Republican senators ensured on April 15 that the sale of some $450 million in bombs and bulldozers to Israel would go ahead, blocking a pair of resolutions that would have stymied the move.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, forced votes on the resolutions, saying that the sales violate the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act.
The first resolution would have stopped the $295 million sale of D9R and D9T Caterpillar bulldozers, parts, and other support, with that vote ending up 59–40 against the measure.
A total of seven Democrats voted with the Republicans, who were almost unanimously against advancing the resolution of disapproval of the bulldozer sale.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) did not vote.
The second resolution put forward by Sanders would have banned the $151.8 million sale of 12,000 BLU-110A/B general-purpose 1,000-pound bombs and related logistics and technical support services.
In this vote, 11 Democrats joined Republicans to block the measure by 63–36, with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) not voting.
Sanders said that the Israeli military uses the bombs in attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and uses the bulldozers to knock down homes in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and the West Bank.
“The United States must use the leverage we have—tens of billions in arms and military aid—to demand that Israel ends these atrocities,” he said, urging support for the resolutions.
The Israeli government has consistently said that it does not target civilians intentionally, and that its strikes are designed to neutralize terrorists and enemy military infrastructure.
Following the vote, Sanders said in a statement that his movement was “making progress.”
“Today, more than 80 percent of the Democratic caucus stood with the American people and voted to block U.S. military aid to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his horrific, illegal wars,” he said.
He said that when he began his move, he only had 11 Democratic votes in support, whereas now there are 40.
“That shift reflects where the American people are,” Sanders said. “Americans, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or independents, want to see our tax money invested in improving lives here at home—not used to kill innocent women and children in the Middle East and put American troops in harm’s way as part of Netanyahu’s illegal wars of expansion.”
Democrats supported an earlier resolution the same day that called for a halt to President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, although that was also defeated, 47–52.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who voted against Sanders’s Israel resolutions but for the call to end the war, said that he wanted the conflict to end but that he did not want to abandon Israel.
“My votes should be taken neither as an endorsement of the actions of the Netanyahu government nor as an abandonment of the state of Israel, the Jewish people, or the U.S.–Israel relationship,” Coons said in a statement after the vote.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said the resolutions risked emboldening Iran and sending “the message that the U.S. is prepared to leave [its] ally Israel vulnerable.”
“They will not help the United States of America,” Risch said ahead of the vote.
The Trump administration bypassed the normal congressional review of military sales on March 6, saying that there was an emergency that made it necessary to immediately transfer the weapons.
