Trying to Block Arms to Israel, Bernie Sanders Denounces AIPAC's Massive Election Spending

The Intercept

03-04-2025

As Israel continued its monthlong blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza and pounded the enclave with American bombs, in Washington the Senate on Thursday voted down two resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to block the sale of tens of thousands of 2,000-pound bombs and other offensive weapons to Israel.
The resolutions marked the second time since November that Sanders forced a vote on arms sales. Once again, they exposed a deep divide among Democrats and blanket Republican support for Israel.
The Senate voted 15-82 on the first resolution, concerning 2,000-pound bombs, with all Republicans present voting against it, along with most Democrats. Sanders was joined by 14 Democrats.
The second resolution, focusing on other weapons, fared even worse. It was defeated 15-83.
The Trump administration officially opposed the resolutions, along with the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Sanders, in a passionate floor speech, denounced AIPAC for its massive spending on last year's elections. 'History will not forgive us for this.'
'If you are a Republican, and you vote against the Trump–Musk administration in one way or the other, you've got to look over your shoulder and worry that you are going to get a call from Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world,' Sanders said. 'If you are a Democrat, you have to worry about the billionaires who fund AIPAC.'
He cast his resolutions as a chance to stop exporting weapons that enable what he called 'barbarism' in Gaza.
'History will not forgive us for this,' Sanders said. 'The time is long overdue for us to tell the Netanyahu government that we will not provide more weapons of destruction for them.'
The votes came only four months after Sanders's prior, unsuccessful attempt to block arms sales to Israel, but against a vastly different geopolitical backdrop.
Since November, Israel has reached and abandoned a ceasefire with Hamas. Donald Trump has taken over the White House from Joe Biden, while touting his support for ethnically cleansing Gaza. And a Republican majority has assumed control in the Senate.
Sanders's resolutions had little chance of passing either time, but he has cast both as tests of the Senate's conscience.
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One of the resolutions up for a vote Thursday would have blocked the sale of more than 35,000 2,000-pound bombs, which have been widely criticized by humanitarian groups for the indiscriminate destruction they cause in densely populated urban areas such as the Gaza Strip.
The other resolution targeted the sale of thousands of smaller-diameter — but still powerful — bombs and thousands of bomb-guidance kits and fuses.
Sanders said the situation in Gaza now is even worse than it was during the Biden administration, which humanitarian groups criticized for its half-hearted attempts to pressure Israel.
'What is happening right now is unthinkable. Today it is 31 days and counting with absolutely no humanitarian aid getting into Gaza,' Sanders said. 'That is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, the Foreign Assistance Act, and basic human decency. It is a war crime. You don't starve children, and it is pushing things toward an even deeper catastrophe.'
Despite Sanders's attempt to tie his resolutions to opposition to Trump, many Democrats voted against them. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted no, as did Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who gave a floor speech to rally support against the resolution.
Passing the resolutions, Rosen said, would send a 'message to terrorists' of 'impunity.'
'If we are serious about stability in the region,' she said, 'and the safe and secure state of Israel someday living alongside a peaceful, independent Palestinian state, I urge all my colleagues to vote no on these resolutions.'
Critics of Israel's war had hoped that the earlier resolutions in November, while unlikely to succeed, might begin a longer process of building support for Palestinians in Congress. Sanders's resolutions on Thursday, however, drew four fewer votes than his best showing in November.
One notable defection was of Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who faced a backlash from some Jewish community leaders over his support of Sanders's first set of resolutions in November.
After defending his earlier votes, Ossoff voted against blocking arms sales on Thursday. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ossoff is considered the Democrats' most vulnerable incumbent in next year's election, and the party will also be defending three open seats that Republicans have a chance of taking, according to the Cook Political Report.
Seeming to anticipate electoral concerns from Democrats, Sanders during his speech bemoaned the role of money in politics and the influence of AIPAC, which spent on 389 congressional races last year. The pro-Israel lobby group had urged its members to oppose Sanders's 'dangerous' resolutions in a message before the vote.
Another group which describes itself as pro-Israel, J Street, supported one of the resolutions, according to a press release.
A group that has been critical of Israel, the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, expressed its disappointment after the vote.
'Democrats in Congress have their lowest approval rating in decades,' the group's executive director Margaret DeReus, said in a statement, 'and today's vote was yet another demonstration of why they have lost the trust of their own voters and the American people.'