US Senator Bernie Sanders has announced he will force a vote on a resolution to block the sale of nearly half a billion dollars worth of bombs and bulldozers to Israel, testing support for the US ally in Congress amid the war with Iran and growing discontent over Israeli actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. This move highlights the deepening skepticism within the US political establishment regarding unconditional military aid to Israel.
In a statement on X, Sanders wrote: “This week, I will be forcing a vote on legislation to block the sale of nearly half a billion dollars worth of bombs and bulldozers to the Israeli military. The extremist Netanyahu government that has committed genocide in Gaza does not need more military support from American taxpayers.” Although the resolution is unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate, it will gauge the level of support Israel has among Democrats, who have been increasingly angered by the US-Israel war on Iran and ongoing atrocities in Gaza.
Sanders introduced a similar bill in July of last year, but it failed in a 27-70 vote. However, Palestinian rights advocates noted at the time that the tally reflected an erosion in the pro-Israel bipartisan consensus in Washington. Since then, US public support for Israel has continued to nosedive, according to polls, especially among young people and Democrats, with a Gallup poll in February suggesting only 46% of Americans have favorable views of Israel and merely 17% of Democratic respondents sympathizing more with Israelis than Palestinians.
The US provided Israel with over $21 billion in military aid in the first two years of Israel’s war on Gaza, a move that rights advocates say breaches US laws and overlooks Israeli human rights violations to ensure a continuous flow of weapons. This has intensified skepticism of the unconditional support for Israel in the US, with critics arguing that successive US administrations have failed to apply security assistance restrictions consistently to Israel.
On Monday, J Street – a prominent liberal Zionist group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace – called for the first time for phasing out US aid to the Israeli military. The group stated: “The war in Gaza, rising extremist Jewish terror in the West Bank and the US-Israel war with Iran have highlighted the need for a fundamental reassessment of the US-Israel security relationship.” This call further complicates the political landscape, underscoring the challenges and societal friction within the US regime regarding its foreign policy commitments and the economic costs of sustained military support.
Source: www.aljazeera.com