Senate Votes to Block Arms Sales to Israel

[0:00] I move to discharge Senate Joint Resolution 32, providing for congressional disapproval [0:04] of the proposed foreign military sale to the Government of Israel of certain defense articles [0:10] and services from the Committee on Foreign Relations. [0:12] Mr. President, pursuant to Section 36B1 of the Arms Export Control Act, I move to discharge [0:20] the Committee on Foreign Relations from further consideration of SJRES 138. [0:27] The clerk will report the motion. [0:29] Senator from Vermont, Mr. Sanders, moves to discharge Senate Joint Resolution 138, providing [0:35] for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sale to the Government of [0:39] Israel of certain defense articles and services from the Committee on Foreign Relations. [0:43] Mr. President, I recognize the Senator from Vermont. [0:49] Thank you. [0:50] Mr. President, let me begin by thanking Senator Kelly not only for his remarks and his work [0:58] as a U.S. Senator, but for his service to our country in the military. [1:03] And I very much appreciate his support for these resolutions. [1:07] Mr. President, 60 percent of our people here in the United States live paycheck to paycheck. [1:18] They are struggling to pay for groceries, for housing, for health care, and increasingly, [1:26] the ability to fill up their gas tanks and their cars in order to get to work. [1:32] We also have a $37 trillion national debt. [1:38] Bottom line, the American people, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, [1:46] conservatives, moderates, or progressives, want to make certain that their tax dollars are [1:53] spent responsibly. And in strong and growing numbers, they do not want us to continue spending [2:04] billions of their taxpayer dollars in support of the illegal, horrific, and expansionist war [2:12] policies of the Netanyahu government in Israel. [2:18] Since October 7, 2023, the United States has provided over $21 billion, $21 billion in military [2:30] aid to Israel. And today we are saying loudly and clearly, enough is enough. [2:41] Mr. President, we all know that on October 7, 2023, Hamas, a terrorist organization, attacked Israel. [2:51] They killed more than 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, and took hundreds of hostages. [3:01] I believe that there is no disagreement in this chamber that, like any other country on Earth, [3:10] Israel had the absolute right to respond to that barbaric Hamas attack. [3:18] But Mr. President, Israel did not have the right to violate international law, [3:26] and wage an all-out war of unspeakable destruction against the entire Palestinian people in what [3:38] experts have correctly concluded is a genocide. Israel did not have the right, out of a population of 2.2 [3:48] million, to kill more than 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wound over 170,000. That is more than 10% of the population. [4:03] If that happened here in America, that would be over 30 million Americans dead or wounded. And in Gaza, [4:13] a strong majority of the dead and wounded are women, children, and the elderly. And by the way, [4:21] that number is likely an underestimate as to the tragedy, as bodies are literally [4:29] being pulled out of the rubble every single day. Mr. President, Israel did not have the right [4:38] to destroy virtually all of Gaza's infrastructure, including its water and sewer systems and its supply [4:48] of electricity. They did not have the right to demolish every one of Gaza's 12 universities, [4:57] along with hundreds of schools, dismantling their entire educational system. The vast majority of the [5:03] the children in Gaza today are not in school. Israel did not have the right to indiscriminately bomb [5:11] civilian neighborhoods and damage or destroy over 90% of the housing units in Gaza. Over 90% [5:22] damaged or destroyed, resulting in the vast majority of the population there now sleeping in tents. That is [5:31] where they are today. Israel did not have the right to bomb over 90% of the hospitals in Gaza, hospitals, [5:42] and kill 1,700 healthcare workers. And Mr. President, Israel did not have the right to impose a blockade [5:55] which prevented food, water, and medicine from entering Gaza, resulting in thousands of Palestinians [6:03] being diagnosed with malnutrition and hundreds actually starving to death. But Mr. President, [6:13] today we are not just talking about Gaza. In the West Bank, in direct violation of international law [6:24] that protects Palestinian