US Senate overwhelmingly rejects anti-Israel legislation aimed at limiting offensive weapons deliveries to IDF

The U.S. Senate rejected legislation initiated by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders with a 79-18 vote. The proposed bill sought to halt the delivery of certain weapons used by the Israeli military in operations against Iranian-backed terror proxies – Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sanders is a Jewish progressive politician, known for his left-leaning views, and serves as an Independent senator from Vermont.

The lawmakers who backed the anti-Israel legislation are Dick Durbin; Bernie Sanders; Tim Kaine; Chris Van Hollen; Jeff Merkley; Peter Welch; Jon Ossoff; Raphael Warnock; Chris Murphy; Tina Smith; Jeanne Shaheen; Martin Heinrich; Elizabeth Warren; Mazie Hirono; Brian Schatz; Ed Markey; Angus King, and Ben Ray Lujan. All of them are either Democrats or Independents.

Following the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre of over 1,200 Israelis, Sanders initially supported Israel's right to defend itself. However, he soon after began condemning Israeli military operations against Hamas in Gaza.

“It goes without saying that Israel had a right to defend itself from the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, but Israel did not have the right to kill 43,000 Palestinians and injure over 100,000, most of whom are women, children, and the elderly,” Sanders stated, referencing the official death toll in Gaza, as reported by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists.

“It did not have the right to destroy Gaza’s infrastructure, healthcare system, and schools and universities, and it certainly does not have the right to starve thousands and thousands of children in Gaza,” Sanders argued.

He did not condemn Hamas terrorists for the civilian deaths in Gaza, despite the fact that the terror group deliberately embedded itself in hospitals, schools and other civilian structures – a war crime under international law.

“The United States cannot be complicit in these atrocities,” Sanders claimed. “We cannot give billions of dollars to the Netanyahu government and have them defy US law while they take US money.”

In an article published in March by Tablet Magazine, prominent statistics Prof. Abraham Wyner of UPenn's Wharton Department of Statistics and Data Science, stated that Hamas exaggerates and distorts civilian casualties in Gaza for propaganda purposes.

In August, Israeli Defense Forces estimated it had eliminated over 17,000 terrorists in Gaza, a number that has increased since then. This means that even if Hamas’ highly questionable fatality figures are accurate, operatives belonging to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad make up approximately half of the total casualties in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.

Current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has frequently criticized the Israeli government, opposed Sander’s anti-Israel legislation.

“Voting to block assistance today could very well embolden Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran and endanger Israel’s security into the future,” Schumer assessed.

“This is about Israel’s long-term security and honoring a cornerstone of United States policy that we will give Israel, a democracy and a steadfast ally, the resources it needs to protect itself in a difficult world,” he added.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blasted Sanders and other lawmakers for blaming Israel rather than Hamas for the destruction in the Gaza Strip.

“Where’s the outrage in the international community? Where’s the outrage here about Hamas holding hostages, some of whom are Americans? That’s where the outrage should be,” Cardin stated.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) praised the U.S. Senate for “standing with Israel and overwhelmingly rejecting proposed bans on critical weapons sales to the Jewish state as it fights to protect its families from Iran and its terrorist proxies.”

“The majority of Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans again demonstrated profound American support for our ally and rejected the dangerous efforts by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his allies to weaken Israel and undermine the US-Israel relationship,” AIPAC said.

Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks condemned the anti-Israel legislation while praising Republican lawmakers for backing the Jewish state’s right to defend itself.

“By contrast, the RJC is proud that Senate Republicans voted in unanimous opposition to this betrayal of Israel and the empowering of the terrorist regime in Tehran,” Brooks said. “After the horrors of October 7, 2023, America must continue to support the destruction of Hamas and the restoration of deterrence by backing Israel resolutely as it pursues its sensible and necessary military objectives.”