Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has pledged that he will do everything in his power to block an $8 billion sale of weapons to Israel announced by the Biden administration last week, as Israeli forces are entering the 16th month of their genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, the Biden administration notified Congress of the weapons package, which reportedly contains thousands of weapons, including 500-pound bombs, air-to-air missiles, Hellfire missiles and 155 mm artillery shells, and more.
The proposal of the sale will be one of the last actions taken by President Joe Biden in office, with less than three weeks until Donald Trump’s inauguration. The announcement comes at a time when there is a growing consensus among human rights groups that Israel is, indeed, committing genocide in Gaza and that those fueling it are complicit in these crimes.
Sanders condemned the proposed sale in a post on social media on Monday.
“The U.S. must not send more bombs to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s extremist government, which has already killed 45,000 people; destroyed Gaza’s housing, healthcare, and educational systems; and caused starvation by blocking humanitarian aid,” Sanders said.
“I will do all that I can to block these arms sales,” the senator went on.
The announcement comes less than two months after Congress failed to block an enormous $20 billion sale of weapons to Israel brought forth by the administration. Then, Sanders brought forth six resolutions aiming to block different portions of the sale, arguing that they broke domestic law regarding human rights violations; ultimately, he only forced a vote on three of the resolutions, regarding the sales of tank and mortar rounds and JDAMs.
Despite the resolutions representing only $1 billion worth of the $20 billion sale, the Senate overwhelmingly voted against all three, with only about 18 senators voting to advance the resolutions.
Sanders may take a similar avenue in opposing the new proposal. A joint resolution of disapproval is one of the only mechanisms Congress can take to block weapons transfers to foreign governments; Congress could also pass other legislation to bar a sale from moving forward, but a joint resolution of disapproval is privileged, meaning that a member of Congress can sidestep leadership to bring it to a vote.
Congress has never successfully blocked a weapons sale with a joint resolution of disapproval. In decades past, some resolutions of disapproval have passed Congress, only for them to be vetoed by the president.
Sanders has also previously lobbied Biden and Congress to stop sending weapons to Israel, citing Israel’s numerous alleged human rights violations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The administration is well aware of the human rights catastrophe; just last month, Biden officials reportedly pressured a top international food security monitor into retracting a report warning of imminent famine in north Gaza, despite other sources having confirmed the famine conditions created by Israel’s assault there.
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