Senate rejects trio of measures to block arms sales to Israel
WASHINGTON (AA) – The Senate overwhelmingly rejected Wednesday evening a trio of resolutions that would have halted three offensive arms sales to Israel in response to ongoing “atrocities” being carried out in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The measures, known formally as joint resolutions of disapproval, were introduced by Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. They would have blocked a $774.1 million sale of 120mm tank rounds, $61.1 million in 120mm high-explosive mortar rounds, and $262 million in JDAM guidance kits.
All of the sales were notified to Congress during the summer recess in August.
“What this extremist government has done in Gaza is unspeakable, but what makes it even more painful is that much of this has been done with US weapons and American taxpayer dollars. In the last year alone, the US has provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of military equipment,” Sanders said on the Senate floor ahead of the votes.
“The United States of America is complicit in all of these atrocities. We are funding these atrocities. That complicity must end, and that is what these resolutions are about,” he added.
Sanders said Israel has been using JDAMs to target UN-run schools “packed with displaced people” and refugee centers, attacks that have killed “large numbers of innocent people.”
“A smart bomb does not save civilian lives when it is directly targeting civilians,” he said.
Scott Paul, the director of the peace and security program at Oxfam America, said that while the Senate’s failure represents “another bitter disappointment,” the votes nonetheless show that “more Democratic senators, and more people across the US, are unwilling to be complicit in the atrocities that Israel is committing in Gaza.”
“It’s excruciating that this change is happening too slowly to save lives today, but it points to a future in which the US is committed, in policy rather than only in rhetoric, to a dignified future for all Palestinians and Israelis,” he said on X.
Israel has killed nearly 44,000 people, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, in Gaza since October last year.
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