Motions to Discharge--S.J. Res. 33 and S.J. Res. 26

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Pursuant to section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act, I move to discharge the Committee on Foreign Relations from further consideration of S.J. Res. 33 and S.J. Res. 26 relating to the disapproval of the proposed foreign military sales to the Government of Israel of certain defense articles and services.
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me begin by telling the American people something that they already know, and that is, as a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, we now have a corrupt campaign finance system that allows billionaires to buy elections and to influence major pieces of legislation. That, I think, is not a secret to the American people.

If you are a Republican and you vote against the Trump-Musk administration in one way or another, you have got to look over your shoulder and worry that you are going to get a call from Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, and he will tell you that if you vote against what he wants, he will spend unlimited amounts of money to defeat you in the next election. That is not a great secret. That is what Musk has been saying publicly.

If you are a Democrat, you have to worry about the billionaires who fund AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. If you vote against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his horrific war in Gaza, AIPAC will punish you with millions of dollars in advertisements and other ways to see that you are defeated.

AIPAC's PAC and super PAC spent nearly $127 million combined during the 2023-2024 election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission. And I must confess that AIPAC has been successful. Last year, they defeated two Members of the U.S. House who opposed providing military aid to Netanyahu's extremist government.

Now, given all of that, I would hope that Democrats and Republicans who understand that they were elected to protect the interests of their constituents, not billionaire campaign contributors, would support the ending of Citizens United and would move us toward public funding of elections so billionaires could not continue to control the political and legislative process.

Further, I would hope that both parties would move to end super PAC funding in their primaries, keep the super PAC money, Musk money, AIPAC money out of the Democrat and Republican primaries.

I would hope that that would be the case so that we can, once again, become a government of the people, by the people, for the people, and not a government run by the billionaire class. Israel

Mr. President, I trust that every American and certainly every Member of the Senate understands that Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this terrible war with its barbaric October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages.

The International Criminal Court was correct in indicting the leaders of Hamas as war criminals for those atrocities. Clearly, Israel had the right to defend itself against Hamas.

But most Americans also understand that while Israel had a right to wage war against Hamas, it did not and does not have the right to wage war against the entire Palestinian population, and, tragically, that is exactly what we have seen over the last year and a half.

Let us be clear: Prime Minister Netanyahu's racist and extremist government has waged an all-out, barbaric war against the Palestinian people and made life unlivable in Gaza.

Within Gaza's population of just 2.2 million people, more than 50,000 have been killed and more than 113,000 have been injured, 60 percent of whom are women, children, and elderly people. That is 7.4 percent of the population of Gaza killed or wounded--7.4 percent in a year and a half.

If those same percentages were applied to the United States, in terms of a horrible war where our people were killed or wounded, it would mean that over 25 million Americans would have been killed or wounded.

In total, since this war began, 15,000 children--children--in Gaza have been killed, and today there are some 17,000 orphans. But it is not just the dead and the wounded.

Israel's indiscriminate bombardment has damaged or destroyed two- thirds of all structures in Gaza, including 92 percent of the housing units--as you can see from this photo. Ain't a whole lot left. I don't know why they need any more bombs; they basically destroyed the entire area. Nothing much left to be destroyed.

Almost no part of Gaza has been left unscathed. Most of the population now is living in tents or other makeshift structures. Most of the territory's hospitals and primary healthcare facilities have been bombed, leaving virtually all Gazans without basic medical care at a time when bombs are flying and people are being wounded, and think about what that means. I have met repeatedly with doctors, American doctors and others, who have served in Gaza, and they are treating hundreds of patients a day without electricity, without anesthesia, without clean water, including dozens of children arriving with gunshot wounds to the head. I have seen the photographs and the videos.

