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.
Are they going to call him an “anti-semite” too?
I wish that Bernie was my real dad.
How do you know he isn’t?
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?
Fun fact: your guy lost, get over it
So did Hillary, wasn’t her turn I guess
Correct. And we’re over it.
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)
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.
Call your senators. Let them know you support restricting arms to israel
Hello, can you be Bernie sanders please?
This is my senator!
Call him and tell him he’s awesome!
Both of mine will tell me to go pound sand.
Schumer: lol, lmao even.
:(
Bernie on the right side of history as usual.
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?
Yes and Harris complicity in continuing the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the Westbank and now the invasion of Lebanon will be the greatest risk for her election. But they would rather hand over the US to Trump on a silver plate, than to stop killing Arabs.
I think Russian propaganda will be the greatest threat to her campaign, actually
You realise Biden’s current stance on Israel is unpopular by a vast majority of the Democratic voter base, right?
I couldn’t find much, but this poll seems to suggest the majority supports the US position on Israel. It’s surprisingly bipartisan.
Do you have another source maybe? This poll is from June, maybe you found something more recent?
That poll is about opinions on the US’s role, and says nothing about Israel.
It’s an absolutely bonkers result considering the US’s decades of destabilizing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets in other countries like Yemen and Syria, alliance/support of terrorist states like Saudi Arabia and Israel, and imperial/extractive attitude that has been the primary force destabilizing the region in my lifetime.
The idea that ANYONE can look at the middle east and have a positive view of America’s role is disgusting. America’s disastrous 21st century foreign policy is the primary reason that the entire world has become so destabilized. America is a terrorist state and the US military machine is the single biggest threat to human survival. Stopping the US at all costs is the most important thing that we can do to protect the biological experiment of the current ecosystem upon which we depend.
The only reason I am considering voting for Trump in the fall (compared to the handful of reasons why I am considering Harris) is that four more years of chaos may finally destroy the American War Machine and the disaster that is American foreign policy.
Four more years of Trump directly puts my life in danger, but if it leads to this country self-destructing I’m personally willing to make that sacrifice. Anything to cripple our criminal war machine. What good are our rights and liberties if the depend on a war machine that is willing to risk the habitability of our planet? If America collapses, with it will fall the major fuel of the arms race. If the leopards have to eat my face for my country to finally get put in its place, I’ll proudly try to pet the kitty.
Ideally, I want America to be a functional democracy that respects and promotes civil rights and liberties around the globe. I have never had the option to vote for such an America. In my lifetime I have never seen America take actions that imply that these are the values of our government. The options are to vote for the competent criminal who will directly and purposefully undermine the habitability of our planet, or the incompetent one who may cause more damage in the short-term due to his bumbling but may be better in the long run by removing America’s destructive influence on the world’s stage as we turn inwards to fight a civil war. Maybe a civil war will cause us to reassert what we claim are our values, and I’ll finally live in a country I can respect,
I’m pretty genuinely torn in this election, because I’m willing to sacrifice my personal safety for what I see as a net positive in the world in the long run. I’d rather be hopeful that we have a path to fix America. I’d rather be hopeful that America could be a country that promotes democracy and civil liberties. America as it stands is not a democracy, and we have no liberty. America is dead. Do we keep voting for the parasites, or do we vote for the incinerator to protect others?
But what if Trump and pals manage to stabilize their fascist state. You will never have another free election (Putin style instead of the propaganda of billionaires and theocrats). The whole world will be fucked and all on your coin toss.
It is for once too dangerous to leave to chance. You need to get Harris in, and Trump and the corrupt supreme justices in jail. THEN from the ground up build a new political party for the people and the planet.
That poll is about opinions on the US’s role, and says nothing about Israel.
It’s a poll about the US role in the ME w.r.t. Israel, the rest of the poll’s questions were also about Israel, this was just the question that I figured best represents how people feel about Biden’s handling of it so far.
