Senate Rejects Bernie Sanders Bid To Block Israel Arms Sales, Despite Record Democratic Support

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected an effort led by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, even as the vote showed a record level of Democratic support for limiting transfers.

“A vote in the United States Senate to block military equipment for Israel this week ended in defeat”

Al Jazeera

The Senate defeated two joint resolutions of disapproval, one targeting a $150 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs and the other a $300 million sale of bulldozers, with votes of 36-63 and 40-59 respectively, according to Responsible Statecraft.

Al Jazeera

Roll Call described the package differently, saying the first joint resolution would have disapproved a $295 million sale of D9R and D9T Caterpillar bulldozers and the second would have disapproved a $151.8 million sale of 12,000 general purpose 1,000-pound gravity bombs, with the Senate voting 40-59 and 36-63 to reject motions to discharge the measures.

The Guardian reported that 40 senators backed Sanders’s resolution to prevent the sale of $295m in bulldozers and 36 members voted for a second resolution to halt a $151.8m sale of 12,000 1,000lb bombs, but both failed.

AP similarly said the two resolutions to block U.S. sales of bulldozers and bombs were opposed by all Republicans and rejected 40-59 and 36-63.

The Times of Israel reported that 40 out of 47 Senate Democrats voted in favor of blocking the $295 million bulldozer sale, while 36 Democrats backed another resolution aimed at blocking a $152 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs to the IDF.

Across outlets, the common thread was that Sanders forced the votes to put pressure on colleagues, even though the Republican majority prevented passage.

The push for the disapproval resolutions came amid a broader dispute in Washington over the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, and over whether U.S. weapons should be used in ways that advocates say violate international law.

Responsible Statecraft framed the Wednesday vote as the fourth effort to restrict arms sales to Israel since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, and it said the votes marked an improvement over July 2025 when 27 Democrats voted to block similar sales.

Anadolu Ajansı

It also described the bulldozer measure as the first of its kind in the Senate, noting that the Biden administration reportedly froze the sale of Caterpillar D9 bulldozers in November 2024 before the decision was overturned in January.

Roll Call tied the resolutions to a pattern of Sanders forcing votes, saying that during a similar vote last July, just 23 Democrats voted with Sanders, and that in September 2024 Sanders spearheaded a similar effort to block five arms sales to Israel via joint resolutions of disapproval that none of them garnered more than 19 votes.

The Guardian described the Wednesday tally as reflecting where “the American people are,” and it said last April only 15 of the caucus’s 47 members supported similar measures, while in July 27 members backed another batch.

AP said Sanders repeatedly forced votes on the issue to put pressure on colleagues, and it pointed to the growing discontent in the party with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wars in Gaza and Iran.

The Intercept and Al Jazeera both characterized the moment as a shift in Democratic alignment, with Al Jazeera calling it “massive cracks” in U.S. support for Israel and saying the measure was introduced by Sanders.

Sanders and several Democratic supporters cast the vote as a response to what they described as Netanyahu’s “illegal wars of expansion,” while opponents argued that blocking sales would endanger Israel and undermine U.S. reliability.

Sanders said in a statement late Wednesday that “Americans, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or independents, want to see our tax money invested in improving lives here at home – not used to kill innocent women and children in the Middle East and put American troops in harm’s way as part of Netanyahu’s illegal wars of expansion,” according to The Guardian.

The Guardian also quoted Sanders adding, “What’s astonishing is that, despite overwhelming opposition across this country, Republicans continue to side with Netanyahu and Trump,” and it reported that Sanders described the effort as an opportunity for Congress to “stand up to” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., supported the resolutions and told the Senate that “The United States and Israel are fighting a war against Iran without a clear strategy or goal,” and that “Under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, we have seen an expanded war in Lebanon that is putting innocent Lebanese civilians at risk,” as quoted by AP and repeated by Roll Call.

On the other side, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said refusing to sell Israel the weapons would send the message that the U.S. was ready to abandon a key ally and leave it vulnerable to further Iranian attack, and AP quoted him saying, “They will not help the United States of America.”

