaign to stop US arms shipments to Israel, Senator Bernie Sanders and his three partners urged the Biden administration to stop selling weapons to Israel, accusing the US of being a major contributor to the “atrocities” of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The four senators held the press conference in advance of a vote on resolutions denouncing US arms sales on Wednesday. Given the number of lawmakers who back Israel, a longtime American ally, the resolutions may not pass.
Sanders, a leftist, and a number of other Democrats proposed the resolutions.
The representative from Vermont told reporters on Tuesday that “what is happening in Gaza today is unspeakable,” specifically referring to Israel’s widespread devastation of infrastructure and structures and the tens of thousands of civilian deaths that have occurred in the Palestinian enclave.
“What makes it even more painful is that much of what is happening there has been done with US weapons and with American taxpayer support,” he stated.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, around 44,000 individuals have died in the continuing Israeli genocide, the bulk of whom were civilians. The numbers are deemed credible by the United Nations.
For almost a year, President Joe Biden’s administration has consistently supported Israel while urging moderation.
“The United States of America is complicit in these atrocities,” Sanders stated. “That complicity must end and that is what these resolutions are about.”
Speaking at the press conference, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen asked if the United States had been made to “be blind to the suffering before our very eyes” by American foreign policy and its dedication to Israel.
The senators Sanders, Jeff Merkley, and Van Hollen will join Senator Peter Welch “to urge our colleagues to vote with us and block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel.”
Resolutions of Disapproval in Common
Since October of last year, Israel has employed and tested a large number of US-supplied weaponry in its homicidal war against the beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza. These include the less precise dumb bombs, cluster bombs, JDAMs, extremely flammable white phosphorus, and bunker busters, which burrow through reinforced structures before detonating.
Thousands of guided bombs, missiles, fighter jets, attack helicopters, and drones have also been supplied by the United States to Israel for use in the conflict, which has resulted in the deaths of about 44,000 Palestinians, the injuries of over 100,000, the destruction of houses and hospitals, and the displacement of the majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants.
Analysts contend that the precise death toll may be greater and that this is merely a modest estimate.
Sanders intends to introduce Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) on Wednesday that would prohibit the sale of some offensive US weapons to Israel in light of Tel Aviv’s aggression into Lebanon and the opposition to an arms embargo on Israel by US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.
The sole tool the US Congress has to stop an arms deal from moving forward is the JRD.
The Senate’s next Republican leader, Senator John Thune, promised that Republicans “will make clear that the United States Congress stands squarely in Israel’s corner.”
“To our allies in Israel and to the Jewish people around the world, my message to you is this: reinforcements are on the way,” he stated in a video that was shared on X.
Additionally, Thune criticized the International Criminal Court and Sanders for their investigation into Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.
“The ICC’s rogue actions are a threat to our ally, Israel, and left unchecked, it could pose a threat to America in the future,” said Thune.
