Senate Democrats supported two measures to block weapons shipments to Israel in record fashion, but they were not joined by party leadership, who suddenly appear very out of touch with the party’s base.
In a historic vote, 75% of Senate Democrats backed an effort to block weapons to Israel. The resolutions failed, but the vote was the latest sign of Democrats’ growing consensus against aid to Israel, as support for the country hits an all-time low.
On Wednesday, the Senate can act to block weapons to Israel by halting the delivery of the bombs and militarized bulldozers Israel has used to displace and ethnically cleanse more than three million Palestinians and Lebanese from their homes.
As support for Israel drops in polls, Democrats are increasingly trying to distance themselves from the Gaza genocide. A common tactic is to place the blame on “the Netanyahu government,” but this ignores Israel’s long history of ethnic cleansing.
Bernie Sanders’s recent resolutions blocking weapons to Israel failed, but analysts say they suggest that Palestine will serve as a litmus test in the Democratic Party going forward.
27 Senators, including the majority of Democrats, voted for a Bernie Sanders effort to block arm sales to Israel.
Democratic lawmakers are pressuring Trump as a new Gallup poll shows that just 32% of Americans back Israel’s actions in Gaza, an all-time low.
Trump has threatened to join Israel’s war on Iran, but the American people want no part of it.
Amid Israel’s continued attacks on Iran, U.S. lawmakers from across the political spectrum are pushing efforts to curb Donald Trump’s war powers as U.S. involvement in the war threatens to fracture Trump’s political coalition.
The campus group Hillel has expressed concerns about Trump’s student repression, but it’s impossible to take the organization’s sentiments seriously given its history of attacking free speech on Palestine.