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.
Bernie on the right side of history as usual.
Also just a little slow to come around to reality like always.
Edit… Down vote all you want I’m still a big Bernie fan but the whole US government has been on the wrong side of this war from the beginning. We treat Palestinian lives just like black and brown lives at home like they didn’t matter.
Lastly Hamas is not Palestinian I can support Palestinians and condemn Hamas.
He was criticizing the response since the beginning?
Frankly I was initially supporting them, as I am against Hamas but Israel lost the objective, didn’t destroy Hamas and didn’t get hostages out. So what was all that for?
Gaining more land, that is what it was for.
And so Netanyahu can avoid criminal prosecution.
Frankly I was initially supporting them,
Must be new to the long history of apartheid, genocidal, capitalist project that is “Israel”…
this guy has been saying this literally since the beginning
Incorrect, Sanders has been a Zionist for his career, it’s been his one split with the american left wing.
what you said, even if were to be true, does not contradict what I said so your comment does not make any sense
You don’t know what you’re talking about
And doing so in a way that is going to accomplish almost nothing while antagonizing and alienating the people who would let him otherwise get positive legislature passed.
He’s a fucking legend.
Yugoslavia certainly doesn’t think so.
Interesting, care to explain?
I was curious as well, so I looked it up. Apparently he grudgingly supported the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, despite firmly opposing a similar action taken in 1995 with Croatia. He called the bombing borderline unconstitutional, but added that such an operation seemed necessary to prevent an ethnic cleansing.
Not sure I would agree with the previous commenter since Yugoslavia doesn’t exist any more, so I doubt that a no longer in existence country has strong feelings about anything. I also believe the people would likely not want to reform a country that was created for them, especially since their actions in 1999 led to the country dissolving into two or three countries.
the intervention in the Yugoslavian war in 1999 was the only moral answer. it’s like the trolley problem if the 5 people are replaced with several entire ethnic groups
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.
Fellow American Jew here. Very much agreed. Israel doesn’t represent us, even if it tries to say it does.
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.
i sorta inferred this about american jews because doesn’t israel give economic incentives to jewish people moving to israel? so the fact that you don’t live in israel says something
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.
The (Seven Mountain Mandate) movement was generally supportive of the presidency of Donald Trump, with member Paula White becoming Trump’s spiritual advisor. White claimed that Trump “will play a critical role in Armageddon as the United States stands alongside Israel in the battle against Islam.”
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.
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.
The state of Israel in its inception was colonisation, apartheid, massacre, white supremacy, and genocide. Netanyahu is certainly a monster. But look at the rest of his cabinet. Listen to an interview with Israeli citizens even before October 7th in the way they speak about Palestinians and Arabs.
Israel is thoroughly and consistently sick from beginning to end, top to bottom. It’s a depraved machine of terror that runs on the blood of innocent people.
It seems to me they’re a country built on 19th century white colonialist values (Jewish white colonialism is no better than the once much more common Christian kind) and which has never evolved from those values but rather kept going until reaching the natural conclusion: Genocide.
(It’s not by chance that Israelis keep claiming that they have “Western Values” - it’s really just a politically correct way of saying “white values”)
Israel is similar to South-Africa, except that they were never forced to stop and just kept doubling down on the racism and violent oppression of the ethnicity they victimize.
I blame mainly the US and Germany for the continued support of Israel’s white colonialism and it’s natural outcome of Genocide.
Zionism has been a thing before bibi
I realize this is very sensitive issue and things have likely changed since april, but the last time I saw this polled Jewish Americans support Israel’s response to Oct.7 about 62%, 33% oppose
Granted, since april and just off the top of my head, Israel has bombed a number of Gaza refugee camps, killed the Hamas negotiator, conducted two terror attacks against Lebanon, and now is talking about sending ground troops in across the border,… so… yea maybe things have changed
But im glad to have Sanders pushing for this though, I think it carries more weight coming from him.
Ugh that’s shameful, and super disappointing. But thanks, I hadn’t seen a poll on American Jews as recent as April so I’d bet those numbers haven’t changed much. Seems the Jews I’m around have a very different relationship with Israel than the majority.
