Why Bernie Sanders is leading a doomed vote on Israel arms restrictions

With the 2024 election in the rearview mirror, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and a group of progressive Democrats could expose long-simmering divides in their caucus by forcing the upper chamber to vote on a trio of resolutions that would block the US government from transferring three different categories of US-built arms to Israel.

The Senate is set to vote Wednesday on three separate measures to prohibit provision of tank rounds, mortars and Joint Direct Attack Munition bomb guidance kits to the Israeli military. The move comes after more than a year of war in Gaza and Lebanon, which critics have said amounts to a genocide against Palestinians.

The bomb kits, often referred to as JDAMs for short, include movable fins and other equipment that turns regular bombs into “smart” bombs. Critics have accused Israel of using the guided bombs to target civilian facilities. However, military experts have said that withholding them would force the Israeli air force to use unguided bombs that could increase unintended civilian casualties.

Sanders initially introduced six separate resolutions covering six different categories of arms but he decided to force votes on half by declaring them “privileged” — a parliamentary maneuver that prevents Senate leadership from blocking a floor vote on a given piece of business.

At a press conference Tuesday evening, the Vermont senator said he and his allies chose to move forward on the three he thought most senators could “get their arms around and see as having an immediate impact in destroying the lives of people in Gaza.”

“They’re very specific and I think that they are, frankly, resolutions that will probably attract the most support,” he said.

Sanders also said it was “time to tell” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that it “cannot use US taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of US and international law and in violation of our moral values.”

“It is also time to make clear to Netanyahu he cannot continue to undermine US foreign policy goals,” he added.

The measures are co-sponsored by Sanders’s fellow Vermonter, Senator Pete Welch, as well as Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, and Senators Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. All are Democrats who generally fall in with the progressive wing of the party.

Most of the Senate’s Democratic majority and the vast majority of Republicans are expected to oppose the measures.

One of Sanders’s Democratic colleagues, Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that she was urging “all of [her] Senate colleagues” to join her in “strongly opposing the proposal to restrict arms sales to Israel.”

“We must ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself from Iran and its terrorist proxies,” she added.

The Biden administration has steadfastly refused to suspend arms sales to Israel, despite calls for it to do so by many critics on the grounds that Israel’s conduct of the war has gone against prohibitions on using American-made arms to violate international humanitarian law.

Asked about the legislation put forward by Senator Sanders, a National Security Council spokesperson told The Independent: “We strongly oppose this resolution and we have made our position clear to interested senators.”