Hi pals, big stuff going down in the U.S. Senate this Wednesday. They’re gearing up to decide whether or not to send another 20 billion bucks worth of weapons to Israel. We’re talkin’ tank rounds, fancy fighter jets, and those high-tech JDAMs that turn regular bombs into precision-guided trouble.
Each weapon’s getting its own vote—kind of a big deal since all this dough is coming from U.S. taxpayers’ pockets. They’re calling the whole thing the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, or JRDs for short.
Here’s the kicker: The U.S. is usually not supposed to hand over weapons to folks or nations involved in human rights violations, according to some old laws. But, for years, Israel’s kinda been the exception, thanks to some heavyweight lobbying from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and The Democratic Majority For Israel.
Remember, it’s been 13 tough months in Gaza with a reported 44,000 lives lost—a figure even the UN has slammed as genocide. Not to forget Israel’s papers even labeled it ethnic cleansing. Now, these U.S. senators have gotta decide if they’re cool with keepin’ Israel’s military stocked up.
The four Senators—Sanders, Welch, Merkley, and Schatz—are pushing this big move. Bernie Sanders (yep, the dude who almost became prez) went hard in his piece for The Washington Post. He’s seen firsthand the grim situation in Gaza, talkin’ about doctors working with pretty much zilch. It’s a sad story filled with wounded kids and not enough medical supplies—heartbreaking stuff. He flat out said what’s going on is “unspeakable and immoral.”
A whole lineup of over 100 groups is standing behind this, urging senators to hit the brakes on this arms deal. The Friends Committee on National Legislation, which some of you might know as The Quakers, is one of those groups pulling the strings. They’ve been in this lobbying game for a minute and now, they reckon people might just be surprised by how many senators will jump on this JRD bandwagon.
Turns out, even J Street, a pro-Israel group, is like, “Yo, maybe we don’t need those big weapons sales right now.” Unsurprisingly though, this thing might still pass, but they’re crossing fingers for some senators to step up.
A big deal is the outcry over the death of news folks and kids killed by these weapons. Some resolutions are expected to gain traction mainly because of them tank rounds and JDAMs—all eyes are on their impact, especially with recent tragic losses, including a prominent journalist.
Senators are also feeling some type of way after the Israelis ignored a U.S. pleadin’ to make life a bit better for Gazans with more humanitarian aid. No surprise there’s a bunch of heat over accountability, with another deadline passed and no change in sight.
This ain’t the first rodeo for Congress yanking U.S. support from foreign conflicts. They did pull a similar move over Yemen back in 2018, which stopped the U.S. from refueling Saudi jets. The senators that time said no more after a journalist was killed and loads of kids died in an awful airstrike.
Senators on the more progressive side like Schumer and Gillibrand are feelin’ the heat from home—over 95 groups from New York alone are pushin’ for them to side with the JRDs, channeling what they did with Saudi Arabia.
Etan Mabourakh, an organizer from the National Iranian-American Council, even dropped the mic saying they don’t want more blood on their hands financed by their tax dollars. They’re pushing for some overdue accountability from the U.S.
There’s a bit of a race against the clock too. With Trump’s crew poised to make a comeback, this might be the last chance for a lot of folks to make some noise.
To wrap it up, according to the folks at Brown University’s Costs of War project, Israel’s pocketed around $22.76 billion from Uncle Sam since October last year. Whether the Senate puts an end to that is anyone’s guess, but it’s gonna be interesting for sure. Let’s see what goes down.