Gaza's civilian infrastructure has been totally devastated, including almost 90 percent of water and sanitation facilities. Most of the roads in Gaza have been destroyed or made impassable. Gaza's educational system has been obliterated. Children are not going to school. According to the World Bank, more than 2,000 educational facilities ranging from kindergartens to universities have been destroyed. Hundreds of schools have been bombed, as has every single one of Gaza's 12 universities. There has been no electricity in Gaza for 17 months, no electricity.

Put simply, Netanyahu and his extremist government have killed or wounded over 7 percent of Gaza's population and has turned Gaza into a wasteland unfit for human life. That is what has been going on over the last year and a half.

In terms of where we are today, right now, the Netanyahu government broke the cease-fire 2 weeks ago, endangering the well-being of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

Further, in the last 2 weeks, they have intensified their assaults against the Palestinian people. According to UNICEF, since Netanyahu broke the cease-fire, more than a thousand people have been killed, including over 300 children, and more than 600 children have been wounded in the last short period of time.

UNICEF says that most of these children were killed while sheltering in makeshift tents or damaged homes. Just in the last 24 hours, 97 more people have been killed in Gaza.

Since Netanyahu broke the cease-fire, even more aid workers, the people whose job it is to try to help people who have been wounded or hurt, more aid workers have been killed, putting the total of over 400--400--aid workers have been killed since the war began.

Earlier this week, the United Nations announced that they have recovered the bodies of 15 emergency aid workers who were killed by Israeli forces while wearing their emergency responder uniforms and then dumped into a mass grave in southern Gaza.

They were buried alongside the destroyed emergency vehicles, clearly marked ambulances, a fire truck, and a U.N. car.

With the resumption of bombing, hundreds of thousands of Gazans are once again being forcibly displaced by bombing and evacuation orders.

This week, Israeli authorities issued displacement orders for most of Rafah, where about 150,000 people were estimated to be sheltering.

Think about what all of this means in human terms. Throughout this war, millions of desperately poor people, the people in Gaza, by and large, are extremely poor. They have been repeatedly driven from their homes. They have been forced to pick their way through a demolished landscape again and again with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

Families have been herded into so-called safe zones, only to face continued bombardment.

The children of Gaza--Mr. President, this is just one picture--have suffered a level of physical and emotional torture that is almost beyond comprehension and that will clearly stay with each and every one of them for the rest of their lives.

These children are hungry. They are thirsty. It is hard to get clean water. They have been denied healthcare. And they have witnessed the death of their parents, their family members, their homes, and virtually everything around them. And they have been picked up and moved from one place to another. All the while, drones are on top of them, shooting or photographing what they are doing.

Throughout this war, Israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid have left hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, facing malnutrition and starvation--malnutrition and starvation. Children have literally starved to death while aid just sat a few miles away, blocked by Israeli forces.

The U.N., the United States, and every aid organization working in Gaza has been clear throughout this war: Israel's unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions on humanitarian aid have contributed to massive death and profound suffering.

But as bad as the last year and a half has been, at least Israel let some--some, not enough, but some--aid through. But what is happening right now is unthinkable.

Today, it is 31 days and counting with absolutely no humanitarian aid getting into Gaza--nothing--no food, no water, no medicine, no fuel for over a month. That is a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Foreign Assistance Act, and basic human decency.

It is a war crime. You don't starve children. And it is pushing things toward an even deeper catastrophe.

Earlier this week, 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme were forced to close because they ran out of flour and cooking gas. The U.N. is still trying to deliver its remaining stocks of food already in Gaza but says ``that the situation remains extremely critical since the cargo closure of the crossings almost a month ago.''

All of this is unconscionable. What we are talking about is a mass atrocity, and what makes it even worse, and why I am here today and why I have introduced the resolutions that we will soon be voting on, is that we, as Americans, are deeply complicit in all that is happening in Gaza.

This is not some terrible event. This is not an earthquake in Myanmar. It is not something that we had nothing to do with. We are deeply complicit in all of this death and suffering.

