Sanders calls to halt aid

Bernie Sanders is pushing a once-fringe position deeper into the Senate: end U.S. military aid to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. (sanders.senate.gov) Sanders published that demand in an April 15 op-ed and paired it with a public video message after forcing Senate votes on two resolutions to block specific arms sales to Israel. The Senate rejected those measures on April 15, but 40 Democrats voted to block a bulldozer sale and 36 voted to block a bomb sale. (sanders.senate.gov) (usnews.com) The two resolutions targeted about $450 million in U.S. sales of bombs and bulldozers to Israel. Associated Press reported the votes failed 40-59 and 36-63, with all Republicans opposed. (usnews.com 1) (usnews.com 2) Sanders has been escalating this campaign for more than a year, using Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, a congressional tool that lets lawmakers force votes on notified arms sales. His March 27, 2025 statement said one earlier package involved $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions for Israel. (sanders.senate.gov) (fcnl.org) The fight is larger than one sale because U.S. support for Israel runs on a standing aid framework as well as case-by-case weapons transfers. The Congressional Research Service says the 2016 U.S.-Israel memorandum covers $38 billion in military aid from fiscal 2019 through fiscal 2028. (congress.gov) That agreement works out to $3.8 billion a year, including $33 billion in Foreign Military Financing grants and $5 billion for missile defense over the decade. The State Department says the United States has provided Israel more than $130 billion in bilateral assistance since 1948. (congress.gov) (state.gov) What changed this week was not the outcome but the size of the Democratic bloc backing Sanders. Associated Press said support for his arms restrictions has more than doubled since 2024, and Jewish Insider counted 40 Senate Democrats for one measure and 36 for the other. (usnews.com) (jewishinsider.com) Some of those votes came from senators who had opposed Sanders before. Jewish Insider reported that Mark Kelly, Adam Schiff, Cory Booker, Mark Warner and several other Democrats flipped to support at least one of the latest resolutions. (jewishinsider.com) Supporters of continued aid say cutting off weapons would weaken a U.S. ally facing threats from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Reuters reported Republicans rallied behind President Donald Trump’s support for Israel, while Senator Jim Risch argued Sanders’ proposals would leave Israel vulnerable and make the United States look unreliable in the region. (usnews.com) (thejewishedition.com) Netanyahu has also complicated the politics by saying he wants Israel to reduce its dependence on U.S. military aid over the next decade. Reuters reported on January 10 that he said he hoped to taper that aid to zero within 10 years. (nbcnews.com) Sanders’ immediate goal still falls short of ending aid outright, because his resolutions can block individual transfers but do not cancel the broader aid memorandum by themselves. His larger message is now landing with far more Senate Democrats than it did in 2024. (fcnl.org) (usnews.com)