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.
He’s a fucking legend.
Yugoslavia certainly doesn’t think so.
Well, he was also a part of blocking the military aid to Ukraine for all those months. But this one is good
It’s easy to rage against the machine on a moral pedestal. It’s harder to actually steer the machine in the right direction.
To be clear, I am supportive of putting things to a vote even if there’s no chance it succeeds. Get the votes on record. I think that’s an important archive that can be used later in election season to hold politicians accountable for their votes.
I like what Bernie and AOC are doing when they push for these kinds of votes.
But make no mistake. They can only do this from a position of being unable to effect any change. Under normal conditions, moves like this poison the well and make others on both sides less willing to work with you.
They have the luxury of grandstanding specifically because they have zero hope of garnering support.
Someone like a president can’t really do something like this without completely burning their political capital.
Someone like a president can’t really do something like this without completely burning their political capital.
If only we had a president who is never going to hold office again and has nothing to lose right now… Damn our current pres is nothing like that
You realize his actions have a direct impact on Harris’ campaign… right?
You realise Biden’s current stance on Israel is unpopular by a vast majority of the Democratic voter base, right?
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.
Texan Jew here. I’m surrounded by a sea of monsters.
I’ve made documentaries, art projects, and memorials for family members who were in the Holocaust. A few survived (literally, like, 3 of them), but multitudes more were killed. My family and community has praised me for my passionate interest and attempts to teach younger generations the dangers of complacency and compartmentalizing. One of my relatives even helped pass a law adding Holocaust Remembrance Week as part of the curriculum for every grade level in Texas.
We’ve seen this kind of destruction before, we’ve lived this oppression and violence before. We have discussed how our family might have changed had over 90% of them not been killed.
HOW THE FUCK IS MY FAMILY AND COMMUNITY OKAY WITH ANOTHER GENOCIDE???
The self-delusion, what-abouts, stereotypes, and straight-up racist insults.
“They’d kill us if given the opportunity”
YOU’RE ALREADY KILLING THEM“These are really bad, violent people”
THEY ARE CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS AND THEY ARE DYING“It’s not comparable to the Holocaust. Germany killed 6 million…”
THAT’S YOUR FUCKING CUTOFF???
WE GOTTA WAIT FOR 6 MILLION PEOPLE TO DIE BEFORE WE CAN EMPATHIZE WITH VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE??? Where was this sense of calm and nonchalance when Nazis were posting propaganda around town? How many of your kids need to be dismembered and vaporized before you say “this is more than upsetting, this is WRONG”??!
I swear, I’m probably less than a month away from hearing someone I once respected say “the Palestinian cries out in pain as they hit you.”
Omfg I feel you so hard on this with a few people, but am fortunate to not be in Texas.
“Never again,” my ass. Those types of people mean only “never again for me and mine.” Genocide is genocide is genocide, regardless of whether we’re the victim or not.
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.
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
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.
Zionism has been a thing before bibi
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.
Fun fact: your guy lost, get over it
Whew, more salt than the dead sea.
So long as you learned from your mistake, little buddy :)
Say here’s another fun fact! More Sanders supporters would go on to support Hillary than did Hillary supporters go on to support Obama in 2008 when she lost the primaries.
Guess they didn’t get over it :(
Holy fuck that’s a level of disingenuous worthy of Trump himself. You’re comparing absolute numbers instead of percentages? Oldest bullshitting trick in the book.
You’re saying there were more Sanders supporters in 2016 than Hillary supporters in 2008? Yeah… That’s not exactly helping your argument.
But anyway: 15% of Hillary supporters voted for Mccain; 12% of Sanders supporters voted for Trump.
But don’t worry, I’ll be voting Harris.
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I don’t often downvote comments, as I think that often that’s just a censorious way to say “I disagree”. But this comment so obviously adds nothing of value to the conversation, and indeed poisons it with petty grievance. So I feel totally justified in downvoting this comment.
Still not over it, I see
Call your senators. Let them know you support restricting arms to israel
Both of mine will tell me to go pound sand.
Hello, can you be Bernie sanders please?
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
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
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?
We love you Bernie!
Speak for yourself. I don’t love nor idolize any politician.
yeah I don’t understand why anyone would just comment “Mac loves and idolizes Bernie” unprompted. what a dingus
Speaking for myself, I too love Bernie.
And speaking for myself, I too love Mr. Sanders.
The colonel?
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”.
Good Job Mr Sanders. This took a really long time.
This is still an action of the “we want to influence Israel, but keep them as our ally” kind.
That doesn’t work. To make them listen, you must be willing to actually let them die. To drop them under the bus.
Same goes for Turkey, Russia, Pakistan.
Well, geopolitics make this a dangerous approach, but one should remember always than anything short of that readiness is not leverage.
So what they should be voting on is this AND dissolving the alliance. Of course one shouldn’t make threats of clearly hostile action while still allied, this bites long-term.
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.
Oh yes, timeline 4861707079. I do enjoy that one, shame about the gazelles going extinct though.
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.
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.
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.
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…
Israel-fetishizing politicians and media: Hey! That’s antisem- Oh wait… Shit.
Billions of dollars and weapons to Urkaine! Yes!
Billions of dollars and weapons to Israel! NO!!!
LOL
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One of these things is not like the others…