The only reason I am considering voting for Trump in the fall (compared to the handful of reasons why I am considering Harris) is that four more years of chaos may finally destroy the American War Machine and the disaster that is American foreign policy.
Are you sure about that? Last time Trump was president we got Russia gearing up for an invasion of Ukraine and China posturing regarding an invasion of Taiwan as well. Neither of these conflicts have been or would be beneficial to humanity as a whole. It’s destroyed the ecosystem in Ukraine for example.
And suppose Trump does turn isolationist instead of going to war with Iran like he’s been trying to do. Do you think the resulting power vacuum will lead American voters to believe that going isolationist was beneficial? We saw the opposite in 2020 happen, where people wanted the US to return to the world stage by electing Biden.
Ideally, I want America to be a functional democracy that respects and promotes civil rights and liberties around the globe. […] Maybe a civil war will cause us to reassert what we claim are our values, and I’ll finally live in a country I can respect,
Have you considered that you might end up on the losing side? Republicans have always been war hawks. Them fully cementing their power through Trump could very well lead to an even more active US war machine. Trump won’t be around forever, he’s old and these days the target of assassination attempts.
Accelerationism has been tried in the past. It has never ended well. I urge you to really reflect on what it truly means if your envisioned scenario were to happen. I urge you to reflect on the many, many things that have to happen in order to end up somewhere better. And please, consider what happens if you’re wrong about what electing Trump will lead to.
I live in a country that’s been under the yolk of another whose population thought like you do, that maybe making things worse will make things better. It led to the worst environmental disaster we’ve ever known, caused the deaths of millions and led to the birth of the US war machine. The scars are still visible today.
I sympathize with you though. The US is in a shit place electorally speaking. Organizing for electoral reform is probably the best shot at fixing things, but that takes incredible time, effort and money to get through. I can see why that feels hopeless. But personally, I find it a more honorable cause. Endangering yourself and many others is in my opinion deeply irresponsible.
Well, he was also a part of blocking the military aid to Ukraine for all those months. But this one is good
That was also good. America is not the world police.
Hot take: Global geopolitics within the current rules as we understand it don’t allow for countries to genuinely respect each other as equals. Might will always be right on the global stage regardless of whether it should be that way. So when it comes to picking a global hegemon, the United States is really not a terrible choice compared with the alternatives.
We are also a part of nato.
Ukraine is not, objectively could not qualify before 2014 when it became good for the US war machine for them to qualify, and most importantly, NATO should’ve disbanded in 1991 when the sole reason for its existence fell.
Putin is running out of money.
Just thought you should be aware.
Yeah, our country is shitty. I get the main reason the US joined the allies had more to do with politics then ideology. But least some kind of good comes from the US backing ukraine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’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”.
I kinda hope it has changed since then, but probably not as much as I’d like.
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.”
It wasn’t OK when the Egyptians and Germans did it to the Jews, and it’s not OK when the Jews are doing it to others too.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
“It’s not comparable to the Holocaust. Germany killed 6 million…”
There are fewer than 6 million people in all of Palestine. If that’s their cutoff, they can eradicate everyone and “it still wouldn’t be as bad.” That’s probably their thought process.
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.
Israel learned the wrong lesson from the Holocaust. They decided that the next time somebody gets stepped on, they’re going to be the boot, not the bug.
Texan
Well there’s your problem
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.
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
Ever thus to ethno nationalism.
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.
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 Israeli’s 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.
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
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.
Good, force them to vote on it so we can see who supports genocide.
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.
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.
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
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.
He knows it won’t pass, the article says it too. That’s not the point.
Yes, I know it won’t pass, too. I just hate being constantly reminded that this country is ruled by violent idiots.
inb4 AIPAC makes a hit list of everyone who votes for this
Billions of dollars and weapons to Urkaine! Yes!
Billions of dollars and weapons to Israel! NO!!!
LOL
Demonstrating a complete lack of awareness: priceless.
One of these things is not like the others…
Nuance. Try it.
