In a letter to his colleagues sent Tuesday evening, Sanders argues that the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is waging an “immoral” war and pleaded for the United States to “not be complicit.”
“We have to end our complicity,” Sanders said in an interview. “I think the military strategy of the Netanyahu government has not been to go to war against Hamas, but to go to war against the Palestinian people. What we are seeing is a horrific, it is devastating. We should not be part of it.”
More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, many of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and more than 41,000 have been injured.
Sanders, who is Jewish, said he’ll oppose a test vote expected to take place on Wednesday on a $110 billion national security supplemental spending bill that includes $14 billion in military aid for Israel. He’s the first Democrat to come out against the measure that also includes $60 billion in funding for Ukraine. All Republicans are expected to oppose the measure over the separate issue of U.S. border security.
Sanders was the first but part of a growing number of Democratic lawmakers who are calling for conditions on aid to Israel. No other Democrat, however, has said they’d oppose a broad funding package that also includes money for Ukraine.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said it’s “important” that any aid package “reiterate” compliance with U.S. and international law but there is not such language in the current aid package.
Sanders, a champion of the left, angered many progressives as he continues to refuse backing calls for a cease-fire. Just three Senate Democrats have called for permanent halt in the fighting.
He maintains his support for $4 billion in aid to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, but he is opposed to what he calls a $10.1 billion “blank check” for their military operations.
“Israel’s indiscriminate approach is deeply offensive to most Americans, is in violation of U.S. and international law, and undermines the prospects for lasting peace and security,” Sanders wrote his letter to his colleagues.
Sanders said President Biden’s attempt to backchannel the message of restraint to Netanyahu and the Israeli government isn’t working and that Congress must include conditions for the use of the money into law.
“Netanyahu and his very right-wing, extremist colleagues in the cabinet, are not paying attention to the president of the United States,” Sanders said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told a small group of senators that includes Sanders last week that the administration would not place any conditions on Israel as the president has been more public about his pressure campaign for Israel to minimize civilian casualties.
Sanders is demanding guarantees that displaced Palestinians will have the “absolute right” to return to Gaza, a commitment there will be “no long-term occupation or blockade” of Gaza and a freeze on settlement expansions in the West Bank. He also wants Israel to commit to talks toward a two-state solution once the war ends.
He cautioned that Democrats and the president “will be hurt politically” if it is not clear that the U.S. does not support Netanyahu’s handling of the war.
“The American people … do not want to continue turning on the TV and see little babies, dead babies, pulled out of the rubble of some destroyed apartment building,” he said.