Nearly Half of Incoming US Senate Democratic Leadership Just Voted to Block Arms to Israel

A near-majority of the Democratic Party’s incoming leadership in the US Senate recently voted in favor of a partial arms embargo on Israel, fueling concerns that America’s primary center-left political party is increasingly distancing itself from the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats announced their new 11-member leadership team for the 119th session of the US Congress, which will begin next month. Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) will continue to lead Democrats in the upper legislative chamber, but this time soon as the minority party. Meanwhile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN) elevated to the No. 3 spot as the chair of the Steering and Policy Committee and Sen. Cory Booker (NJ) moved to the No. 4 spot as chair of the Strategic Communications Committee.

Other members of the leadership team include: Sen. Mark Warner (VA) as co-vice chair of the conference, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI) as conference secretary, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) as vice chair of outreach.

The other five newly elected members of Democratic leadership, or 45 percent of the group, voted last month in support of each of three separate resolutions aimed at depriving Israel of weapons amid its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. The lawmakers are Sens. Dick Durbin (IL), party whip; Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), co-vice chair of the conference; Bernie Sanders (VT), an independent who caucuses with Democrats and will be chair of outreach; and Chris Murphy (CT) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), both deputy conference secretaries.

All five senators voted for measures to ban the sale of tank cartridges to Israel and target sales of mortar rounds and precision-guided bombs to the Jewish state.

Despite their votes, however, the Senate overwhelmingly smacked down all three measures, which were spearheaded by Sanders. A total of 19 senators — 17 Democrats and two independents — supported at least one of the three resolutions.

Durbin said that his reason for voting to suspend arms transfers to Israel was “straightforward,” arguing that although he supported Israel’s right to self-defense, too many women and children had died in the Gaza conflict and the Israel-Hamas war “must end.”

Warren wrote that the Biden administration’s alleged failure to “follow US law and to suspend arms shipments is a grave mistake that undermines American credibility worldwide.” She accused Israel of inflicting starvation on Gaza and ignoring American demands to accelerate the flow of aid into the war-torn enclave. 

Sanders, a longtime critic of Israel, claimed that “there is no longer any doubt that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government is in clear violation of US and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Although Sanders noted that he believes Israel has a right to exist, he argued that the Jewish state has indiscriminately bombed the Palestinian civilian population. 

Murphy wrote that he believes Israel has inflicted a significant degree of suffering on the Palestinian population and that “humanitarian conditions in Gaza have gotten worse, not better.”

Democrats in Congress have grown increasingly critical of Israel in the year following Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Although Democrats have repeatedly reiterated that Israel has a right to “defend itself,” many have raised concerns over the Jewish state’s conduct in the war in Gaza, reportedly exerting private pressure on US President Joe Biden to adopt a more adversarial stance against Israel and display more public sympathy for the Palestinians.

Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.

Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations, direct attacks, and store weapons.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said in October that Israel had delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation a year ago. He also noted that Hamas terrorists often hijack and steal aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.

The Israeli government ramped up the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza in recent weeks under pressure from the United States, which has expressed concern about the plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.

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