Sanders moves to block sale of US bombs to Israel he says 'devastating Gaza'
ABC News
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday introduced a resolution to block a $735 million sale of U.S. precision-guided weapons to Israel it's using to bomb inside Gaza.
Capitol Hill -- Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday introduced a resolution that would halt a major arms sale to Israel amid its fight with Hamas and the deaths of Palestinian civilians, a high-profile illustration of the significant divide in the Democratic Party, with some members breaking with the historic lock-step support of the Jewish nation by Washington lawmakers of every stripe. The joint resolution of disapproval, sponsored in the House by Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American from Michigan, would cancel "the proposed transfer of defense articles, defense services, and technical data to support weapons integration, flight test, and hardware delivery of Joint Direct Attack Munition variants and Small Diameter Bomb Increment I variants for end use by the Ministry of Defense for Israel." "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,” Sanders, I-Vt., said in a statement about his bill that would stop the arms package totaling $735 million. "I believe that the United States must help lead the way to a peaceful and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians. We need to take a hard look at whether the sale of these weapons is actually helping do that, or whether it is simply fueling conflict." Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has blasted any Democratic attempts to blame Israel in any fashion or call for a ceasefire, standing behind the U.S. ally's fight against Hamas, the terrorist organization that has a stranglehold on the Palestinian territories and governs Gaza.More Related News