Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday denounced the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval that aim to stop the sale of U.S. weapons to Israel, saying the Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah is directly linked to the “coordinated efforts of Russia, Iran, North Korea and China” against the United States.
The resolutions, which will be put to a vote on the Senate floor on Wednesday, were introduced in September by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and co-sponsored by Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). They would prevent the transfer of more than $20 billion in offensive weapons to Jerusalem.
Specifically, the resolutions would block the sale of 120mm tank rounds, 120mm high-explosive mortar rounds and Joint Direct Attack Munitions guidance systems used with “dumb” bombs to make precision strikes.
“Reports this week indicate that in operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli forces have uncovered caches of modern Russian weapons,” McConnell said on Tuesday. “The same sort of caches on which another ‘butcher’ [Syrian President Bashar Assad] relied further east in Syria.
“Those who mourn senseless human suffering should have no trouble assigning blame to the terrorists who exploit civilians, schools, hospitals and mosques as cover,” McConnell added.
When introducing the resolutions in September, Sanders condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli offensives in general. He reiterated these sentiments in a Monday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
“Netanyahu has bombed hospitals and schools, starved children, destroyed infrastructure and housing stock, and made life unlivable in Gaza. The United States must end its complicity in this atrocity,” he wrote, adding that “sending more weapons is not only immoral, it is also illegal.”
“The United States is currently in violation of the law,” Sanders said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Every member of the U.S. Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for these resolutions.”
The Biden administration has reportedly lobbied Democratic senators to vote against Sanders’ resolutions.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) denounced the resolutions on Tuesday while calling on outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to bring a bill to the chamber floor sanctioning the International Criminal Court if it charges top Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, with war crimes.
“To our allies in Israel and to Jewish people around the world, my message to you is this: Reinforcements are on the way,” Thune posted on X.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also came out against Sanders’s resolutions in a post on X, saying, “No friend of Israel should vote for an arms embargo while we are fighting on multiple fronts to protect our people from terrorism and to bring our hostages home.
“This has nothing to do with your opinion of the current government,” Lapid continued. “It is about standing with the people of Israel.”
