Sanders urges halt to aid

Bernie Sanders spent the past week pressing a single demand: Congress should stop sending military aid to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. (sanders.senate.gov) On April 15, Sanders forced Senate votes on two measures to block sales of bombs and bulldozers to Israel. The resolutions failed, but they drew 40 votes on one measure and 36 on the other, with more than three dozen Democrats backing at least one effort. (apnews.com) The package Sanders targeted included a possible $151.8 million sale of 12,000 BLU-110A/B 1,000-pound bomb bodies and a separate bulldozer sale valued at nearly $300 million. Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the bomb sale on March 6 under emergency authority, waiving the usual congressional review period. (state.gov) (aljazeera.com) Sanders tied his push to Israel’s wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and to the broader U.S.-Israel security relationship. In an April 15 essay, he wrote that “the time is long overdue” to end U.S. military aid to what he called the “extremist Netanyahu government.” (sanders.senate.gov) The fight is over more than one arms package. Under a 10-year memorandum covering fiscal years 2019 through 2028, the United States provides Israel $3.3 billion a year in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million a year for missile defense. (state.gov) (congress.gov) That aid has grown since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the wars that followed. A Congressional Research Service report says Congress added $3.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $5.2 billion for missile defense and laser-defense programs in the April 2024 emergency supplemental law. (congress.gov) Sanders has been trying to slow or stop those transfers for more than a year. Congress.gov shows one March 2025 resolution to block a proposed sale was rejected 15-82, and the Congressional Research Service says two such efforts failed 15-83 and 15-82 in 2025. (congress.gov 1) (congress.gov 2) The regional backdrop shifted again this month. United Nations and Associated Press reports said a two-week United States-Iran ceasefire announced on April 8 was strained by continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, while Gaza remained under a separate ceasefire that took effect about six months ago. (news.un.org) (apnews.com 1) (apnews.com 2) The Trump administration has argued the opposite case. Rubio said on March 1 that the White House had approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel since Trump returned to office and said the administration would continue using “all available tools” to support Israel’s security. (state.gov) So Sanders’ online posts were not just commentary. They were part of a live Senate campaign to turn anger over Gaza, Lebanon and Iran into votes against a security partnership Washington still funds at billions of dollars a year. (apnews.com) (state.gov)