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Nearly all Senate Democrats vote to block Israel arms sales

The resolutions were defeated with support from a handful of Senate Democrats and every Republican.

Credit: Pixabay.
Credit: Pixabay.

All but seven Democratic senators voted to block an arms sale to Israel on Wednesday in the latest sign of waning support for the Jewish state on the Left in the United States.

Senators voted down a pair of motions to discharge the two resolutions that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced in March to block sales of bulldozers and bombs to the Israel Defense Forces, but by significantly narrower margins than in previous votes.

Forty senators, all Democrats, voted to discharge the resolution to block the bulldozer sales, and 36 of them also voted to block the sale of bombs.

Seven Democrats voted against both motions: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-N.M.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirstin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jackie Rosen (D-Nev.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) split their votes, voting in favor of the motion to block the sale of bulldozers but against the motion to block bomb sales.

Every Republican who voted opposed the motions, defeating the bulldozer resolution 40 to 59 and the bombs resolution 36 to 63.

Previous resolutions from Sanders to block arms sales to Israel were defeated by overwhelming margins.

In April 2025, only 15 senators, all Democrats, voted to block arms sales. In July of that year, 27 Democrats voted to oppose a sale of small arms to the Israeli police, and 24 voted to oppose a sale of bombs.

Andrew Bernard is the Washington correspondent for JNS.org.
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