I kinda hope it has changed since then, but probably not as much as I’d like.
I’ll hazard a guess that your circle is one mainly of highly educated city folk.
Quite independently of Religion, Education and one’s level of exposure to all sorts of people and complex social environments (which normally comes with big city life) seem to be the biggest deciding factors about people having or not “traditional values” (read: conservative) and the excessive and blind tribalism that makes them more likely to find excuses to support Genocide along ethnic lines “when our side does it”.
The irony is that Israel’s actions ultimately make Jews worldwide less safe.
We coulda had the OG and instead they chose HRC. SMH
Fun fact: Sanders consistently out-performed Hillary in head-to-head matchups against Trump.
The same establishment that derailed Sanders and propped Hillary up were the same ones trying to force Biden down our throats while castigating any dissent.*
*I know the progressives supported Biden until the end, but this was purely a strategic reason where if anything, their calls for Biden to step aside might’ve had the opposite effect.
Yes. 2016 was rock paper scissors for elections
How much did Bernie outperform Trump? Do you have links to hand?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding your analogy but how was Hillary better than Bernie?
She was in lockstep with the democratic party, whereas Bernie would have been a gremlin in the machine.
She was better in the eyes of the party (because she won the primary).
That’s not why she was better in the eyes of the party, lol
Thanks.
Excuse me, we had to go with the obvious choice that would win /s
I won a porterhouse from a steakhouse over Hilary losing.
I’d rather I hadn’t won. The bet was made in primary season, and that Hilary would get the nomination and lose the election. (There was a second part that said if Bernie won the nomination he’d be POTUS)
I’d eat a hundred well-done steaks from Denny’s topped with ketchup if it meant we didn’t have to deal with Trump again.
Call your senators. Let them know you support restricting arms to israel
This is my senator!
Call him and tell him he’s awesome!
Both of mine will tell me to go pound sand.
Hello, can you be Bernie sanders please?
Schumer: lol, lmao even.
:(
Sad we are cursed with such an absolute piece of shit senator as schumer.
Doesn’t matter. The lovely Christians where I live would throw a fit because most of them want Israel to do even more damage.
literal death cult, they think killing enough Arabs and Israelis will bring the Apocalypse
We love you Bernie!
Speak for yourself. I don’t love nor idolize any politician.
Speaking for myself, I too love Bernie.
And speaking for myself, I too love Mr. Sanders.
The colonel?
yeah I don’t understand why anyone would just comment “Mac loves and idolizes Bernie” unprompted. what a dingus
Big brained independent thinker over here independently thunking away. What kinda ideas will they come up with? None, but he will make it clear he doesn’t like yours. Cause if he did then he wouldn’t be independent anymore!
I just think idolizing politicians (and people in general (like celebrity worship)) is gross and is how we got to where we’re at.
Sorry i offended you.
You realize love can also mean you strongly like it, right? I love pizza and wings. So what’s exactly going though your mind when I take it home?
Apparently “i love you” is the same as “i love pizza”.
Bernie is always on top of these things, and you have to respect him for that.
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.
Even though 80% of Democrats are for this kind of bill watch, the majority of Congress vote against it, including the Democrats.
Goes to show Republicans (more so of course) and Democrats represent their donors more than the ppl who vote for them
We don’t even exist to them.
Good, force them to vote on it so we can see who supports genocide.
If he’s always on top of things, why is he doing this now and not sooner?
I wish that Bernie was my real dad.
How do you know he isn’t?
Because, if he were, he would have stepped up and been a father. That’s how Bernie rolls.
We could be at the end of Bernie’s second term right now if Hillary hadn’t staged a hostile takeover of the DNC during the primary.
trump would have been nothing more than a dated joke from TV reruns, Covid would have been handled appropriately, pretty much everyone would be measurably better off.
Dont forget what the moderate branch stole from us, they’re still the ones running shit. That’s not just an expression, literally the same people from back then are still running the DNC and in the current administration, they’re literally still the ones running shit.
Part of the recipe for far right fascists to rise to power requires liberals’ “compromise.”
Liberals are just pro-Oligarchy - they think Money should be above the one power which is led by elected leaders: the State - which is against Democracy just like the Fascists, just with a different and more subtle mechanism determining those whose power is above the power of the vote.
