Senator Bernie Sanders has vowed to force votes on two separate measures that would bar $8.8 billion in proposed weapons sales to Israel, demanding that Washington end its “complicity in the carnage” in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement issued Thursday, Sanders (I-Vermont) said he would compel votes on a pair of “Joint Resolutions of Disapproval” next week to block the arms deals, which would include more than 35,000 2,000-pound bombs.
“These sales… would provide $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government to continue its destruction of Gaza. Netanyahu has clearly violated US and international law in this brutal war,” Sanders said, adding that the war has been carried out “almost entirely with American weapons and some $18 billion in US taxpayer dollars.”
The administration has approved a flurry of arms sales to Israel in recent weeks, including 3,000 AGM-114 Hellfire Missiles for $660 million, and two massive deals for other munitions and guidance kits worth $6.75 billion and $2.04 billion, respectively.
The senator went on to cite the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, noting that no aid has entered the enclave for nearly one month thanks to a “complete blockade” by Israel’s military.
“That’s no food, water, medicine, or fuel since the start of March. Blocking humanitarian aid is morally abhorrent and a clear violation of both the Geneva Convention and the Foreign Assistance Act,” he said.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military operations in October 2023, including 17,000 children, according to local health officials. Another 113,000 have been wounded.
Sanders’ effort is likely to face major opposition in the upper chamber, which overwhelmingly voted down similar resolutions last November, even with Democrats in the majority. No Republicans supported the earlier move, while just 19 Democrats backed at least one of the measures.
According to the Associated Press, no foreign arms deal has ever been successfully blocked through a joint resolution. Though Congress can attempt to bar weapons sales through resolutions of disapproval under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), none have survived a presidential veto.
Will Porter is assistant news editor and book editor at the Libertarian Institute, and a regular contributor at Antiwar.com. Find more of his work at Consortium News and ZeroHedge.
Sanders only changed his position on Gaza due to protests outside his office, he still hasn't changed his position in the Ukraine War despite protests outside his office. Before the protests, he blamed October 7 on Hamas and defended Israel. Although he now criticizes Israel & says the US should end aid to it, he doesn't call what's going on in Gaza a genocide & he endorsed Biden.
Like AOC, he speaks up only when Republicans are in the White House, he never spoke out against Saudi Arabia's war & genocide in Yemen when Democrats were in the White House. He doesn't criticize Democrats for doing the same thing as Republicans such as being too close for comfort with Saudi Arabia & Israel & Corporate Bigwigs.
Should his actions be called politically bipolar…?!
Yes, he has Political Bipolar Disorder!
He could break the taboo and come right out with the fact that Israel has nuclear bombs, stolen from the US. And that atomic powers who don’t sign NPT aren’t legally eligible for American money
Also that Israel is invading countries for imperialist expansion and not defense.
Reiterating, Israeli TV documentary has proven it beyond whispers:
From: Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists:
The US hypocrisy about Israel’s nuclear weapons must stop
An extraordinary three-part series on Israeli television, The Atom and Me, lays out how the country got its nuclear weapons. It takes for granted what anyone who pays attention has known for years. But the series goes well beyond a general discussion about Israel’s nuclear weapons. It shows the country’s single-minded determination to get the bomb no matter what it took, including stealing nuclear explosives and bomb components from the United States and violating a major nuclear arms control treaty to which Israel is a party—and lying about it.
As the Trump administration is in serious discussion about joining Israel in attacks on Iran to stop it from getting nuclear weapons, it is useful to shed illusions about Israel’s modus operandi.
US officials stay mute. A thread running through the three episodes is a continuing conversation, before he died in 2018, with Benjamin Blumberg, the head of Lakam, the Israeli scientific intelligence agency responsible for the nuclear missions that led to the Israeli bomb, some so secret they were kept from the Mossad. (Mossad is the Israeli agency that handles foreign intelligence collection and covert action.) Blumberg was in failing health and agreed to talk so long as the interview was not aired until after his death.
That conversation is mixed with archival material and recent interviews. The significance of the series lies not in showing what was not previously known—although there are details in that category—but in the admissions on Israeli public television, with the approval of the Israeli censors, about events that have been denied by Israel’s supporters in the United States, including the US government.
Several events discussed in the television series deal directly with the United States: the theft in the 1960s of bomb quantities of uranium 235 from the NUMEC facility in Pennsylvania, where the leaders of the Israeli team that spirited Eichmann out of Argentina appeared inexplicably in 1968 with false identities; the illicit purchase of hundreds of high-speed switches (krytrons) for triggering nuclear weapons, and spiriting them out of the country in the 1980s by Israeli spy and arms dealer, and by then Hollywood producer, Arnon Milchan; and, most significantly at this point, Israel’s 1979 nuclear test in the seas off South Africa of what appears to be the initial fission stage for a thermonuclear weapon. The nuclear test violated the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty to which Israel is a party.
What stands out from the television series is the grip Israel has had over US policy regarding Israel’s nuclear weapons.
Not since John Kennedy has any US president tried to rein in Israel’s nuclear program. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, did not challenge the Israelis on nuclear issues (and covered up Israel’s attempt during the 1967 six-day war to sink the US spy ship Liberty). Such has been Israel’s political clout in the United States.
No one was ever charged in the disappearance of nuclear material from NUMEC.
https://thebulletin.org/2025/03/the-us-hypocrisy-about-israels-nuclear-weapons-must-stop/
Sanders supports Israel. He wouldn’t truly harm it.
Sanders never blamed Biden though , IMHO
Mar 29, 2025 Is an Anti-War Party Possible?
https://youtu.be/l3f12QCzfns?si=7KvChmfNynAEO0U1
No export of weapons of war to the Middle East!
https://prismeinitiative.org/blog/relevance-dual-use-export-controls-gulf-states-lauriane-heau/
https://dsm.forecastinternational.com/2024/12/02/us-israel-china-and-the-shifting-arms-trade-in-the-middle-east/
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2025/03/trump-get-golden-dome-options-next-week-defense-source/404115/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/28/voices-from-gaza-protests-demand-an-end-to-war-and-suffering
https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-were-protests-in-gaza-anti-hamas/a-72067223
genocide