OpEd: Sanders is Wrong that U.S. Needs to Halt Weapons Shipments to Israel

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders reinforced my newfound feelings last Wednesday when he wrote in a news release, “The United States cannot continue to be complicit in this war by supplying more military aid and weaponry to the Netanyahu government. Congress must act to block these arms sales.”

“I have no words for this socialist scum,” writes Gary on Facebook from a conservative site in Bucks County, Pa.

Sanders neglects to demand that Iran cease its arms supplies to Hamas and Hezbollah in, respectively, Gaza and Lebanon, from which terrorists have attacked Israel. Thousands of like-minded Americans think along the same lines – an arms embargo for Israel, silence for military aid to terrorists.

No way. No arms embargo. No reduction in arms. No slow-walking delivery of arms to Israel. Our government and other allies must continue supplying Israel with whatever arms it needs.

In the past, I believed our government should use its leverage over arms sales to pressure Israel if it goes too far in its military conflicts with terrorists and belligerent Arab nations. Such a worldview might have been satisfactory before, but circumstances have intensified. Terrorists were weaker in the past, but now they are stronger and have already caused horrific harm to Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel’s struggle is existential. It always has been. It should receive all the military aid it needs.

If America is “complicit in this war,” as Sanders claims, how do we characterize Iran’s role in hosting Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups? Iran has routinely sent arms to Hamas and Hezbollah, whatever they can.

Sanders has yet to demand that Iran impose an arms embargo. Or a reduction. Or a delay. Nor have the thousands of Americans who are demanding all that for Israel. At least, I have not heard of any of them doing so.

It suggests that this crowd hopes to destroy Israel by denying it the arms that it needs. It indicates that antisemites are exploiting an opportunity to harm not only Israel but all Jews. Most of them must know how American Jews are emotionally tied to Israel.

Hamas and Hezbollah are at a natural advantage if they can acquire weapons whenever they please while Israel is limited in its acquisitions.

Those who only pressure America to withhold weapons from Israel are bigoted or naïve if they fail to make equal demands of Iran and any other suppliers of terrorist organizations. Iran will probably ignore their demands, anyway, so Israel would still be at a disadvantage.

I know it is eerie to compare the availability of weapons which will end up killing more people, but Arab terrorists set the ground rules. They have persisted in a conflict that has been running for more than a century in different forms; they opened this chapter with the slaughter of nearly 1,200 Israelis in southern Israel; they refuse to release up to 100 hostages after more than a year; they set up their own people as human sacrifices; and they remain dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

I understand that critics are upset with Israel’s fatal attacks upon residents of Gaza. I am confused about Israel’s response. I wonder about what actions are necessary to protect Israel. However, those who criticize Israel do not care about the fate of its citizens.

Sanders, an independent who represents Vermont, returned to the fray last Wednesday when he announced his intention to bring to the Senate floor a number of Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) to prevent “certain offensive sales to Israel.” He noted that the JRD is the only means for Congress to block an arms sale from progressing.

“There is no longer any doubt that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s extremist government is in clear violation of U.S. and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Sanders stated. “The volume of aid reaching Gazans is lower than at any time in the last year. Blocking humanitarian aid violates the Foreign Assistance Act as well as the Geneva Convention.

“This war has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and $18 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars,” he continued. “Israel has dropped U.S.-provided 2,000-pound bombs into crowded neighborhoods, killed hundreds of civilians to take out a handful of Hamas fighters, and made little effort to distinguish between civilians and combatants. These actions are immoral and illegal.”

Sanders, who is Jewish, may be right in some ways, but what’s critical is what he does not say.

Unlike Israel, Hamas could readily distinguish between “civilians and combatants.” That is why they force their own kind to occupy critical military targets. Had Sanders waited a week, maybe he would have noted how armed gunmen looted a 100-plus convoy of trucks carrying food to the people of Gaza on Saturday. He probably would not. After all, he did not characterize Oct. 7 as “a barbaric war” that is “immoral and illegal.”

All the more reason to continue delivery of arms to Israel.

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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist