Sanders to Force Senate Vote on Probing Israeli War Crimes

Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he will force a Senate floor vote this week on a resolution that would suspend aid to Israel if the U.S. State Department fails to report on how Israeli weapons—many of them supplied by the United States—are being used in Gaza.

Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," Sanders (I-Vt.) told host Jake Tapper that he will force a Tuesday evening vote on his resolution, which is based on Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, legislation empowering Congress to "request information on a particular country's human rights practices and to alter or terminate U.S. security assistance to that country in light of the information received."

If the resolution passes, the Biden administration would be compelled to provide a report on Israeli rights violations within 30 days or trigger a suspension of all U.S. assistance to its key Middle Eastern ally.

"What is going on in Gaza right now is a horrendous humanitarian catastrophe," said Sanders—who has infuriated many progressives by refusing to support a cease-fire. "We're looking at 23,000 people who have been killed. Almost 60,000 have been wounded. And two-thirds of the people who have been killed are women and children. You're looking at 70% of the housing units in Gaza that have been destroyed."

By Monday, the death toll in Gaza had topped 24,000, according to local officials.

The United States has provided some of Israel's most powerful weaponry, with which its forces have carried out some of the 101-day war's deadliest massacres.

"What is going on in Gaza now in three months is worse than what took place in Dresden over a two-year period," Sanders noted, referring to the U.S. and U.K. "terror bombing"—Britain's own description at the time—of the German city, largely with incendiary weapons, during World War II.

"This is a catastrophe," he continued, referring to Gaza. "And now, according to the United Nations, after you have 1.9 million people displaced from their homes... What you are looking at is imminent starvation. Children are starving to death."

"So, my view has been from the beginning, Israel has a right to respond to this horrific terrorist attack from Hamas, but you do not have a right to go to war against an entire people, women and children," the senator asserted. "And the United States Congress has got to act, because a lot of this destruction is being done with military weapons supplied by the United States of America."

Asked by Tapper if he could secure the 51 votes needed for the resolution's passage, Sanders replied: "Not on Tuesday night, I don't. I think we're making progress."

"What we're trying to do is unprecedented," he said. "This is the first time this particular resolution has ever been brought to the floor for a vote. This is the first time we have ever seen members of the Congress beginning to stand up... to Israeli aid."

"So it's going to be a long, hard process, but we have got to begin somewhere," the senator added. "This is the beginning."

"This is the first time we have ever seen members of the Congress beginning to stand up... to Israeli aid."

Although the Foreign Assistance Act—passed during the John F. Kennedy administration—ostensibly conditions U.S. assistance upon adherence to human rights standards, it has been repeatedly manipulated to allow military aid for violators including the perpetrators of the Guatemalan genocide. It also created the United States Agency for International Development, through which the U.S. trained dictatorships in torture, assassination, democracy suppression, and other crimes.

Sanders—who is Jewish but not religious and lived on an Israeli kibbutz over 60 years ago—earlier this month called on Congress to block additional U.S. military funding for Israel, a pushback against the Biden administration's request for an additional $14.3 billion for a country already receiving nearly $4 billion in annual armed aid. Biden has also twice bypassed Congress to fast-track "emergency" arms shipments to Israel.

During Sunday's interview, Sanders also weighed in on last week's bombing of Yemen by U.S. and U.K. forces in response to Houthi rebels' attacks on Red Sea shipping.

"The president has a right to respond on an emergency basis to the disruption of international shipping brought about by the Houthis," he said. "On the other hand, he's got to get to Congress immediately. It is Congress that has a right to declare war, not the president of the United States. So I hope this issue gets to Congress immediately."