territory, Israeli soldiers and settlers since October 2023 have killed over a [6:34] 1,000 Palestinians, including 233 children. During that period, Mr. President, they have demolished more than [6:47] 6,000 Palestinian homes and established more than 200 new illegal settlements and outposts in Palestinian [6:58] territory. And let us be clear, because I think there is some confusion about this, this is not, [7:07] these actions are not just the results of some extremist out of control settlers who are just doing whatever [7:18] they want. Those actions are consistent with Israeli government policy. Netanyahu's security cabinet has [7:28] approved the most sweeping changes to the West Bank's legal status since 1967, removing nearly all constraints [7:38] the United States on settlement expansion. Netanyahu himself declared, this is Netanyahu, quote, [7:46] there will never be a Palestinian state, end quote. And I say that to some people here who still say, [7:53] well, we're in favor of a two-state solution. That is not Mr. Netanyahu's position. Quote, he said, [8:01] there will never be a Palestinian state. His finance, Mr. Bezalel Smotrich, bragged that new settlement [8:11] construction in the West Bank would bury, that's his word, bury the idea of a Palestinian state. [8:19] But Mr. President, it is not just Gaza and the West Bank. We now know that Netanyahu convinced President [8:31] Trump to start an unprovoked and unconstitutional war on Iran. For 40 years, for 40 years, Netanyahu has [8:43] wanted the United States to participate with Israel in a war against Iran. And finally, after 40 years of effort, [8:53] he finally found in Trump a president willing to go along. He couldn't get Democrats president, Democratic presidents in the past, [9:02] couldn't get Republican presidents in the past. And Trump, he finally found the president willing to go along. [9:09] This war, in violation of international, this war in violation of international law, [9:16] has resulted already in the deaths of thousands of civilians, including hundreds of children in Iran and [9:24] Lebanon, including 26 Israeli civilians who are now dead, and 13 American soldiers who have lost their [9:34] lives so far in this conflict. Mr. President, all over the world, certainly including the United States, [9:42] hundreds of millions of innocent people are suffering the economic consequences of this war, [9:49] with higher prices and growing scarcity of basic goods. I believe that in Vermont now, [9:56] the price of gas, regular gas, is about $4 a gallon. Parts of the country, it is even higher than that. [10:04] But Mr. President, for Netanyahu, Gaza was not enough. Attacking Iran was not enough. Netanyahu is now [10:19] waging a full-blown war of expansion against Lebanon. That war in Lebanon has not only killed more than 2,000 [10:31] people, but has resulted in Israel occupying 14 percent of Lebanese territory. Let me repeat that. [10:41] Mr. President, Mr. President, the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, has announced that all [11:02] Lebanese border villages will be demolished. Will be demolished. His exact words, following, quote, [11:12] the model in Gaza, demolished border villages. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, [11:22] has warned that Dayaya, a suburb of South Beirut, quote, will look like Khan Yunus, end quote, [11:31] a city in Gaza that Israel reduced to rubble. In other words, what they did in parts, what they did in [11:38] Gaza is now what they intend to do in parts of Lebanon. And these, Mr. President, are not threats, [11:48] they are promises. For all of the reasons that I have given, and more, and you're going to hear more [11:56] from some of my colleagues in a few moments, support for Israel in this country has plummeted. [12:05] Today, according to a recent Pew poll, 80 percent of Democrats now have an unfavorable opinion of [12:14] Israel, and 41 percent of Republicans share that view. And the numbers in all parties among young [12:25] people are even higher. Young people, whether they are young Democrats, progressives, conservatives, [12:34] do not want us to continue to fund the horrific war policies of Netanyahu. A recent Quinnipiac poll also [12:46] found that 60 percent, including three quarters of Democrats, two thirds of independents, and 37 [12:55] percent of Republicans, I say that to my Republican colleagues, 37 percent of Republicans, do not want [13:04] the U.S. sending more military aid to Israel. And that is why, Mr. President, I am offering