Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday welcomed the news that the Biden administration has held certain arms transfers to Israel.
“Given the unprecedented humanitarian disaster that Netanyahu’s war has created in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of children face starvation, President Biden is absolutely right to halt bomb delivery to this extreme, right-wing Israeli government. But this must be a first step,” Sanders said in a statement.
“The US must now use ALL its leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, the end of the attacks on Rafah, and the immediate delivery of massive amounts of humanitarian aid to people living in desperation. Our leverage is clear. Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrific war against the Palestinian people,” he added.
Sanders’ statement followed confirmation from US officials that the US had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The shipment which was paused was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, a US official told The Associated Press, with the focus of US concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting.
Sanders has been critical of Israel’s government in the past, referring to it as “racist” and has long advocated for the US to condition its aid to Israel.
Sanders previously called on Congress to reject the $10.1 billion in unconditional military aid being considered for Israel, saying the funds would be used by the Israeli government “to continue its brutal war against the Palestinian people.”
In contrast to Sanders’ welcoming of Biden’s move,Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday sent a letter to the President urging that congressionally appropriated security assistance to Israel should be expedited immediately.
Also on Wednesday, US Senator Lindsey Graham grilled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Charles Q. Brown Jr. on the Biden administration's freezing of an arms shipment to Israel, demanding to know if they would have dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan in order to end World War II.
"If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the State of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price. This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war. They can’t afford to lose. This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids," Graham warned.