Last year alone, the United States provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of military equipment. It is American bombs and American military equipment that are being used to destroy Gaza, kill 50,000 people, and injure over 110,000 people. We cannot hide from that reality.

If we condone the barbarism that is taking place in Gaza today, we will have no standing in the world to condemn the horrors and war crimes that other countries may commit. You are not going to be able to look at China or Russia or Saudi Arabia or any other country and say: Look, how terrible. Look at what they are doing to the children, to the women, to innocent people.

We will have no credibility because they will come back and say: Really? You are really concerned about what China, Russia, Saudi Arabia may be doing? Hey, take a look at what you supported in Gaza and the billions of dollars in aid you gave to Netanyahu's government.

Today is the day to stand up to barbarism in Gaza and to do our best to prevent future barbaric acts all over the world.

It is no secret to anyone how these U.S. weapons have been used. Israel has bombed indiscriminately, killing civilians, journalists--a whole lot of journalists have been killed--paramedics, children, and humanitarian workers in record numbers. They have used massive 2,000- pound bombs in densely populated Gaza, despite the fact that studies show that 90 percent of victims of explosive weapons used in a populated area are civilians. These bombs have a blast radius of more than 350 meters, yet Israel has dropped them into crowded apartment buildings, killing hundreds of civilians, to take out a handful of Hamas fighters.

All of that is illegal and immoral and against American law.

The Foreign Assistance Act, which is what we are talking about today, and the Arms Export Control Act, what we are talking about today, are very clear. The United States cannot provide weaponry to countries that violate internationally recognized human rights or block U.S. humanitarian aid.

According to the U.N., much of the international community, and every humanitarian organization on the ground in Gaza, Israel is clearly in violation of these laws. Under these circumstances, it is illegal for the U.S. Government to provide Israel with more offensive weaponry. It is simply against our laws.

Despite all of that, in the last month, the Trump administration has announced its intention to transfer some $12.5 billion more in offensive weapons--not defensive weapons, offensive weapons--to Netanyahu's government, in clear violation of U.S. law. And that is why we are here today.

Joint resolutions of disapproval--which is what we are dealing with right now--are Congress's tool to enforce American law. Today, we will vote on two resolutions to block two of the most egregious of these Trump administration offensive arms sales, which would provide almost $9 billion more in heavy bombs and other munitions to Netanyahu, including more than 35,000--35,000--massive 2,000-pound bombs that have killed so many civilians.

The first resolution, S.J. Res. 33, would block a sale of over $2 billion for 35,000 MK-84 2,000 bombs and 4,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads.

The second resolution, S.J. Res. 26, would block almost $7 billion for 2,800 500-pound bombs, 2,100 small-diameter bombs, and tens of thousands of JDAM guidance kits.

All of these systems have been linked to dozens of illegal airstrikes, including on designated humanitarian sites, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties. These strikes have been painstakingly documented by human rights monitors. There is no debate.

And none of these systems are defensive. None of them are necessary to protect Israel from incoming drone or rocket attacks.

For those of my colleagues who may be ambivalent, not quite sure how they want to vote on these resolutions, let me say a word about how the Trump administration is ignoring the law in advancing these arms sales in terms of the process.

Unlike Biden, whose policies on Gaza I strongly opposed--and I stood right here, at this location, strongly opposing what Biden was doing in terms of military aid to Israel. But unlike Biden, President Trump is trying to circumvent Congress with these transfers, ignoring the Foreign Assistance Act by issuing a bogus emergency declaration--an emergency declaration to bypass congressional review.

There is no emergency to justify cutting Congress out of the process. In fact, some of the systems the Trump administration claims are part of this emergency sale have not yet been produced.

And this is also part of a broader Trump administration effort to cut Congress out of the arms sales process.

It is no great secret that Congress is way out of touch with where the American people are on issue after issue--whether it is the economy, whether it is healthcare, whether it is climate--whatever it may be. Everybody knows. Congress is way out of touch, and the billions of dollars that we are providing to the Netanyahu extremist government is just one more example of how out of touch we are with the American people.