today two joint [13:15] resolutions of disapproval, the only formal mechanism Congress has to block an arms sale. The first [13:23] resolution would block the sale of 151 million dollars in 1,000 pound bombs. The second would block [13:33] $295 million in bulldozers the machines used to demolish homes in the West Bank and Gaza and make a [13:42] Palestinian state physically impossible. Mr. President, the time is long overdue for members of the U.S. [13:55] Senate to start listening to the American people and not to AIPAC. The time is now for us to end all U.S. [14:08] military aid to the extremist Netanyahu government. And a yes vote is an important way forward. [14:17] Mr. President, with that, I would yield to my colleague from Maryland, Senator Chris Van Hollen. [14:30] Mr. President. I recognize a senator from Maryland. Mr. President, I rise in support of the two [14:38] resolutions offered by my colleague, Senator Sanders, that would bar the transfer of certain [14:45] offensive weapons and equipment to the Netanyahu government. Specifically, these resolutions would [14:51] block the transfer of 12,000 1,000-pound bombs and 132 armored bulldozers valued at more than $446 million [15:04] dollars and funded entirely by American taxpayers. Mr. President, we cannot continue to provide a blank [15:13] check to the Netanyahu government as it continues to use U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. and [15:21] international law. As I've long said, Israel was justified in its war against Hamas after the horrific [15:30] attack of October 7, 2023. But the Netanyahu government is not justified in imposing collective [15:39] punishment on all the people of Gaza. As Senator Merkley and I wrote in our report after traveling to the [15:48] region in August 2025, and I quote, the Netanyahu government is implementing a plan to ethnically [15:56] cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. America is complicit. And now, as Senator Sanders indicated, Israeli leaders [16:07] are saying out loud they plan to apply the same plans in southern Lebanon as they implemented [16:14] in Gaza. Senator Sanders mentioned threatening what they did in Khan Yunus. As recently as March 31, [16:23] Israeli Defense Minister Katz said that, and I quote, all homes in Lebanese villages near the border will [16:29] be destroyed in accordance with the Rafa and Beit Hanun model in Gaza, unquote. Well, colleagues, I visited [16:39] Gaza. I visited the Gaza crossing, the Rafa crossing twice, along with my colleague Senator Merkley. First [16:47] in January 2024, when Rafa's population had quadrupled from pre-war levels to more than one million people [16:57] who had been displaced within Gaza, from northern Gaza. And then we traveled to the Rafa crossing in [17:07] August 2025 after the IDF's offensive against Rafa, one that the Biden administration claimed that they [17:17] tried to stop. And on that visit, Senator Merkley and I climbed a rooftop and you could look into Rafa, [17:26] obliterated, reduced to absolute rubble. And as we were told by former IDF soldiers, eyewitnesses who had [17:37] the courage to speak with us, Israel has systematically dismantled essential infrastructure and wrought near [17:44] total destruction of civilian sites throughout Gaza, including through the use of these bulldozers [17:51] and 100,000 pound bombs. And now the Israeli Minister of Defense says they're going to do the same thing [17:59] in southern Lebanon. And indeed, since the war in Lebanon restarted, Israeli forces have killed over 2,000 [18:08] people, including 250 people in 10 minutes the day after the ceasefire was announced. Entire villages [18:17] have been destroyed and over 1.1 million people displaced. Now, let's not forget how we got in [18:26] to this most recent round of destruction in the region. President Trump is fully responsible for [18:33] getting America into this war period. But we know from Trump administration officials and public reporting [18:41] how Prime Minister Netanyahu, for his own reasons, was pushing Trump to attack Iran. Indeed, he said it [18:48] himself. On April 11th, Netanyahu boasted to the Israeli public that Israel was, quote, first to act [18:57] because we knew what was at stake. But if I had told you a year ago that our pilots, men and women, would [19:04] fly in Iran, who would have believed it? Said Prime Minister Netanyahu. Went on to say, if I had told you a year ago [19:12] that the United States of America, the strongest power in the world, would fight by our side, shoulder to [19:19] shoulder, wing to wing for nearly 40 days against the common enemy, who would have believed it? And then [19:26] Prime Minister Netanyahu went on to say, all this happened because we initiated, we acted, we attacked, [19:31] unquote. Now, those of us who have been around here a little while know that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been pushing for a war with [19:39] Iran for a very long time. In fact, he recently publicly acknowledged that the current U.S.