As a cease-fire ticked down last week and Israel prepared to resume its round-the-clock airstrikes, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a robust group of Democratic senators had a message for their president: they were done “asking nicely” for Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza.
The lawmakers warned President Joe Biden’s national security team that planned U.S. aid to Israel must be met with assurances of concrete steps from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
“The truth is that if asking nicely worked, we wouldn’t be in the position we are today,” Sanders said in a floor speech. It was time for the United States to use its “substantial leverage” with its ally, the Vermont senator said.
“And we all know what that leverage is,” he said, adding, “the blank-check approach must end.”
With Biden’s request for a nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs hanging in the balance, the senators’ tougher line on Israel has gotten the White House’s attention, and that of Israel.
Lawmakers of both major political parties for decades have embraced the U.S. role as Israel’s top protector, and it’s all but inconceivable that they would vote down the wartime aid.
The Democratic lawmakers are adamant that’s not their intent, as strong supporters of Israel’s right of self-defence against Hamas.
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But just the fact that Democratic lawmakers are making that link signals the fractures in Congress amid the daily scenes of suffering among besieged Palestinian civilians.
Sanders and the Democratic senators involved say they are firm in their stand that Israel’s military must adopt substantive measures to lessen civilian deaths in Gaza as part of receiving the supplemental’s $14.3 billion in U.S. aid for Israel’s war.
The United States military has blamed the Houthis, “fully enabled by Iran,” for the attacks on ships in the Red Sea, saying they “represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security.”
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed they targetted “two Israeli ships” in the Red Sea, part of a series of attacks against commercial vessels in international waters on Sunday during which the U.S. said one of its destroyers shot down three drones.