Senator’s fourth attempt for resolutions fails, but votes show growing appetite among Democrats to impose limits
Bernie Sanders on Wednesday led a failed effort to block the sale of bombs and bulldozers to Israel, but the votes revealed a growing appetite among Democrats to impose limits on US weapons transfers to a longtime US ally.
It was the fourth time Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, had forced consideration of resolutions cutting off military aid for Israel in the Senate, all of which have been rejected by the chamber’s Republican majority, and many Democrats.
But on Wednesday, 40 Senators backed a resolution brought by Sanders that would have prevented the sale of $295m in bulldozers and 36 members voted for a second resolution that would have halted a $151.8m sale of 12,000 1,000lb bombs to Israel’s military.
“That shift reflects where the American people are,” Sanders said in a statement late on Wednesday. “Americans, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or independents, want to see our tax money invested in improving lives here at home – not used to kill innocent women and children in the Middle East and put American troops in harm’s way as part of Netanyahu’s illegal wars of expansion.