According to a recent Economist/YouGov poll in March, just 15 percent of the American people support increasing military aid to Israel--15 percent--while 35 percent support decreasing military aid to Israel or stopping it entirely.

To my Democratic colleagues, I would mention that in that same poll, just 8 percent of Democrats support increasing military aid to Israel. And, I think, as Democrats have held town meetings over the last year, they have heard from those people. Eight percent of Democrats support what we are doing now, more military aid for Israel. Forty-seven percent support decreasing military aid to Israel or stopping it entirely--8 percent, increasing, Democrats; 47 percent, decreasing military aid.

Among Republicans, 9 percent are for decreasing military aid and 15 percent for stopping all--24 percent for stopping or decreasing all military aid.

Adult Citizens] MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL--DO YOU FAVOR THE U.S. . . .? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gender Race Age Income Total ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Male Female White Black Hispanic 18-29 30-44 45-64 65+ <50K 50-100K 100k + -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Increasing military aid to Israel 15% 18% 13% 18% 8% 12% 8% 14% 17% 19% 15% 14% 17%-- -............................... Maintaining the same amount of 28% 29% 27% 28% 28% 27% 23% 24% 29% 36% 27% 27% 32% military aid to Israel.......... Decreasing military aid to Israel 14% 15% 14% 16% 11% 12% 13% 8% 16% 21% 14% 16% 17% Stopping all military aid to 21% 24% 19% 21% 20% 24% 31% 29% 16% 10% 20% 26% 18%- Israel-......................... Not sure......................... 21% 14% 28% 18% 33% 25% 25% 24% 21% 14% 23% 18% 16% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals....................... 99% 100% 101% 101% 100% 100% 100% 99% 99% 100% 99% 101% 100% Unweighted N................. (1,615) (739) (876) (1,090) (205) (206) (314) (348) (570) (383) (625) (477) (358) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024 Vote Reg Ideology Party ID Party ID with Leaners Total ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Harris Trump Voters Lib Mod Con Dem Ind Rep Lean D Ind Lean R -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Increasing military aid to Israel 15% 7% 31% 19% 7% 11% 28% 8% 10% 27% 7% 4% 27%-- --.............................. Maintaining the same amount of 28% 24% 36% 30% 18% 32% 36% 23% 27% 33% 21% 30% 33% military aid to Israel.......... Decreasing military aid to Israel 14% 23% 8% 14% 21% 16% 10% 19% 15% 9% 20% 15% 9% Stopping all military aid to 21% 25% 11% 19% 37% 17% 14% 28% 21% 15% 29% 16% 16%- Israel-......................... Not sure......................... 21% 21% 14% 18% 18% 24% 12% 22% 26% 15% 22% 34% 14% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals....................... 99% 100% 100% 100% 101% 100% 100% 100% 99% 99% 99% 99% 99% Unweighted N................. (1,615) (695) (573) (1,455) (505) (494) (506) (554) (591) (470) (718) (290) (607) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Mr. MORENO assumed the Chair.)

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, according to a J Street poll of Jewish voters in November, 62 percent of American Jews support withholding ``shipments of offensive weapons like 2,000-pound bombs until Prime Minister Netanyahu agrees to an American proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for a release of Israeli hostages.'' And 71 percent of Jewish voters support increasing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

Finally, as unbelievably horrific as the situation in Gaza is and has been for the last year and a half, there is another development that could make the situation even worse. It is hard to believe. It really is, but it could. In recent months, President Trump and Israeli officials have openly talked about forcing out--forcibly expelling--the 2.2 million people who live in Gaza, pushing them out to make way for what Trump calls a riviera, some billionaire's playground.

Now, I think some people who may be watching this think: This can't be true. You must be kidding. You must be lying. This is inconceivable--pushing 2.2 million desperate people out of where they live to create a playground for billionaires.

