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Bernie Sanders on Wednesday led a failed effort to block the sale of bombs and bulldozers to Israel, but the votes revealed a growing appetite among Democrats to impose limits on US weapons transfers to a longtime US ally.
It was the fourth time Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, had forced consideration of resolutions cutting off military aid for Israel in the Senate, all of which have been rejected by the chamber’s Republican majority, and many Democrats.
But on Wednesday, 40 Senators backed a resolution brought by Sanders that would have prevented the sale of $295m in bulldozers and 36 members voted for a second resolution that would have halted a $151.8m sale of 12,000 1,000lb bombs to Israel’s military.
“That shift reflects where the American people are,” Sanders said in a statement late on Wednesday. “Americans, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or independents, want to see our tax money invested in improving lives here at home – not used to kill innocent women and children in the Middle East and put American troops in harm’s way as part of Netanyahu’s illegal wars of expansion.
“What’s astonishing is that, despite overwhelming opposition across this country, Republicans continue to side with Netanyahu and Trump,” Sanders added.
Last April, during the current Congress, only 15 of the caucus’s 47 members supported similar measures, but in July, 27 members backed another batch of resolutions. The rising tally reflected shifting sentiment towards Israel among the chamber’s Democrats, who are grappling with souring attitudes among their voters on Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct in the invasions of Gaza and southern Lebanon, and his collaboration with Donald Trump in the conflict with Iran.
“Being a stalwart friend of Israel, however, does not mean agreeing with all decisions of the Israeli Government or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just like being a patriot of the United States does not require unquestioning agreement with the policy decisions of President Donald Trump and his administration,” California senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla said in a joint statement, after voting in favor of the resolutions. Both had previously voted against the measure.
Speaking before the vote, Sanders described the effort as an opportunity for Congress to “stand up to” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which has spent tens of millions influencing races in the lead-up to the 2024 US elections, and continues to spend heavily before the November midterms.
“Let us be clear: given the horrific and illegal behavior of the Netanyahu government over the last three years, the American people have had enough. Support for Israel in this country has plummeted,” he said, citing a Pew Research Center survey released this month finding that 80% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans view the country negatively.
“Maybe, just maybe, the Senate should start listening to their constituents and not just to the wealthy individuals who fund Aipac,” he continued. “And that is what today’s vote is all about.”
In the House of Representatives, sentiment has built among some progressive lawmakers for cutting off all military aid to Israel, even for defensive weapons such as the Iron Dome missile shield.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier this month said she would “not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and US law”. Fellow progressive Ro Khanna endorsed that approach in an interview with Zeteo, saying: “I do believe Iron Dome is important in terms of saving lives. Israel can buy it with their own money.”
Groups opposed to Israel’s policies have stepped up the pressure on Democrats to back the resolutions. On Monday, dozens of people were arrested at a protest held outside the New York City offices of senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat. Protesters urged them to vote in favor of Sanders’s resolutions.
On Wednesday, both senators opposed the measures, in line with their previous votes.
Last week, a coalition of progressive groups including Indivisible, MoveOn, J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace sent senators a letter urging them to support halting weapons sales, casting it as “an opportunity send a clear message that senators oppose any continuation of the war with Iran.”
They described the sale of the 1,000lb bombs as raising “urgent legal and moral concerns”, saying the munitions had been used “in densely populated areas in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, with significant documented civilian casualties”. The bulldozers, the groups write, “have been widely used in operations involving large-scale demolition of homes, civilian infrastructure, and entire neighborhoods in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, contributing to forced displacement and de facto annexation”.
Separately, Senate Democrats forced a vote on a war powers resolution that would prevent Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran on Wednesday, but it was voted down by Republicans. The party has used such votes as a pressure tactic against the administration to conclude a war that polls show is unpopular with the public.
In a statement after voting against Sanders’ effort, Democratic senator Chris Coons of Delaware said that while he supported the war powers resolution “to end president Trump’s war of choice with Iran”, he could not “abandon our steadfast ally, Israel, and the Americans who live within its borders”.
“My votes should be taken neither as an endorsement of the actions of the Netanyahu government nor as an abandonment of the state of Israel, the Jewish people, or the US-Israel relationship,” he said.
