With Israeli Civilians Under Fire, Bernie Sanders Forces Senate Vote to Block Arms Sale to Israel

Democratic presidential hopeful Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders participates in the 11th De
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) plans to introduce a resolution of disapproval against a $735 million arms sale to Israel on Thursday, even as Palestinian terrorists continue to fire rockets at Israeli civilians.

The resolution will keep alive an effort by left-wing Democrats in the House to block the sale, which has already been approved by the Biden administration and pre-dates the war.

As Breitbart News reported Wednesday:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) announced a resolution to block a $735 million sale of U.S. precision-guided bombs to Israel, even as Palestinian Hamas terrorists continued to fire barrages of rockets at Israeli civilians on Wednesday.

The $735 million arms deal was arranged before the current war between Israel and Hamas, and includes “Joint Direct Attack Munition variants and Small Diameter Bomb Increment I variants,” according to a Times of Israel report on the resolution.

Both of these munitions are designed to be fired from the air to hit targets on the ground. The Small Diameter Bomb Increment is specifically designed to “decrease collateral damage,” according to a 2006 publication, lowering risks to civilians nearby.

 

Ocasio-Cortez, joined by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Mark Pocan (D-WI), broke the story with a left-wing Jewish publication, Jewish Currents, which noted that Israel has used both types of munitions in its ongoing battle against Hamas.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Sanders said: “At a moment when U.S.-made bombs are devastating Gaza, and killing women and children, we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate.”

Israel contends that the majority of Palestinian dead are terrorists, and notes that many Palestinian civilians have been killed by Palestinian rockets that misfire and land in Gaza instead of Israel.

Firing weapons from civilian areas, and aiming at civilians, as Hamas does, are both war crimes under international law, a fact that Sanders neglected in his statement on the arms sale.

Ocasio-Cortez, Pocan, and Tlaib had until the end of the day on Thursday to pass their resolution through the House — unless a Senator introduced a parallel resolution, the left-wing Jewish Currents noted.

The resolution is reportedly guaranteed a vote, under Senate rules.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it). His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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