Senate rejects measure to force human rights report on Israel for aid

A resolution aiming to place new conditions on US security aid to Israel has been overwhelmingly voted down in the Senate, as anticipated.

The resolution submitted by progressive senator Bernie Sanders sought to freeze all US security aid to Israel unless the State Department issues a report within 30 days that examines whether the IDF committed human rights violations in the conduct of its war in Gaza.

The resolution was voted down 72 to 11, with only Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, Heinrich, Laphonza Butler, Ed Markey, Ben Ray Lujan, Mazie Hirono, Peter Welch and Elizabeth Warren and Republican Rand Paul voting for it.

The vote was forced earlier by Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

While the measure was handily defeated, it reflected growing concern among some of US President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats, especially on the left. The outliers who supported the measure are a small but growing far-left flank of the Democratic Party along with a handful of Republican libertarians who oppose all foreign aid.

“We must ensure that US aid is being used in accordance with human rights and our own laws,” Sanders said in a speech before the vote urging support for the resolution, lamenting what he described as the Senate’s failure to consider any measure looking at the war’s effect on civilians.

The White House had said it opposed the resolution, which could have paved the way toward the imposition of conditions on security assistance to Israel.

The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in such assistance each year, ranging from fighter jets to powerful bombs that could destroy Hamas tunnels. Biden has asked Congress to approve an additional $14 billion.

Sanders’ resolution was filed under the Foreign Assistance Act, which allows Congress to direct State to provide a human rights report and other information on any country received US security assistance.

If the resolution had passed, it would have required the State Department to provide a report to Congress within 30 days. After receiving the report, Congress could consider another resolution proposing changes to security assistance to Israel.

Israel launched the war to eradicate Hamas, an Iran-backed group sworn to Israel’s destruction, after thousands of terrorists stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing 240 hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said the war has killed over 24,000 people. The figure cannot be independently verified, and is believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 9,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on and immediately after October 7.