'Americans want this to end. They do not want to be complicit in an unfolding famine and daily civilian massacres,' senator says
The US Senate rejected two resolutions Wednesday introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders to block arms sales to Israel amid starvation in the Gaza Strip.
By a vote of 27-70, the Senate did not agree to the motion to discharge S.J. Res. 41 to prohibit the sale of tens of thousands of fully automatic assault rifles.
A second resolution -- S.J. Res. 34 to block a $675.7 million arms package, including 1,000-pound bombs -- was also rejected by a vote of 24-73.
A record number of Senate Democrats, more than half the caucus, voted in favor of the two resolutions.
"The tide is turning. Americans don't want to spend billions to starve children in Gaza.
"The Democrats are moving forward on this issue, and I look forward to Republican support in the near future," Sanders said in a statement after the vote.
In his address on the Senate floor before the vote, he said Israel has waged an "all-out illegal, immoral and horrific war of annihilation" against the Palestinian people over the last 21 months.
He reiterated that from March 2 to May 19, Israel did not allow a single shipment of humanitarian aid to come into Gaza.
"In recent months, the Netanyahu government's extermination of Gaza has made an unspeakable and horrible situation even worse," he said.
Sanders also said the Israeli government is using mass starvation to "engineer the ethnic cleansing" of Gaza.
"Despite these war crimes, carried out daily in plain view, the United States has provided more than $22 billion for Israel’s military operations since this war began," he said.
- 'Americans want this to end'
Sanders said that US taxpayers have spent billions of dollars in support of the "racist, extremist" Netanyahu government. "Enough is enough."
"Americans want this to end. They do not want to be complicit in an unfolding famine and daily civilian massacres. And we here in Congress tonight have the power to act. No more talks, no more great speeches. But tonight, we have the power to act — the power to force Netanyahu and his extremist government to end this slaughter.
"The time is long overdue for Congress to use the leverage we have — tens of billions in arms and military aid — to demand that Israel end these atrocities," he added.
The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued an offensive on Gaza since late 2023, killing more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and has led to deaths by starvation.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