Responsible Statecraft included a quote from John Ramming Chappell of the Center for Civilians in Conflict saying, “US arms sales must comply with US and international law, without exception,” and it quoted Cavan Kharrazian of Demand Progress calling the vote “historic” and saying, “[t]he Overton window is shifting.”

The Intercept added that Sanders said, “This is where the American people are,” and it quoted him saying “The polls are very clear: The overwhelming majority of American people do not want to continue to give weapons to Netanyahu and his horrific wars in the Mideast.”

While the vote arithmetic was consistent across many reports, the outlets emphasized different meanings of the same Senate action, from “historic” Democratic dissent to “foiled” attempts to curb arms.

Responsible Statecraft called the Wednesday vote “historic” and said it was a meaningful improvement over July 2025, while also quoting Cavan Kharrazian saying, “[t]he Overton window is shifting, and Congress is finally starting to catch up with the majority of Americans who don’t think we should keep spending taxpayer dollars to ship more weapons to Israel.”

AP News

The Guardian similarly described a “growing appetite among Democrats” to impose limits and quoted Sanders saying, “Let us be clear: given the horrific and illegal behavior of the Netanyahu government over the last three years, the American people have had enough.”

Roll Call framed the outcome as a failure of Sanders’s effort, writing that the Senate “defeated, largely along party lines” the attempt to advance two joint resolutions, and it highlighted that the votes were “the latest example of Democrats’ eroding appetite” for supplying arms.

The Times of Israel emphasized the Democratic split as a “substantive shift,” reporting that “record 85% of Democrats support the move,” and it described the vote as unlikely to pass due to “a decades-long tradition of strong bipartisan support for Israel.”

Al Jazeera used a different lens, calling the result an “inflection point” and saying the vote showed “massive cracks” in U.S. support for Israel, while it quoted Hassan el-Tayyab saying, “This was not only a vote about arms sales, but a vote against further escalation, including a wider war with Iran.”

The New York Times, in the portion provided, described the vote as blocking a bid to cancel arms sales while saying the party’s concerns over the war against Iran widened its rift over arming Israel, and it quoted Chris Van Hollen saying, “If we want to rein in a Trump administration that launched an illegal war against Iran, we should also rein in the Netanyahu administration that’s doing exactly the same thing with American taxpayer dollars.”

The immediate consequence of Wednesday’s votes was that the disapproval measures did not pass, but the reporting repeatedly tied the outcome to pressure on Democratic leaders and to future Senate action as the Iran war and the Israel-Hamas conflict continued.

AP noted that Congress has the power to cancel weapons transfers proposed by the administration only if both chambers pass disapproval resolutions and the president signs them, or supermajorities override his veto, and it described the Senate’s rejection as part of Sanders’s strategy to force votes repeatedly.

Common Dreams

AP also reported that nearly 100 protesters were arrested during a demonstration on Monday calling on New York senators to vote in favor of Sanders’s measures, and it quoted Sonya Meyerson-Knox saying, “The majority of Americans and New Yorkers want a resolution to what the Israeli government is doing.”

The Guardian described Sanders’s statement that “Support for Israel in this country has plummeted,” and it cited a Pew Research Center survey released this month finding that “80% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans view the country negatively.”

Al Jazeera reported that Republican Senator Rick Scott accused Democrats who voted in favor of the measure of siding “with terrorism,” and it quoted Beth Miller saying it was “shameful” that lawmakers continue to vote to arm Israel, while also calling the vote “a moment where senators were forced on record” to answer whether they want to keep arming the Israeli military.

Responsible Statecraft said the Wednesday vote was closely watched as midterms approach and the Democratic Party gears up for the 2028 presidential primary, in which policy toward Israel and the Middle East is likely to play a meaningful role.

Open Magazine reported that the Senate rejected, for the fourth time this year, a proposal aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran in a 47-52 vote, showing that Iran policy remains contested in the same legislative cycle.