On Wednesday, Sanders introduced six resolutions blocking six sales of different weapons contained within the $20 billion weapons deal announced by the Biden administration in August. The sales include many of the types of weapons that Israel has used in its relentless campaign of extermination in Gaza over the past year.
“Sending more weapons is not only immoral, it is also illegal. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act lay out clear requirements for the use of American weaponry – Israel has egregiously violated those rules,” said Sanders. “There is a mountain of documentary evidence demonstrating that these weapons are being used in violation of U.S. and international law.”
This will be the first time in history that Congress has ever voted on legislation to block a weapons sale to Israel, as the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project pointed out. This is despite the U.S. having sent Israel over $250 billion in military assistance in recent decades, according to analyst Stephen Semler, as Israel has carried out ethnic cleansings and massacres across Palestine and in Lebanon.
The resolutions are not likely to pass; even if they did pass the heavily pro-Israel Congress, they would likely be vetoed by President Joe Biden, who has been insistent on sending weapons to Israel with no strings attached.
However, Sanders’s move is in line with public opinion. Polls have consistently found that the majority of the public supports an end to Israel’s genocide; a poll by the Institute for Global Affairs released this week found, for instance, that a majority of Americans think the U.S. should stop supporting Israel or make support contingent on Israeli officials’ agreement to a ceasefire deal. This includes nearly 80 percent of Democrats.
For those who don’t know (there are probably a few) Bernie is Jewish, and his opinions better reflect the rest of us Jews than the crazies on the right (and left) and in Israel. I don’t have stats, but every American Jew I’ve talked to about this has been morally outraged and frankly mortified by Israel’s actions. We understand how it looks to the rest of the world. Don’t let the antisemitism arguments (usually pushed by Christians btw) fool you. Bernie is on the right side of this issue, as usual.
So is Jon Stewart.
Fellow American Jew here. Very much agreed. Israel doesn’t represent us, even if it tries to say it does.
Texan Jew here. I’m surrounded by a sea of monsters.
I’ve made documentaries, art projects, and memorials for family members who were in the Holocaust. A few survived (literally, like, 3 of them), but multitudes more were killed. My family and community has praised me for my passionate interest and attempts to teach younger generations the dangers of complacency and compartmentalizing. One of my relatives even helped pass a law adding Holocaust Remembrance Week as part of the curriculum for every grade level in Texas.
We’ve seen this kind of destruction before, we’ve lived this oppression and violence before. We have discussed how our family might have changed had over 90% of them not been killed.
HOW THE FUCK IS MY FAMILY AND COMMUNITY OKAY WITH ANOTHER GENOCIDE???
The self-delusion, what-abouts, stereotypes, and straight-up racist insults.
“They’d kill us if given the opportunity”
YOU’RE ALREADY KILLING THEM
“These are really bad, violent people”
THEY ARE CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS AND THEY ARE DYING
“It’s not comparable to the Holocaust. Germany killed 6 million…”
THAT’S YOUR FUCKING CUTOFF???
WE GOTTA WAIT FOR 6 MILLION PEOPLE TO DIE BEFORE WE CAN EMPATHIZE WITH VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE??? Where was this sense of calm and nonchalance when Nazis were posting propaganda around town? How many of your kids need to be dismembered and vaporized before you say “this is more than upsetting, this is WRONG”??!
I swear, I’m probably less than a month away from hearing someone I once respected say “the Palestinian cries out in pain as they hit you.”
It wasn’t OK when the Egyptians and Germans did it to the Jews, and it’s not OK when the Jews are doing it to others too.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
There are fewer than 6 million people in all of Palestine. If that’s their cutoff, they can eradicate everyone and “it still wouldn’t be as bad.” That’s probably their thought process.
Omfg I feel you so hard on this with a few people, but am fortunate to not be in Texas.
“Never again,” my ass. Those types of people mean only “never again for me and mine.” Genocide is genocide is genocide, regardless of whether we’re the victim or not.
Israel learned the wrong lesson from the Holocaust. They decided that the next time somebody gets stepped on, they’re going to be the boot, not the bug.
There are always amoral opportunists. Unfortunately, they are pulling the strings in Israel right now.
If good people don’t vote in the US in November, we will be no better.
Well there’s your problem
Beau of the fifth column (now it’s Belle on cam) is from the south and quite the interesting critter.
Another American Jew chiming in. Israel has never represented me. I’m from Indiana. I have far more in common with a Palestinian-American from Tuscon, Arizona than I do any Jew in Haifa.
no, you MUST identify with the vision of a Jewish ethnostate, it is after all supposed to be your ethnostate… you know, the one whose existence is, for a lot of people, literally justified by the 14 words (but replace white with Jewish)? /s.
Ever thus to ethno nationalism.
It’s the Christian zionists here in the US that support this genocide because they think it will help expedite the end of the world
For reference, see New Apostolic Reformation and Seven Mountains
Shit is beyond crazy and terrifying.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Apostolic_Reformation
https://narconnections.com/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate
Fucking crazy shit, these people are insane and are actively trying to destroy the planet.
The more you know the worse it gets.
All the yelling about sharia was just another distraction to bring about “Christian” rule.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/marjorie-taylor-greene-christian-nationalism
The members of these groups are everywhere.
Some have become very vocal.
The work is done in silence.
If you want to get yourself fired from your shit job, remind your co-worker that their religious apocalyptic fantasies should at least lead them to doing the deed out in the parking lot, not in here where we live
****Don’t say that.
This makes sense, because this isn’t an Israeli or Jewish endeavor. It’s Benjamin Netanyahu desperately provoking a war to maintain his grip on power, because as soon as he’s out of power he will have to be held accountable for his many crimes. Bibi would rather die in office than face that. It’s truly regrettable that his actions have soured the entire world’s opinion on Israel, but here we are.
Oh it began way before that…
Netanyahu is to blame for making the situation worse, and for actively working against a ceasefire, but I think it’s important to point out that the majority of Israelis appear to support his actions in Gaza. It’s definitely an Israeli issue and a Netanyahu issue.
Zionism has been a thing before bibi