The Democrats of the Senate face a key test on Israel while Sanders obliges the vote of weapons

Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT., Plans to force a vote on the ban on arms sales in Israel, a decision that will prove to be a test for the Democrats of the Senate whose position on the Jewish State has changed in recent weeks.

Sanders, an independent who is regularly caucus with the Senate Democrats, announced that he would force a vote on a pair of resolutions to block the sale of $ 675 million thousands of bombs and guidance kits for bombs and to stop the sale of “tens of thousands” of automatic rifles in Israel.

“American taxpayers have spent tens of billions of dollars in support of the racist and extremist government of Netanyahu,” Sanders said in a statement. “Enough, that’s enough.”

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Senator Bernie Sanders and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Getty Images)

This is not the first time that Sanders has pushed to block sales of arms or military aid in the Jewish state. Since December 2023, only a few months after the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the legislator has introduced or forced votes on resolutions five times, each intended to block military aid and billions of dollars in ammunition and weapons.

His last attempt comes after photos revealed hungry children in Gaza that he has only accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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President Donald Trump is listening to a meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa in the Oval Blank Office on July 16, 2025 in Washington. (AP photo / Alex Brandon)

“Time has long been expected that Congress has used the leverage effect that we have – tens of billions of weapons and military aid – to demand that Israel end these atrocities,” he said.

The vote, expected on Thursday evening, comes when the Democrats of the Senate have undergone a tonal change on Israel since the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas has executed a brutal attack on Israeli soil.

Sanders’ last attempt earlier this year, which sought to block more than $ 8 billion in arms sales, saw 15 Democrats from the Senate voting for this, while all the Senate Republicans voted against. Although resolutions are likely to fail as its previous attempts have done, more democrats should vote alongside it.

Israeli officials oppose the resolution of the ceasefire of the United Nations Security Council expected

The leader of the majority in the Senate, Senator John Thune, Rs.d., on the right, is expressed while the senator of the majority of the Senate, Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Listens to a press briefing after the republican political lunch of the weekly Senate at the American Capitol on July 22, 2025, in Washington. (Getty Images / Alex Wong)

Earlier this week, 40 Democrats from the Senate wrote Marco Rubio to Secretary of State and an American special envoy in the Middle East Steve Witkoff and called for administration to put pressure on “a large-scale expansion of aid and humanitarian services throughout the Gaza Strip”.

The Senate Republicans largely blamed the conditions reported in Gaza on Hamas, some requiring more food aid to make its way in the Gaza Strip. President Donald Trump has promised that more food centers, administered by Israel, would arrive.

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Head of the majority of the Senate John ThuneRs.d. said that he shared Trump’s point of view and that there was a desire to “meet this need and relieve this pain”.

“But you should also understand that when you have a terrorist group like Hamas operating in this region, they intercept and divert a large part of this food aid that happens there,” he said. “This is the challenge that the Israelis have. This is the challenge that we have and other nations around the world.”