US Senate votes down effort to withhold weapons to Israel amid Gaza war
The United States Senate has rejected a bill that aimed to block a US weapons sale to Israel amid the country’s war on Gaza, an outcome that rights advocates say does not take away from a growing push to condition aid to Washington’s top ally.
A resolution to halt the sale of tank rounds failed to advance in a 79 to 18 vote on Wednesday, with prominent progressives and mainstream Democratic senators backing the effort.
Two more resolutions to halt the sale of other weapons also failed after winning fewer than 20 votes.
Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the so-called Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) in September to oppose a $20bn weapons deal approved by the administration of President Joe Biden.
It was the first time ever that a weapons sale to Israel was subjected to such a vote.
Mainstream support
In addition to Sanders, Senators Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, Tim Kaine and Brian Schatz backed the resolution to block offensive munitions to Israel.
While Sanders is a progressive independent who caucuses with Democrats, some of the lawmakers who backed the effort come from the mainstream wing of the party.
Kaine was the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee in the 2016 elections that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost to incoming Republican President Donald Trump.
In a statement announcing his vote earlier on Wednesday, Kaine called for work towards “de-escalation and a sustainable peace” in the region.
“Continued offensive weapons transfers will worsen the current crisis and add more fuel to the fire of regional instability,” the senator said.
“Therefore, while I voted for the $14 billion defense aid package for Israel in April and continue to support the transfer of defensive weapons, I will vote to oppose the transfers of mortars, tank rounds, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions [JDAMs] to Israel.”
Ongoing US backing of Israel has been vital for funding the war on Gaza and Lebanon.
A recent Brown University study found that the Biden administration spent $17.9bn on security assistance to Israel over the past year, despite warnings of United Nations experts that the US ally is committing genocide in Gaza.
That assistance has persisted despite growing Israeli atrocities, including widespread destruction in Lebanon, sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners and the suffocating siege in Gaza that has been starving the territory.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the White House’s lobbying efforts.
“We strongly condemn the White House’s dishonest campaign to pressure Senate Democrats into avoiding even a symbolic vote against the delivery of more American taxpayer-funded weapons to the out-of-control Netanyahu government,” the group said in a statement.
“The Biden administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been a disastrous failure.”
CAIR is one of dozens of advocacy and rights groups that backed the resolution.
In a speech on the Senate floor before the vote, Sanders cited that support ahead of the vote.
He said the resolutions are “simple, straightforward and not complicated”. He argued that the measures aim to apply US laws that prohibit military assistance to countries that block humanitarian aid and commit abuses.
“A lot of folks come to the floor to talk about human rights and what’s going on around the world, but what I want to say to all those folks: Nobody is going to take anything you say with a grain of seriousness,” Sanders said.
“You cannot condemn human rights [violations] around the world and then turn a blind eye to what the United States government is now funding in Israel. People will laugh in your face. They will say to you, ‘You’re concerned about China; you’re concerned about Russia; you’re concerned about Iran. Well, why are you funding the starvation of children in Gaza right now?”