-Israel war [19:49] on Iran, quote, allows us to do what I've been hoping to do for 40 years. That's what Prime Minister Netanyahu said. [19:59] I remember when Prime Minister Netanyahu actually presided, spoke before a joint session of Congress, [20:05] asking us not to support the JCPOA, which, of course, prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. [20:11] And, of course, the current president then tore that up when he first came into office. So, Prime Minister Netanyahu [20:19] has been trying to get previous presidents to join him in attacking Iran, but no previous president was [20:25] stupid enough or reckless enough to actually do it. And so here we are. Without facing any imminent threat, [20:34] President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu started an illegal war against Iran. And it is a gross [20:40] violation of international law. Indeed, on April 2nd, a group of over 100 international law experts, [20:48] people who actually believe in international law, included former U.S. and U.N. officials, [20:54] published an open letter stating, quote, the initiation of the campaign was a clear violation [20:59] of the United Nations Charter and that the conduct of the United States and Israeli forces in the war, [21:05] quote, raises serious concerns about violations of international human rights [21:10] and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes. That's on top of the illegal [21:17] illegality of initiating a war against Iran. Now, look, earlier this afternoon, nearly all Democrats [21:28] voted together to end Donald Trump's illegal war against Iran. Many of us have vowed that we will not [21:39] support one taxpayer dollar to continue this war that's making us less safe and less well-off. [21:49] Well, that commitment and determination should apply to the Trump administration and to the [21:55] Netanyahu administration. We need to rein in Trump in this illegal war, and we need to rein in [22:02] the Netanyahu administration in this illegal war. Now, colleagues, I want to focus for a moment [22:10] on the portion of the Sanders resolution that bans the transfer of bulldozers to the IDF. [22:19] These are the bulldozers that helped raise RAFA in Gaza to the ground. And for those who don't [22:28] remember, I ask them to recall the case of Rachel Khoury, a 23-year-old American peace activist who was [22:35] killed by an Israeli bulldozer trying to block the raising of buildings in RAFA over 20 years ago. [22:47] Rachel Khoury has never gotten any justice, and her family will tell you that today. In fact, [22:55] just since January of 2022, at least nine more American citizens have been killed by extremist [23:02] Israeli settlers or security forces in the West Bank. And not one of them, not one, has gotten justice, [23:10] just like Rachel Khoury, no accountability. Now, Mr. President, there's no piece of equipment that [23:17] has helped Israel and Netanyahu government destroy civilian infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza, [23:24] and now Lebanon, more than the bulldozer. Just look at the titles of some of the reporting coming [23:36] from what's happening about southern Lebanon. Guardian title. Everything's gone. Israel destroys entire [23:42] villages. And you can see it for yourself. I really encourage my colleagues just to look at the [23:48] videos. Some of them have been shared by members of the Israeli military themselves. They showed [23:53] controlled detonations and destruction of entire villages. And this isn't new. During the last war in [24:02] Lebanon, Amnesty International documented how the Israeli military carried out extensive and deliberate [24:08] destruction of civilian property across almost the entire Lebanese border with Israel, including 10,000 [24:15] structures, primarily through the use of manually laid explosives and bulldozers. And in the West Bank, [24:24] as we speak, we're seeing violent Israeli settlers kill Palestinian citizens with impunity. And we're [24:38] also seeing the use of these bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank and other civilian [24:44] infrastructures. Again, you can see it for yourselves in the videos. This is all part of a slow motion [24:52] ethnic cleansing effort in the West Bank and de facto annexation of the West Bank. Indeed, the New York [25:01] Times in September 2024 spoke about raids in the West Bank villages of Tulkrum and Janine. The headline was [25:10] this, quote, Israeli bulldozers flattened mile after mile in the West Bank, end quote. In total since [25:19] the Gaza war started, Israeli authorities have demolished at least 4,900 structures in the West [25:25] Bank and displaced 9,000 Palestinians there. And as this has gone on, so has settler violence, [25:37] often with the complicity of the IEDF in the West Bank. Over 1,000 Palestinians, including 230 children, [25:46] have been killed with virtual impunity since October 2023. And with impunity. The Israeli human [25:57] rights organization, Yejdin, said that between 2005 and December 2025, that's a 20-year period, [26:06] more than 93 percent of police investigations into settler violence in the West Bank concluded [26:11] without an indictment. So what are we going to do about this, Mr. President? We need to stop providing [26:22] the Netanyahu government with an absolute blank check. We need to demand accountability for American [26:28] citizens who have been killed there. And so I urge my colleagues now to support this resolution. [26:37] If we want to rein in a Trump administration that launched an illegal war against Iran, we should also [26:45] rein in the Netanyahu administration that's doing exactly the same thing with American taxpayer [26:53] dollars. I yield the floor. I thank the... Senator from Vermont. I thank the Senator from Maryland and [27:00] yield to the Senator from Oregon, Mr. Merkley. Mr. President. I recognize the Senator from Oregon. [27:29] On February 28th, in coordination with and at the urging of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, [27:36] President Trump attacked Iran without congressional authorization. That is, without the authority [27:44] required under our Constitution. And almost immediately, Hezbollah, Iran's proxy, engaged in a battle with [27:53] Israel. And now we have Israel invading southern Lebanon. And the Netanyahu government is exercising [28:04] the same strategy they pursued in Gaza. Drop massive bombs. Level entire towns. Block routes for civilians to [28:19] leave. And block access for humanitarian relief. And the United States, we're partners in this. We're [28:33] complicit in this. Not just because we partnered with Israel to ignite the war with Iran. But because [28:44] we sold the bombs and the bulldozers that Israel is using. We didn't stop supplying the Netanyahu government [28:54] with weapons years ago, even when it became clear that they were deliberately targeting homes, schools, [29:01] and hospitals. When they were blocking deliveries of humanitarian aid, including water, food, and medicine. [29:10] When the result was mass malnutrition, particularly among mothers and children and the elderly. [29:25] We must not continue to be complicit in these tragedies by selling these tools of destruction, [29:35] the bombs and the bulldozer, to Israel. The administration says, let's sell them 12,000 more [29:45] 1,000 pound bombs. Picture 12,000, 1,000 pound bombs dropping on neighborhoods. That's what we're enabling. [29:57] Or a vast number of bulldozers to destroy homes in buildings. We've seen it in the West Bank. Homes and [30:08] villages bulldozed. Ancient olive groves bulldozed. And now we're seeing it in Lebanon. With the Netanyahu [30:19] government bragging about doing the same thing to Lebanon they did to Gaza, make it uninhabitable. [30:26] Let's be clear, bulldozers are not defensive weapons. Recent satellite images of southern Lebanon [30:38] show the Netanyahu government flattening towns, destroying bridges, cutting off civilian movement, [30:43] cutting off humanitarian access, in a replay of the destruction we saw in Gaza. Not to mention, [30:53] the Netanyahu government has supported settlers in their expansion, massive expansion of outposts and [31:04] settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank. In their mass increase in construction of homes and [31:12] villages. And most disturbing of all, supporting the settlers in their violent attacks on Palestinian [31:24] communities. All of this in the goal of creating a greater Israel by destroying any prospect of a [31:34] Palestinian state. And let's not forget, as my colleague from Maryland mentioned, it was a bulldozer [31:42] operated by the Israeli Defense Forces that killed American citizen Rachel Corey in Rafa in 2003. The [31:51] first of 14 American citizens who have been killed by Israeli soldiers since then. Approving this [32:00] sale of the bombs and bulldozers deepens our responsibility for these tragedies and for the [32:11] suffering. Colleagues, when we became senators, we saw an oath to take on the responsibilities [32:19] designated to Congress and the Constitution, including the question of war. As Madison summarized, [32:29] the Constitution supposes what the history of all governments demonstrates, [32:36] that the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, most prone to it. Thus, [32:43] the Constitution has accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the legislature. [32:53] That's the Constitution we swore an oath to. And it's the Constitution that President Trump violated [33:00] by launching a war without congressional authorization. [33:04] In 1973, during the Vietnam War, Congress approved the War Powers Act to, in the words, [33:13] quote, fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution to rein in the President from waging [33:19] wars without congressional approval. The War Powers Act does allow the President to respond to an imminent [33:26] threat that is, and I quote, a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States, [33:31] its territories, possessions, or armed forces. But in this case, no such condition existed, [33:38] and thus the violation of the Constitution. Yet earlier today, my colleagues across the aisle [33:47] voted to allow the President to continue to violate the law and violate the Constitution. [33:52] When will we say, enough is enough? [33:56] Senator Steinbeck's time has expired. [33:58] Thank you, Mr. President. I ask one minute to close. [34:02] You now as consent for one minute to close? [34:04] Senator Steinbeck's time has expired. [34:05] Senator Steinbeck's time has expired. [34:06] Thank you. Let us today, all hundred senators, uphold our oath to the Constitution. [34:11] The indiscriminate use of American bombs in Iran and Lebanon and Gaza to target civilians and [34:18] infrastructure by Israel must end. We should not sell these bulldozers and these bombs to Israel. [34:26] I urge my colleagues to vote for these two joint resolutions of disapproval. Thank you. [34:32] Recognize the senator from Massachusetts. [34:40] Thank you, Mr. President. [34:41] Mr. President, I rise tonight in support of Senator Sanders' joint resolution, [34:48] resolutions of disapproval for select arms sales to Israel. [34:53] The Senate has voted on similar resolutions in the past, all of which I have supported. [35:00] The last time this chamber voted on prior resolutions, [35:03] Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's government was bombarding Gaza. [35:08] A ceasefire had collapsed, hostage-release negotiations had stalled, [35:14] and innocent children and families in Gaza were starving and suffering. [35:19] And that was because the Netanyahu government, [35:22] fueled by extremist Israeli national security minister Ben-Gavir, [35:27] and finance minister Smatrich, and supported by the Trump administration, [35:32] was blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza. [35:38] The large-scale bombs covered by those resolutions went far beyond what Israel needed for its defense. [35:46] Their use would cause indiscriminate damage and only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. [35:53] Now, the need for restrictions on military aid to Netanyahu has only taken on renewed urgency. [36:01] The Trump administration is proposing to sell to Netanyahu 1,000-pound bombs and armored bulldozers [36:09] that Netanyahu could use not only in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, [36:15] but also in Trump's illegal and unnecessary war in Iran. [36:20] I fully support the current ceasefire with Iran. [36:25] But tenuous as it may be, Vice President J.D. Vance's bid for a peace deal in Pakistan last weekend [36:33] failed, and fighting could resume at any time. [36:38] So make no mistake, a vote to approve arms sales to Israel at this time would be seen as a message of [36:44] approval for Trump and Netanyahu's disastrous war against Iran. [36:51] I will not send that message. [36:53] Trump's war of choice in Iran is a moral tragedy, an economic disaster playing out before our eyes. [37:00] It