[In an interview with VTDigger on Wednesday afternoon, the
independent senator from Vermont said he was opposed to providing
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ‘money with
no strings attached.’ ]
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BERNIE SANDERS VOTES AGAINST FUNDING FOR ISRAEL  
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Sarah Mearhoff
December 6, 2023
Vermont Digger
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_ In an interview with VTDigger on Wednesday afternoon, the
independent senator from Vermont said he was opposed to providing
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ‘money with
no strings attached.’ _

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at a Vermont Democratic Party
gathering in Burlington on Election Day in November 2022. , Glenn
Russell/VTDigger

 

A major foreign aid package designed to support Ukraine’s fight
against Russia and Israel’s fight against Hamas failed on a key
procedural vote in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday as a united Republican
caucus — joined by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — opposed it.

The measure needed 60 votes to advance but won the support of just 49
senators, dealing a major blow to President Joe Biden, who said
Wednesday that such a result could “kneecap Ukraine on the
battlefield.” Among those voting in favor of the $111 billion bill
was Vermont’s junior U.S. senator, Democrat Peter Welch. 

Hours before Wednesday’s vote, Sanders told VTDigger in an interview
that it was the measure’s funding for Israel — not Ukraine
— that prompted his opposition. Republicans, meanwhile, said they
objected to the bill because it insufficiently addressed security
concerns along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“My view is that the most effective way to change Israeli military
policy is to make it clear to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin)
Netanyahu, we are not going to give him money with no strings
attached,” Sanders said.

To send billions of U.S. dollars to fund Israel’s wartime effort
without conditions, Sanders said, would signal American complicity in
the targeting of innocent Palestinians. Since the Israel-Hamas War
began in October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry,
more than 16,000 Palestinians — a majority of them women and
children — have been killed in the conflict, Reuters reported
Wednesday
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Hamas fighters killed more than 1,200 Israeli citizens and soldiers
during the group’s surprise attack on October 7.

Sanders was the first in the Senate Democratic caucus, in
mid-November, to call for conditioning U.S. aid to Israel. But ahead
of this week’s vote, his appeals took on a more urgent tone. 

In an open letter to his colleagues Tuesday night, he suggested that,
absent guardrails on how Israel was able to spend U.S. aid and
continue to wage war against Hamas, he would vote ‘no’ on the $111
billion military package, which included $50 billion in funding for
Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel. 

On Wednesday afternoon, Sanders told VTDigger that he had not seen
such guardrails put in place and made clear he planned to vote
‘no’ on the bill as it stood.

Most objectionable to Sanders was roughly $10.1 billion in U.S. aid to
Israel, which he dubbed “no-strings-attached money.” The
supplemental package before Congress would also have allocated roughly
$4 billion for Israel’s defense systems, such as the Iron Dome.
Sanders said he did not consider that portion of the money a problem.

As for the conditions Sanders was seeking, he told VTDigger that he
wanted Netanyahu’s government to commit, in writing, to the
“absolute right” of Gazans to return to their homes once the
conflict has ended, to pledge that there will be no long-term military
occupation or blockade of Gaza and, “most importantly,” that the
Israeli government will truly work toward a two-state solution,
“which will finally guarantee the Palestinian people a home of their
own, self-rule and stability.”

Referring to Netanyahu as a “right-wing extremist,” Sanders said
Wednesday afternoon, “I believe I’m the first member of the Senate
to say, ‘No, we’re not going to give Netanyahu … $10 billion to
continue this horrific, inhumane military policy.’”

Still, Sanders has not called for an all-out cease-fire in the
conflict. Both of his colleagues in Vermont’s congressional
delegation — first U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt.
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and then Welch
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— have done so in recent weeks.

* Bernie Sanders
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* Israel
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