Sanders presses Biden to deny Israel $10.1 billion in military aid

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pressing President Biden to withhold $10.1 billion in military aid to Israel that would support the Israeli military’s invasion of Gaza, arguing that the Netanyahu government’s military offensive “is being conducted in a deeply immoral way.”  

In a Dec. 12 letter to Biden, Sanders argues that Israel’s military response in Gaza has turned into “a mass atrocity” and that “it would be irresponsible to provide an additional $10.1 billion in military aid beyond” the “defensive systems” that will protect Israeli civilians from incoming missile and rocket attacks. 

The Vermont senator warned “Israel’s military campaign will be remembered among some of the darkest chapters of our modern history,” noting that since Oct. 7, 18,000 civilians have been killed and 49,000 wounded, 70 percent of whom are women and children. 

The push by Sanders comes after he received criticism from the left for backing Israel after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

The senator and former presidential candidate has been a critic of Israel’s government but had refused to call for a permanent cease-fire by Israel in November amid calls for one from the left.

In the new letter, Sanders ask Biden to support a United Nations resolution, which the United States vetoed earlier this week, calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and full humanitarian access to Gaza.  

He pointed out that so far 134 United Nations workers have been killed in Gaza and that 1.9 million civilians — 85 percent of Gaza’s population — have been displaced.  

Sanders also asserted that 40 United Nations facilities in Gaza have been struck by Israeli forces despite having shared the coordinates with Israeli commanders in an attempt to avert accidental strikes. 

The Israel war has been a divisive one for Democrats, and Biden has come under criticism from other figures on the left for not doing more to pressure Israel to back a cease-fire.

Sanders wrote that providing another $10.1 billion in military aid to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime “would allow for the continuation of the Netanyahu government’s widespread, indiscriminate bombardment.” 

“Therefore, I ask you withdraw your support for that portion of the funding requested from Congress,” he wrote, referring to Biden’s $106 billion funding request for Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific region.  

Biden on Tuesday at a fundraiser offered some sharper criticism of Netanyahu, arguing Israel’s bombing of Gaza has been “indiscriminate” and that this was eroding support for the country.

Sanders said the destruction in Gaza has now surpassed the “nightmarish thresholds” of destruction seen in Dresden, Germany, and Japanese cities during World War II.  

“Israel’s reliance on widespread and indiscriminate bombardment, including with massive explosive ordinance in densely populated urban areas, is unconscionable,” he wrote.  

Sanders says the United States is “complicit” in the destruction because it has provided a massive arsenal of weapons and munitions that is now being used to rain terror on Palestinian civilians.  

He pointed out that the Israeli military has used 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs, 1,000-pound MK-83 bombs and 155 mm artillery shells manufactured in the United States.  

He cited reports by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post that the United States has provided more than 15,000 bombs and 57,000 155 mm artillery shells to Israel since Oct. 7 and that Israel has dropped more than 22,000 American-supplied bombs on Gaza.