They’re just a different kind of Far-Right from the Fascists, which is why it is so easy for them to support Zionists - which are ethno-Fascists, the same sub-type of Fascism as the Nazis - even while they commit a Genocide.
People with even the slightest shred of Equalitarian values wouldn’t ever support those commiting ethnic cleansing.
The reason HRC won the primary is that she got 17 million votes and Sanders only got 13 million.
And how was it that Hillary and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz ensured this was the voting outcome?
Hillary won her voters by campaigning. That is how you win voters.
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz had nothing to do with it, because she doesn’t have a mind control device.
Except she didn’t campaign in most states, hence her loss in even democrat leaning swing states in the general election.
Do you truly believe that money has no influence in politics?
Money is a necessary part of politics. Which means that if you want to win, you need donors. And if your opponent wins over more donors than you do, that’s on you. Do you think it’s unfair that people are way more willing to donate to Harris than Trump?
You literally just said: the people with the most money should control the government.
No, that’s not what I said.
Having more money provides an advantage, but so do many other things like media endorsements, union endorsements, incumbency, etc.
Plenty of candidates who outspent their opponents went on to lose their elections.
No but vote blue no matter who amirite.
No possible way another lunatic will replace Trump by next election, he’s just a one of a kind republican candidate totally nor representative of a systemic problem.
Who do you think people here should vote for in November?
Harris - because Trump is a fucking disaster… that doesn’t mean the DNC is beyond criticism though.
Absolutely.
Oh yes, timeline 4861707079. I do enjoy that one, shame about the gazelles going extinct though.
Good Job Mr Sanders. This took a really long time.
Its pretty fucked up how law seems to mean less and less nowdays. to think there even needs to be such vote about america sending weapons to country breaking international laws and doing terrorist shit.
when exactly did you feel like international law meant something, and what events made you feel so? genuinely would like to know
Growing up in America there’s definitely an initial feeling of “law and order” ruling many of America’s past with interfering in other countries affairs, eventually you learn about the fucked up shit if you actually start looking though lol.
I remember I did a presentation in middle school about Operation Paperclip and most of the class thought I was making it up lol.
L&O, America, what bullshit.
now don’t get me wrong, better than nations like Russia for sure, but there is a reason most lawful-anything carters get called out as lawful stupid in DnD, it just doesn’t work
I thought it meant something, as they bothered to even pretend there is international law by having one in first place.
But it isn’t even international law, these are domestic laws forbidding sending weapons to nations that interfere with US humanitarian aid that have been flouted repeatedly and with the barest semblance of an excuse made. I can see them not paying attention to UN “laws” but this isnt the same thing.
you seem to misunderstand what a sovereign is, you see the US government, as being the only sovereign entity in the US can literally do whatever it wants. who’s going to stop them? a handful of militia men?
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.
Yeah, this is an absolute shame. He tried doing something similar shortly after the genocide had started, but everyone else currently in power just shut him down almost unanimously.
If politics and getting into power wasn’t 90% based on your wealth and connections, maybe US could have more people like Bernie trying to actually do good rather than trying to enrich or empower themselves.
AIPAC buying American politicians to ensure support for the war continues. Pretty fucked that a foreign nation state can buy US policies like this. Honestly, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often, and more brazenly - it is “legal” after all.
America has the best politicians money can buy
If that were true, they would cost way more to buy.
the money is a token, you don’t have to pay tax on gifts and favors.
If they’re forced to vote on it, at least we’ll know which politicians have a spine and which have a padded wallet.
I’m glad he’s giving me a chance to have yet another demonstration of how shitty our country is. Can’t wait to see this fail miserably and anyone who votes for it lose their re-election.
inb4 AIPAC makes a hit list of everyone who votes for this
Just imagine: we could’ve had this guy as president for the last 4-8 years…
File that one behind the what-if of a Gore Presidency. We keep missing the alternate timelines we should have taken. Here’s hoping we don’t screw up once again.
Imagine a back-to-back two term each Gore then Bernie presidency. We’d be living in a utopia, and I’m not even American
