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Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, the administration's report pursuant to National Security Memorandum 20 concluded that ``it is reasonable to assess that defense articles . . . have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its . . . [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.'' That is the administration.
The report stated that ``high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using [effective civilian harm mitigation] effectively in all cases.'' That is the administration.
It is not just the civilian casualties and the violations of international human rights. Other provisions of U.S. law are also applicable. Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act also states that ``No assistance shall be furnished . . . to any country when it is made known to the President that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.''
The whole world has witnessed Israel's restriction of humanitarian aid. The U.N. and virtually every humanitarian group says that Israel's restrictive policies are the primary cause of the humanitarian catastrophe now taking place in Gaza. The administration says as much, admitting that ``Israel did not fully cooperate with United States government efforts and the United States government-supported international efforts to maximize humanitarian assistance flow to and distribution within Gaza.'' In fact, frankly, that severely understates the reality.
No matter how people here in Washington may try to spin it, the simple fact is that we must end our complicity in Israel's illegal and indiscriminate military campaign, which has caused mass civilian death and suffering.
The law also says that arms sales must advance U.S. foreign policy interests. If we are going to sell arms, they must advance U.S. foreign policy interests.
These transfers, again, fall far short. These sales would reward Netanyahu's extremist government even as it flouts--openly flouts--U.S. policy goals at every turn and, in fact, drags the United States closer to a regional war.
For months, the Biden administration has been trying to reach a cease-fire deal that would secure the release of the hostages and allow massive amounts of humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza. Every time a deal appears close, Netanyahu moves the goalposts, introducing new demands and torpedoing the deal. It is clear to me that Netanyahu is prolonging the war in order to cling to power and avoid prosecution at home for corruption. That is why hundreds of thousands of Israelis routinely take to the streets to protest his policies.
But it is not just his sabotage of a cease-fire for hostage deal. Netanyahu has also overseen record settlement expansion in the West Bank and unleashed a wave of violence there that has killed nearly 700 Palestinians, including 150 children killed over the last 11 months. Because so much focus is on Gaza, we are not paying attention to the disaster taking place in the West Bank.
Americans have also been caught up in this bloodshed. On September 6, Israeli security forces shot a 26-year-old American recent college graduate in the head near an illegal settlement in the West Bank. In January, they shot and killed a 17-year-old American high school senior from Louisiana. In February, they shot and killed another 17-year old American from Florida. And in October of last year, they nearly killed a constituent of mine from Vermont, Dylan Collins, a journalist for Agence France-Press, with two tank rounds. Six journalists were wounded in that attack, which killed a Reuters journalist. The group was clearly marked as ``press.'' These are the same tank rounds the administration would provide to Israel in this sale.
Needless to say, there has been no--zero--accountability for these deaths.
And, of course, there has been no accountability for the repeated Israeli settler attacks, enabled by security forces, on Palestinian towns and villages; no meaningful response to the burning of Palestinian homes and businesses--nothing but silence in the face of a concerted rightwing Israeli effort to illegally annex the West Bank.
Yet those are the Netanyahu extremist government policies that these sales would reward. I say that to my colleagues. All of this is going on; and should our response to Mr. Netanyahu say: Keep it up, here are more arms; here are more money?
A government that has caused mass civilian deaths, flouted U.S. and international law, and that is actively undermining key U.S. policy goals in the region should not be receiving more financial aid from America and should not be receiving military weaponry from the United States.
Passing a joint resolution to block these sales will make clear to the Netanyahu government that they cannot continue to ignore the U.S. Government's demands for an immediate cease-fire and the release of the hostages. It will put pressure on its extremist government to change Israel's military approach and avert a regional war. And it may--just may--begin to restore a shred of U.S. credibility abroad.
Passing a joint resolution of disapproval is not only the right thing to do, it is not only the legal and appropriate thing to do, it is also what the American people want us to do. According to a June 5 poll from CBS News, 61 percent of Americans oppose sending weapons and supplies to Israel, including 77 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Independents, and many Republicans as well. And that poll is consistent with earlier polls.
This is not a new or radical idea. The United States routinely conditions military aid, arms sales, and security cooperation with every other country. This ain't new. We have done it over and over again. And we have done it many times before with Israel. It is not a new idea. It is only in recent years that the idea of leveraging aid to Israel to secure policy changes has become controversial.
President Ronald Reagan, I say to my Republican colleagues, suspended the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Israel over its raid on the Osirak reactor in Iraq; threatened to suspend military aid to end Israel's bombardment of Beirut; and again threatened to stop military aid to force an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 1982. That was President Ronald Reagan. President Jimmy Carter similarly leveraged aid to change Israeli policies in Lebanon. In 1991, then-Secretary of State James Baker threatened to withhold $10 billion in loan guarantees unless Israel stopped settlement expansion.
In other words, using arms sales and military aid as leverage is not a new idea. It has been done under Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents.
There is also recent precedent of Congress's acting to stop the indiscriminate bombing of civilians. In 2019, Congress passed a series of JRDs to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia over its bombing campaign in Yemen. At that point, the Saudi coalition was directly responsible for, roughly, 8,000 civilian deaths over 4 years, mostly from airstrikes. Israel has killed 41,000 in less than a year.
Blocking these sales would also be in keeping with actions taken by the international community and some of our closest allies. So what I am suggesting here is not unique in the world. It has taken place all over the world, including with some of our closest allies. There has been widespread condemnation of Israel's conduct during this war from governments around the world, international institutions, and humanitarian organizations.
The United Kingdom recently suspended 30 export licenses for a range of armaments after concluding there was an unacceptable risk they could be used in violation of international humanitarian law. Germany has not approved an offensive weapons transfer since March. Italy, Spain, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands have taken similar steps. United Nations bodies have called for an end to the arms shipments fueling the conflict.
We cannot continue to ignore what the extremist Netanyahu government is doing in Gaza. We cannot continue to be complicit in this humanitarian disaster. The time is long overdue for the U.S. Senate to act, and we must act. I hope my colleagues will support this effort on the floor, and my office is ready to answer any questions that Senators may have.
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