Senator Bernie Sanders is set to force a Senate vote this week on resolutions that would block the United States from selling nearly half a billion dollars' worth of weapons to Israel, including 12,000 one-thousand-pound bombs worth $151.8 million and $295 million in military bulldozers. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, is using a legislative procedure that brings a bill to the Senate floor without the approval of the majority leader — bypassing Republican leadership, which controls the chamber.
The measures are widely expected to fail in the Republican-controlled Senate, as all three previous rounds of similar resolutions introduced by Sanders have been defeated. Yet the votes carry significant political weight as a barometer of shifting sentiment among Democrats. Support within the Democratic caucus has fluctuated: 15 senators backed similar resolutions last April, rising to 27 in July 2024, then falling to 18 in November of that year. A majority of Senate Democrats backed the most recent iteration, suggesting a gradual trend toward greater willingness to challenge unconditional military support for Israel.
"Let us be clear: given the horrific and illegal behavior of the Netanyahu government over the last three years, the American people have had enough," Sanders said ahead of the vote, citing a Pew Research Center survey finding that 80% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans now view Israel negatively. A separate Gallup poll from February found that only 46% of Americans hold a favourable view of Israel, with just 17% of Democratic respondents saying they sympathise more with Israelis than Palestinians.
The votes come against the backdrop of Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as a broader US-Israeli conflict with Iran that critics say was launched without congressional authorisation. Progressive lawmakers, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna, have gone further, calling for a halt to all US military aid, including defensive systems like the Iron Dome missile shield. Outside the Senate, pressure is mounting: dozens of protesters were arrested Monday outside the New York offices of senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer urging them to support the resolutions, and a coalition of progressive organisations including MoveOn, Indivisible, and J Street — a liberal group that describes itself as pro-Israel — signed a letter calling for weapons sales to be paused.
Why this matters: the votes reflect a structural shift in the US political debate over Israel that would have seemed unlikely just a few years ago. While American military assistance to Israel — totalling more than $21 billion in the first two years of the Gaza conflict alone — remains firmly in place, the growing willingness of elected Democrats to formally challenge it signals a fracturing of the bipartisan consensus that has long defined Washington's approach to one of its closest alliances.