The Senate overwhelmingly rejected an effort from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday to force a probe into whether Israel has violated human rights in its brutal war in the Gaza Strip.
The resolution would have halted U.S. security aid to Israel unless the State Department submits a report within 30 days on whether Israel has committed human rights violations in its efforts to destroy Hamas.
It was the first real attempt in the chamber to hold Israel to some measure of accountability for its ruthless military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 24,000 people in over three months, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, and displaced at least 85% of its population, according to the U.N. emergency relief coordinator.
Only 10 senators — nine Democrats and one Republican — joined Sanders in voting against tabling the measure.
Ahead of the vote, Sanders, whose position on the war has baffled some of his progressive supporters, told The Associated Press that Israel has “the absolute right to defend itself from Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack on October 7.”
“But what Israel does not have a right to do — using military assistance from the United States — does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people,” he told the AP on Monday. “And in my view, that’s what has been happening.” Despite its failure, the resolution reflects a growing discontent among Democratic lawmakers at how Israel is carrying out its military campaign in Gaza — now in its 103rd day — and the Biden administration’s willingness to continue supplying weapons. Polls conducted in recent months have broadly shown that most Americans support a cease-fire in Gaza. In a survey from Data for Progress from November, 52% of respondents said the U.S. should call for a cease-fire, against 34% who said it shouldn’t. A New York Times/Siena College poll from December found that 44% of respondents said Israel should end its military operations in the Strip to protect civilians, against 39% who said it should continue until all hostages are released, even if that means more civilians in Gaza will die. In another poll commissioned in early January by the American Arab Institute and Rainbow PUSH Coalition, 51% of voters surveyed said they were more likely to support electoral candidates who back a cease-fire, and a majority of them said they believe U.S. policy favors Israelis over Palestinians. If such a discrepancy between the American public and its lawmakers holds true more broadly, it could have an impact at the ballot box. In New Hampshire, for example, a group of progressive voters are planning to write in “cease-fire” in the state’s Democratic primary on Tuesday (where Biden is not actually on the ballot).
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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