is only making the United States, Israel, and the world less safe. [37:06] Let us count the ways. [37:08] One, we have seen thousands of civilian deaths in Iran and Lebanon. [37:13] More than 100 Iranian schoolgirls have been killed by American weapons, [37:18] and 13 American service members have been killed and hundreds injured. [37:23] Two, the United States and the Netanyahu government are losing credibility. [37:28] In particular, President Trump's threats of war crimes and genocide against Iran [37:33] are a total abdication of moral leadership on the global stage and must be opposed here and everywhere. [37:41] Three, the United States and Iran are blockading the Strait of Hormuz, [37:45] crippling the global economy and sending energy prices sky high. [37:50] Four, gas prices in America are $1.20 a gallon higher than before the war. [37:56] Vehicle owners will be paying $500 to $600 more here in the United States [38:03] over the course of this next year. [38:06] It is going to be Trump at the pump. [38:09] The American people are going to be paying for this war. [38:13] And five, this dangerous, unnecessary, and expensive war has cost the American taxpayer [38:20] about $50 billion so far, with the Trump administration seeking hundreds of billions of dollars more [38:26] as part of a $1.5 trillion military budget, which must be rejected. [38:35] And six, Iran still controls its uranium. [38:38] And seven, there has been no regime change. [38:42] We just swapped out one Ayatollah for another. [38:45] And eight, Iranians are still not free. [38:50] Why would we send American military weapons that could prolong, escalate, [38:54] or worsen this horrible situation in the Middle East? [38:57] I say no more. [38:59] The Senate should express its opposition to Trump and Netanyahu's needless war [39:04] and seek to stop it. [39:06] Number one, we should pass these resolutions to block thousand-pound bombs [39:12] and armored bulldozers for use in this war. [39:15] Two, we should pass a War Powers Resolution that denies President Trump the authority to continue [39:23] this war. [39:23] And three, we should reject any requests for funding to pay for Trump's war of choice. [39:31] Today, we must send a clear message that the United States Senate opposes, [39:36] in the strongest possible terms, Trump and Netanyahu's dangerous, expensive, unnecessary, [39:42] and immoral war. [39:43] There is no military solution to this crisis. [39:47] We must solve this at the negotiating table. [39:49] We must end this war now. [39:52] We must pass these resolutions in order to have the United States Senate speak [39:59] to our outrage at what is happening in the name of the American people. [40:03] Mr. President, with that, I yield. [40:06] The senator from Virginia. [40:11] Mr. President, I rise in support of Senator Sanders' resolutions. [40:14] I'll be voting for both of them. [40:17] On February 21, 2024, I wrote a public letter to President Biden, and I said the Hamas attack [40:28] on Israel is devastating, and Israel faces threats from other adversaries in the region, [40:36] and we should help Israel defend its civilians, but we should do so only by providing defensive [40:42] weapons to Israel and not offensive weapons. [40:47] Why defensive weapons? [40:48] We've long been a security partner of Israel, and those who follow the relationship understand [40:53] there are threats to Israeli civilians that are very present because of actors in the region, [41:00] like Hezbollah and Hamas and the Houthis and Iran and Iranian-backed militias. [41:05] Israeli civilians do face threats that warrant the U.S. providing defensive support. [41:11] But I took the public position more than two years ago now that it would be wrong to send [41:16] offensive weapons to Israel, and that position was based on exactly the same reason. [41:22] Protect civilians. [41:24] Protect Palestinian civilians. [41:27] Protect Lebanese civilians. [41:29] Protect civilians. [41:30] And offensive weapons delivered to Israel and the way they are using them, particularly bombs, [41:37] are guaranteed to cause mass civilian suffering. [41:40] That's what's happened in Gaza. [41:41] That's what is happening in Lebanon. [41:44] And anyone who's paid attention to this region just has to answer this question, [41:50] is more civilian death going to get us to the right place? [41:54] This is a region that has been replete with the deaths of civilians, [41:58] and the U.S. taxpayer in this body should not be pouring gasoline or adding