U.S. Arms Sales and Israel Policy

Senator Bernie Sanders this week said he will force a Senate vote to block a proposed sale of “nearly $500 million” in bombs and bulldozers to the Israeli military, moving to bring to the floor joint resolutions he introduced last month. Sanders publicly characterized the “extremist Netanyahu government” as having “committed genocide in Gaza” and argued that U.S. taxpayers should not fund further military support for what he called mass killing and displacement in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. The move comes amid protests in New York and elsewhere demanding congressional action: demonstrators gathered outside Senators Schumer and Gillibrand’s offices, and dozens were arrested, with social posts noting more than 90 arrested in some demonstrations and figures such as Chelsea Manning among those carried away.