The US Senate blocked a pair of resolutions Wednesday that were introduced by progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and aimed at blocking over $675 million in arms sales to Israel, but for the first time, a majority of Democrats voted against the weapons transfers.
Twenty-seven Democrats voted to block the sale of tens of thousands of assault rifles to Israel, compared to 17 who voted with Republicans to advance the transfer.
Twenty-four Democrats voted to block the sale of 5,000 heavy bombs and guidance kits to Israel, compared to 20 who voted with Republicans to advance the transfer.
Sanders, an independent, has brought such resolutions to the Senate floor throughout the Gaza war, and Wednesday’s were sure to fail like all previous ones, given that Republicans don’t even need help from Democrats to block the measures due to the GOP majority.
But the two latest votes showed how Democrats have grown increasingly disillusioned with Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
The last time Sanders brought a resolution to the floor in April, only 15 Democrats voted to try and block a weapons sale. It was a drop from the previous attempt in November 2024, when 19 Democrats voted to oppose such a transfer.
In a statement celebrating the shift within the Democratic Party, Sanders said the majority of his caucus “voted to stop sending arms shipments to a Netanyahu government which has waged a horrific, immoral, and illegal war against the Palestinian people.”
“The tide is turning. The American people do not want to spend billions to starve children in Gaza,” he added. “The Democrats are moving forward on this issue, and I look forward to Republican support in the near future.”
The Democrats who joined Sanders in the vote against the sale of assault rifles were Senators Angela Alsobrooks, Tammy Baldwin, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Tammy Duckworth, Dick Durbin, Martin Heinrich, Mazie Hirono, Angus King, Amy Klobuchar, Tim Kaine, Andy Kim, Ben Ray Luján, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Patty Murray, Jon Ossoff, Jack Reed, Jeanne Shaheen, Tina Smith, Chris Van Hollen, Raphael Warnock, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, Sheldon Whitehouse and Brian Schatz.
The Democrats who voted to allow the rifle sale were Senators Michael Bennet, Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker, Maria Cantwell, Chris Coons, Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman, Kirsten Gillibrand, Maggie Hassan, John Hickenlooper, Alex Padilla, Gary Peters, Jacky Rosen, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, Mark Warner and Ron Wyden.
Reed, Whitehouse and Ossoff switched sides for the other vote on the guided bombs.
Ossoff, Warnock and Shaheen — who is the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — voted against blocking weapons sales to Israel the last time Sanders brought such a measure to a vote in April.
Israel’s international standing had already begun to slide by April, with critics blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the war’s extension as he largely refused to engage in talks on the second phase of a ceasefire, which collapsed in March, as Israel resumed operations in Gaza.
Most of the two months that followed the vote saw Israel enforce a full aid blockade over Gaza, which lasted 78 days. The policy was aimed at pressuring Hamas to release the remaining hostages, but it largely backfired, as Israel was overwhelmingly blamed for the humanitarian crisis that followed.
Israel eventually eased the blockade and installed a new system for aid distribution that it said would box Hamas out of the process by handing out goods to Palestinians at isolated, militarized hubs operated by American security contractors. But operations have been marred by repeated shootings of Palestinians who have been forced to walk long distances in the heat in order to reach the distribution sites, and distribution has been chaotic, as food insecurity in the Strip is still extremely high after the nearly three-month Israeli blockade.
Additionally, the vast majority of UN aid convoys trying to make their way from the border to warehouses have been looted by hungry, desperate Gazans before they reach their destination.
Aid organizations have welcomed a series of steps Israel began implementing on Sunday to address the crisis, but they say that only a massive, sustained surge of aid will be able to adequately reverse the dire trend.
Meanwhile, hostage negotiations have largely stalled after the US and Israel pulled their negotiating teams from Doha last week due to frustration with Hamas’s response to the latest ceasefire proposal.
The Palestinian terror group has gradually moved away from its demand for an upfront Israeli commitment to permanently end the war in exchange for the remaining hostages, but gaps remain on the scope of Israel’s partial withdrawal during the two-month truce under discussion and the number of Palestinian security prisoners who will be released in exchange for 28 of the 50 remaining living and slain hostages.
Also this week, the Palestinian death toll in the war crossed 60,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed 20,000 terror operatives as of January.