But a few years ago, as some may recall, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner said that he felt--Jared Kushner--``Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable,'' floating the idea of redeveloping it. I think that many people at the time thought that was a weird and terrible joke. But it turns out that his father-in-law, Donald Trump, took it seriously. Here is what Trump has said repeatedly in recent months:

The U.S. will take over the Gaza strip and we will do a job with it.

We're going to take over that piece that we're going to develop it.

I do see a long-term ownership position. . . . Everybody I've spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.

I guess he didn't speak to too many Palestinians who live on that land.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote:

The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.

What about the Palestinians who have lived in Gaza for their entire lives? Trump said:

I don't think people should be going back to Gaza . . . They lived like you're living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living.

Gaza could become, again, Donald Trump:

The Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so [valuable] this could be so magnificent.

Yes, throw 2.2 million people who have suffered incalculably; throw them out of the land in which they live in order to create a billionaire's playground.

There is a name and a term for forcibly expelling people from where they live. It is called ``ethnic cleansing.'' It is illegal. It is a war crime.

Mr. President, the United States must not continue to be complicit in the destruction of the Palestinian people. History will not forgive us for this. The time is long overdue for us to tell the Netanyahu government that we will not provide more weapons of destruction for them. Instead, we must demand an immediate cease-fire, surge in humanitarian aid, the release of the hostages, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people.

For all of these reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on these two resolutions which would prevent illegal and immoral arms sales to Netanyahu, would uphold congressional power and the rule of law, and would protect innocent life.

I will yield to the Senator from Maryland, Senator Van Hollen.
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I think Senator Risch and I live in parallel universes. The universe that I live in is a universe which says, yes, of course Israel has a right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023. No one debates that. But Israel did not and does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people, in violation of international and U.S. law.

It doesn't matter in one sense whether you don't care that 50,000 people in Gaza have been killed or 112,000 women--you don't care about that? Fine. But you should care about American law. What the Foreign Assistance Act says is that the United States cannot provide military assistance to a country which is in violation of U.S. and international law.

When you starve children, you are in violation of international law.

When you have a blockade that does not allow any humanitarian aid to come into a desperate situation for 31 days, you are in violation of international law.

When you kill 15,000 children and bring about malnutrition and starvation for even more, you are in violation of international law.

What is going on right now is not some abstract horror show. We are complicit. Those are our bombs that have destroyed or damaged 92 percent of the housing in Gaza, our bombs which have destroyed hundreds and hundreds of schools in Gaza, our bombs which have attacked every single one of the 12 universities in Gaza.

What we are standing here today discussing is not just Gaza. If the United States remains complicit in this war, we are telling every other country in the world that international law and human rights are meaningless. You could do whatever you want, and no President will ever be able to condemn any other country for their inhumanity. That is what is at stake today. Do we try to maintain a shred of moral integrity in the world or do we simply say to Netanyahu: Here are some more bombs. Kill some more kids. Kill some more women. Bomb some more hospitals.

Is that what we do?

With that, I would yield to the Senator from Maryland, Mr. Van Hollen.

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I thank Senator Van Hollen for his extraordinary efforts today and for over a long period of time standing up for justice and morality in the Middle East.

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, very briefly, nobody is supporting Hamas. Hamas is a disgusting terrorist organization that began the war.

Israel had a right to defend itself against Hamas, but it did not have the right to kill 50,000 Palestinians and wound 112,000, 60 percent of whom are women, children, and the elderly. It did not have a right to bomb every university in Gaza.

As Senator Van Hollen indicated, what we are talking about here is whether or not we support U.S. law. And U.S. law is clear: We cannot supply weapons to a country which is acting in violation of international law. Starving children is a violation of international law.

With that, Mr. President, I would yield the floor and ask for a ``yea'' vote on these resolutions. Vote on Motion to Discharge
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