More than three dozen Democrats supported an effort by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to block arms sales to Israel, signaling a growing discontent in the party with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wars in Gaza and Iran.
The two resolutions to block U.S. sales of bulldozers and bombs to Israel were opposed by all Republicans and rejected 40-59 and 36-63.
I was looking at the 2025 vote compared to the 2026 vote. These are the Democratic Senators who voted for a blank check to Israel in 2025.
1. Michael Bennett (CO)
2. Richard Blumenthal (CT)
3. Cory Booker (NJ)
4. Maria Cantwell (WA)
5. Chris Coons (DE)
6. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
7. John Fetterman (PA)
8. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
9. Maggie Hassan (NH)
10. John Hicklenlooper (CO)
11. Jon Ossoff (GA)
12. Alex Padilla (CA)
13. Gary Peters (MI)
14. Jack Reed (RI)
15. Jackie Rosen (NV)
16. Adam Schiff (CA)
17. Chuck Schumer (NY)
18. Mark Warner (VA)
19. Ron Wyden (OR)
And these are the Democratic Senators who voted for a blank check for Israel in 2026
1. Richard Blumenthal (CT)
2. Chris Coons (DE)
3. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
4. John Fetterman (PA)
5. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
6. Gary Peters (MI)
7. Jack Reed (RI)
8. Jackie Rosen (NV)
9. Chuck Schumer (NY)
10. Mark Warner (VA)
11. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)
Comparing the 2025 vote with the 2026 vote, we end up with some defectors from the blank check caucus: Bennett (CO), Booker (NJ), Cantwell (WA) Hassen (NH), Hickenlooper (CO), Ossoff (GA), Padilla (CA), Wyden (OR), Schiff (CA).
it could just be they are fed up with Israel’s far Right government taking them completely for granted and campaigning against Democrats and for Trump. It also could be they are responding to the 75% of Democrats polled who want conditions on weapons funding to Israel. I have also read that Trump and Netanyahu’s invasion of Iran has opened a 2015 wound for Democrats, because the far Right in Israel vehemently opposed Obama’s Iran deal and, well, you know how that turned out. Trump and Netanyahu somehow managed to give Iran the Strait of Hormuz, along with …20 billion dollars? I expect Trump to offer them Greenland soon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the United States on Tuesday that it was negotiating a bad deal with Iran that could spark a “nuclear nightmare,” drawing a rebuke from President Barack Obama and exposing a deepening U.S.-Israeli rift. They delivered duelling messages within hours of each other.
The pro Palestinian movement always had a longer view than one cycle. They knew that given that US foreign policy conventional wisdom, as expressed by both Hillary Clinton (sadly!) and Condaleeza Rice, insists that Israel must receive a blank check forever no matter what Israel does, this would take a while. I voted for Clinton in 2016 but boy she has a real penchant for being on the wrong side of US military policy. I recognize Clinton thinks US college students are morons, but maybe she should start listening to someone outside the Hoover Institution– students were on the right side of two disastrous (and unlawful) US military adventures Clinton supported. In fact, the much-maligned (and viciously censored) students now better represent the views of the Democratic electorate than the 25% who cling to the status quo on Israel. That’s progress.
