Democratic senators pushing bill imposing arms embargo on Israel

Bernie Sanders joined by other progressive Democrats in introducing bill which would block the sale of over $20 billion in arms to Israel.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A group of progressive Senate Democrats are pushing legislation which would impose a sweeping arms embargo on Israel, blocking tens of billions of dollars-worth of planned weapons sales to the Jewish state amid its ongoing war against the Hamas terror organization and escalating conflict with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist group.

On Wednesday, Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders formally introduced a bill to the U.S. Senate aimed at blocking weapons sales to Israel, accusing the Jewish state of waging an “immoral” and “illegal” war against Gaza following the invasion of October 7th.

“Israel has egregiously violated” rules laid out by the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, Sanders claimed in a statement to the press Wednesday.

The senior Vermont senator and former presidential hopeful also cited the Biden administration’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “extremist” government of intentionally preventing an agreement from being reached.

“Every time an agreement appears close, Netanyahu introduces new demands and sinks the deal,” Sanders continued.

“It is clear that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to cling to power and avoid prosecution for corruption. Meanwhile, his government has also overseen record illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank and unleashed a wave of violence there that has killed nearly 700 Palestinians, including 150 children, and several Americans over the last 11 months.”

“Sending more weapons to Netanyahu’s extremist government is unacceptable.”

The Senate bill would bar the U.S. from selling a number of weapons systems to the Israeli military, blocking existing procurement orders valued at roughly $20 billion.

The embargo would, if passed, bar the U.S. from selling Joint Direct Attack Munitions – a smart-bomb apparatus used to convert simple aerial munitions into guided bombs – along with tank and artillery shells, tactical ground vehicles, and F-15 fighter jets and associated parts and weapons.

Two progressive Senate Democrats, including Oregon’s Jeff Merkley and the junior Senator for Vermont, Peter Welch, signed on to most of the bans proposed in Sanders’ Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, while declining to join his call to ban the sale of F-15s.