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US Senate Smacks Down Bernie Sanders-Backed Effort to Block Arms Sales to Israel
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to the media following a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, US, July 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The US Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted against an effort to implement a partial arms embargo on Israel, rebuffing three separate resolutions spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to deprive the Jewish state of weapons amid its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Though lawmakers largely voted to preserve weapons sales to Israel, a total of 19 senators — 17 Democrats and two independents — supported at least one of the three measures to block weapons transfers to the Jewish state, indicating a growing partisan divide on the issue. Every Republican senator voted against the attempted arms embargo.
The Senate rejected S.J.Res.111, a measure to ban the sale of tank cartridges to Israel, by a margin of 79 to 18. The measure received support from Sanders as well as Sen. Angus King (ME), a fellow independent, and Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (MA), Dick Durbin (IL), Tim Kaine (VA), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Jeff Merkley (OR), Peter Welch (VT), Jon Ossoff (GA) Raphael Warnock (GA), Chris Murphy (CT), Tina Smith (MN), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Ben Ray Lujan (NM), Martin Heinrich (NM), Mazie Hirono (HI), Brian Schatz (HI), and Ed Markey (MA).
Other anti-Israel resolutions sponsored by Sanders, S.J. Res. 113 and S.J. Res. 115, which targeted sales of mortar rounds and precision-guided bombs, were rejected on the Senate floor by similar margins.
A quartet of lawmakers — Sanders, Merkley, Van Hollen, and Welch — announced their effort on Tuesday to limit the Jewish state’s access to much-needed arms, accusing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of recklessly endangering civilian lives in Gaza.
During his speech on the Senate floor, Sanders lambasted Israel for allegedly violating the “internationally-recognized human rights” of Palestinians and blocking “US humanitarian aid” from being distributed in Gaza. Thus, Sanders argued that it is “illegal for the United States government to provide Israel with more offensive weapons.”
Sanders also repudiated Israeli officials, stating that their “extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas; it has waged an all out war against the Palestinian people.”
Ossoff, who is Jewish, accused the IDF of behaving with “reckless disregard” for the lives of Palestinian civilians. He slammed the Jewish state for supposedly failing to “provide safe passage for food and essential medical supplies” in Gaza and criticized Israel for engaging in “conduct” that allegedly undermined American interests. Lamenting the resolution’s failure, Ossoff stated that Israeli officials needed a “message” that the Jewish state must “have mercy for the innocent.”
Van Hollen urged the Biden administration to walk back the “blank check” afforded to Israel in the form of access to American weapons. The senator accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of refusing “compliance with American laws” by restricting “humanitarian assistance” in Gaza and refusing to follow “international humanitarian law” while using US weapons.
Van Hollen recently accused the Jewish state of “ethnic cleansing” during an appearance on the Zeteo” digital network.
The Biden administration urged senators to vote against the resolution, dashing hopes among progressives that the White House would capitulate to efforts to undermine Israel’s war against Hamas during the president’s final months in office. The White House stated that the weapons are both critical to Israel’s defense and are not slated for delivery for the next few years, “so the likelihood of them being used in this iteration of the Gaza context is very low.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who is Jewish, slammed members of his own party for voting to disarm Israel. “We’ve been at the forefront of every movement in this country when other minority groups needed help; we were the ones who stood up. And when we needed them, they abandoned us, period,” Moskowitz wrote in reaction to the votes.
Similarly, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) ripped into his colleagues for supporting the anti-Israel measures.
“This one I really don’t understand. It’s counterproductive to the safety of the communities. I don’t understand why we would want to prevent Israel from having the technology to have precision use of its munitions,” Cardin wrote.
Meanwhile, J Street, a progressive Zionist group that has been critical of Israel, lauded the Democratic senators who supported the “symbolic but deeply meaningful vote” which would have ended the “black check support” for the Jewish state’s war against terrorists.
“What the large number of supporting votes does indicate is growing concern over the direction that the far-right government of Israel is leading the country. It is a manifestation of deep discomfort over the extent of the human tragedy the Israeli government is inflicting on Gaza and the lack of any commitment by the Netanyahu government to a feasible post-conflict plan for governance and security that leads toward a resolution of the underlying political conflict,” J Street President Jeremy Ben Ami wrote.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties in Hamas-ruled Gaza, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.
Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations, direct attacks, and store weapons.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said last month that Israel has delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation a year ago. He also noted that Hamas terrorists often hijack and steal aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.
The Israeli government has ramped up the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza in recent weeks under pressure from the United States, which has expressed concern about the plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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