Democratic rebels send Biden stern message on Gaza 

A group of Senate Democrats on Tuesday voted in favor of advancing a resolution proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-Vt.) that includes a possible freeze on U.S. military aid to Israel and the war in Gaza. It sent a sharp message to President Biden that the situation is becoming large-scale. That's a problem for his party.

The Senate voted 72-11 to take up the issue, but the number of Democrats who supported the bill was overshadowed by the number of civilian casualties in Gaza, now said to be more than 24,000. This reflects growing dissatisfaction among progressives with regard to the

Liberals are also frustrated by the lack of a clear deadline for ending the war.

Nine Democrats voted for Sanders, as did Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a frequent critic of U.S. foreign aid.

Sanders, the Senate's leading critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's response to the siege and invasion of Gaza, said it was “immoral.”

On Tuesday, he slammed his colleagues over the rising death toll and the widespread use of U.S.-supplied bombs and shells in densely populated civilian areas.

“Whether we like it or not, the United States is complicit in the nightmare that millions of Palestinians are currently experiencing,” he declared on the Senate floor, adding that hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza are ” They are starving before our eyes.”

He cited media reports that Israel had dropped more than 22,000 U.S.-supplied bombs on Gaza in six weeks, including a 2,000-pound bomb capable of destroying entire neighborhoods. Stated.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who voted in favor of advancing the resolution, said she wanted to send a message.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu needs to understand that he is not receiving a blank check from the U.S. Congress,” she said. “We have a responsibility to stand up now and say, given how Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing war cabinet have run this war, there are important questions to ask before we move forward with further aid. ”

He said the Biden administration was “pressuring” the Netanyahu government to reduce the number of civilian deaths and gradually reduce the intensity of the fighting. [has] We have a role to play here in helping Prime Minister Netanyahu understand that we are not writing him a blank check. ”

Other Democrats who voted in favor of the resolution were Sens. LaFonza Butler (California), Martin Heinrich (New Mexico), Maisie Hirono (Hawaii), and Ben Ray. They were Sen. Lujan (New Mexico), Sen. Ed Markey (Massachusetts), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (Oregon). , Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) and Peter Welch (Vermont).

A group of progressive Democrats are also considering putting conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel.

Opinion polls show that Biden's handling of the war in Gaza is a growing political liability as he looks toward re-election.

A New York Times/Siena College poll last month found that 57% of registered voters nationwide disapproved of Biden's handling of the conflict, including 37% of Democrats. Ta.

Of particular concern to Biden's political advisers is that 72% of registered voters between the ages of 18 and 29, a demographic that strongly voted for Biden in 2020, disapprove of his performance on this issue. .

Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, chair of the Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, acknowledged that young voters are dissatisfied with Biden's Israel policy.

But she argued that the White House, not Congress, should take the lead in pressuring Israel to prevent the humanitarian crisis from worsening.

“We need to be very careful and thoughtful in working with the regime. I will never support Prime Minister Netanyahu. I think his instinct is to vastly overreact.” she said.

“It's a very scary situation for everyone in terms of the loss of life. And I know that President Biden understands that and is doing everything in his power to stop that.” she added.

Mr. Stabenow voted in favor of Mr. Sanders' proposal.

The resolution would have given the State Department 30 days to submit a report on human rights violations committed during the invasion of Gaza. If the State Department fails to meet the deadline, aid to Israel will be frozen.

Vermont senators invoked a little-known provision of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to force a vote to kill the resolution from the Foreign Relations Committee.

The only time the Foreign Relations Committee requested a report on the human rights record of a country receiving U.S. aid under the same section of the Foreign Assistance Act was in 1976, according to Sanders' office.

The vote was a test for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, a staunch ally of Israel. He wanted to minimize Democratic votes for a possible cutoff of aid to Israel, which Republicans would like to use as a political tool.

This is a very sensitive issue within the Democratic caucus, stirring strong emotions on both sides of the issue.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Md.) warned that just passing the Sanders resolution in the Senate would immediately threaten U.S. aid to Israel.

“Make no mistake about it, the resolution we passed is what causes this,” he said, his voice rising with passion in the chamber. “If passed, it would begin the process of cutting off aid to Israel during the war.”

Schumer did not mention the Sanders resolution in remarks on the floor Tuesday afternoon, but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky denounced the vote as “performative left-wing politics.”

“It's not about approving an aid report to Israel. It's not about human rights either. It's about tying the hands of close allies locked in a necessary fight against barbaric terrorists. A gift to Israeli activists,” McConnell declared on the floor.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) slammed Sanders' resolution, calling it “the most tone-deaf in the history of the Senate.”

“It ignores the fact that Hamas is building tunnels under hospitals and schools and using civilians as human shields,” he claimed.

The Senate fight over aid to Israel comes amid heightened tensions between Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu over war management. The two leaders have not spoken since a tense phone conversation on December 23.

Relations between the two leaders had not been good even before war broke out this fall. Biden waited nine months after Netanyahu returned to power before inviting him to the White House for talks.

The Biden administration has pressed Netanyahu's government to reduce civilian casualties and end the heaviest fighting as quickly as possible, but to little effect.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has largely ignored his administration's calls to re-engage with Palestinian leaders once the fighting subsides to pursue a two-state solution to achieve lasting peace in the region. American demands to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian officials have also not had a significant impact on Israeli tactics.

Some foreign policy experts are skeptical that the Israeli military will be able to completely remove Hamas' leaders and militants if the conflict drags on for months, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend emphasized that Israel's mission to eliminate Hamas is “no one's business.” “I can't stop it,” he declared.