tender to a fire [42:06] where more and more civilians are in jeopardy. [42:09] And so since that public letter to President Biden, [42:12] I have supported Senator Sanders and other resolutions before. [42:16] If weapons are offensive in nature, the U.S. shouldn't be transferring them. [42:23] And I will support the resolutions for that matter. [42:26] We need to protect civilians. [42:28] We don't need to pour gasoline on a fire in a region and accelerate more deaths of civilians. [42:36] I have received some outreach about this particular vote from some who say, [42:41] this is a vote to deny all military aid to Israel. [42:45] That is not what this vote is about. [42:49] This is about denying particular weapons that are offensive in nature. [42:54] Just to give you an order of magnitude, during this term of Congress, [43:00] the president has noticed 27 different arms transfers to Israel. [43:08] And with these two joint resolutions of disapproval, we have challenged six, [43:16] six of those 27's arms transfers as being offensive in nature. [43:21] We have not challenged 21 of the arms transfers that are primarily defensive in nature. [43:27] There has been not a single senator who has brought up a challenge to the defensive [43:32] arms sales because we want to protect civilian lives. [43:36] But when weapons like this that are offensive in nature are guaranteed to lead to the deaths of [43:41] civilians, I think it's appropriate to challenge them. And that's why I am going to support these resolutions. [43:49] I've also had some to say that if these resolutions succeed, the United States is reducing its support [43:55] for Israeli defense. That is also not true. The support for the Israeli defense is a result [44:04] of a 10-year memorandum of understanding that has an annual allocation for Israeli defense [44:10] that has been supplemented by a supplemental bill that was passed by this body in April of 2024. [44:15] That amount of money, which is an annual allocation, gets drawn down by these transfers. [44:22] I would urge my colleagues to support the cessation of offensive weapons transfers. [44:30] If this bill succeeds, it doesn't reduce support for Israeli defense by a single penny. [44:36] It just means that Israel should request and the U.S. should consider transferring defensive weapons to [44:44] enable Israel to defend its own civilians, but not carry out military action that would harm [44:51] other civilians. The principle of let's just stop the damage to civilians in the region seems to me to [44:58] be overwhelming. If the death of civilians was accomplishing anything, we would have seen that [45:04] accomplishment long before now. And so stopping the transfer of offensive weapons seems to me to be the [45:10] right thing to do, not just for the U.S. security interests and the safety of our service members [45:15] in the region, but it's also the right thing to do to promote regional stability and the security of [45:21] Israel. And for that reason, I'll vote for the resolutions, and I appreciate my colleague introducing them. [45:31] The senator from Vermont. [45:34] Let me thank Senator Van Holland and Senator Merkley and Senator Markey and Senator Cain, and before that, [45:42] Senator Kelly for their remarks. The American people increasingly are sick and tired of spending [45:56] billions of dollars in support of illegal, horrific military actions on the part of the Netanyahu [46:05] government. We have spent tens of billions of dollars already. Gaza has been destroyed, 10 percent of the [46:16] population dead or wounded. Netanyahu got Trump into a war in Iran, thousands of civilians are now dead, [46:26] including many children, and now Netanyahu is at war in Lebanon, thousands of civilians dead, [46:34] civilian neighborhoods bombed, a million people displaced from their homes, and 14 percent of [46:42] Lebanese territory occupied by Israel. What the American people are saying is enough and enough, [46:50] and by the way, this is bipartisan. It's not just Democrats, not just Independents. It is a significant [46:57] number of Republicans who remember President Trump talking about America first, talking about the [47:05] needs to invest in this country, not in bombs and bulldozers to destroy people in the Middle East. [47:13] So with that, Mr. President, I would hope that we would have a very strong vote in support of these [47:21] resolutions to tell Netanyahu, to tell the world that enough is enough. And with that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.