Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) told Face The Nation that the United States of America needs to begin limiting the aid it sends to Israel due to the collateral damage caused in the Gaza Strip.
"You can go to war against Hamas, but you cannot go to war against the Palestinian people and cause the horrific civilian casualties we are seeing right now. 16,000 are dead, two-thirds of whom are women and children. 1.5 million people are without food or medical supplies. It's a humanitarian disaster, and the US needs to push Netanyahu to stop it," stated Sanders.
"Israel may be acting in rage following the Oct. 7th attack, or some people in its right-wing government may be trying to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza completely. Either way, Israel is losing the war for how the world is perceiving the war, and it would be irresponsible of the United States to give Netanyahu another ten billion dollars to use in this awful war," he added.
Sanders criticized the decision to veto the UN's most recent call for a ceasefire: "I strongly support the United Nations resolution that the United States vetoed yesterday. That resolution called for a humanitarian ceasefire and the release of all the hostages and would have allowed the UNRWA to begin supplying the enormous amounts of humanitarian aid that the Palestinians need."
He reiterated a statement he has made in the past that there must only be a pause, not a long-term ceasefire. “In terms of a long-term ceasefire, I don’t know how you can have a permanent ceasefire with Hamas, who has said before October 7 and after October 7 that they want to destroy Israel and they want a permanent war. I don’t know how you have a permanent ceasefire with an attitude like that. Israel has the right to defend itself and go after Hamas, but not the Palestinian people."
He insisted that there should be no defense bills that don't meet the standards against civilian casualties passed in Congress. "I strongly support aid to Israel, the same way I strongly support aid to Ukraine to help them stand up to Putin's aggression. We need to make it clear to Netanyahu, however, that we are not giving him a blank check to kill women and children."
"I think the war hasn't helped the Democratic party. At the end of the day, people are looking around, seeing these awful things, and thinking, 'Why are we giving them money to do this?' In that way, the war has been unhelpful."
Sanders also spoke about the rising antisemitism in the United States: "We believe strongly in free speech, but when someone says that they believe in genocide for Jewish people, or racist attacks against black people on college campuses, that is something that we have to deal with."