Summary
- Oregon Senators split on Israel weapons sales vote.
- Jeff Merkley voted to block arms shipments.
- Ron Wyden joined Republicans to defeat blockade.
- The Gaza death toll has surpassed 60,000.
- Debate reflects growing division over Israel support.
The majority of Gaza’s remaining population is
now facing starvation and displacement as a result of the military campaign,
which has killed 60,000 Palestinians, primarily civilians.
In September 2024, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders,
an Independent from Vermont, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a senior member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, co-sponsored six legislation to stop the
United States from selling weaponry to Israel for $20 billion.
Merkley was also part of a majority of Senate Democrats who voted on Wednesday in
support of two Sanders measures introduced in the Senate to stop the supply of
20,000 assault guns and a $675 million sale of bombs to Israel.
“We have a profound moral responsibility to end
this collective punishment of innocent civilians,”
Merkley said in a statement,
adding that until the Israeli government makes critical international food and
medical aid available to Palestinians in Gaza, the U.S. should not send any
more weapons.
Since October 7, 2023, the United States has
provided Israel with more than $20 billion in military aid and weapons.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli
troops have now murdered over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom
were civilians. The UN and other international organizations generally agree
with these statistics.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, about
2,000 of the deceased were younger than two years old. About 1,200 people were
killed and 250 hostages were taken when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel
on October 7, 2023, sparking the start of the war. According to the Israeli
authorities, almost half of the hostages have been freed or rescued, and the
remaining thirty are thought to be alive.
About 90% of Gaza’s remaining population has
been displaced by Israeli forces in the past 20 months. Gaza is a 25-mile-long
territory along the Mediterranean Sea that borders Egypt and Israel. The
majority of the remaining population is facing famine as Israeli soldiers
prevent food and medicine from entering.
Israel’s military violated a ceasefire deal that
had been in effect since January with Hamas in March by bombing a sizable
portion of the Gaza Strip and enforcing a total blockade on the entry of
gasoline, food, medicine, and other supplies. There have been almost daily
complaints of Israeli troops shooting at Palestinians who are waiting for food,
despite Israel permitting some U.S. aid to be delivered at locations inside Israeli
military zones since May.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is putting his self-interest
above all else, turning his back on longstanding efforts towards peace, and
putting Jews in the region and around the world in danger,”
Wyden said.
Merkley also criticized Netanyahu in his
statement and said the U.S. is enabling more deaths in Gaza by sending weapons
to Israeli Defense Forces while Netanyahu blocks life-saving food and medicine
from reaching Palestinians in Gaza.
“Every moment the U.S. fails to demand a massive
influx of food or to provide that massive influx of food ourselves, we are
complicit in Netanyahu’s strategy of starving Palestinians. This breaks every
moral code and every religious code,”
he said.
“Until every child and every
mother has sufficient nutrition, America should not send a single dollar or a
single bomb to Netanyahu’s government. No more bombs. More aid.”
What are the reasons behind Jeff Merkley’s
support for blocking arms sales?
Jeff Merkley supports blocking arms sales to
Israel primarily because he views the U.S. as complicit in a strategy that is
causing severe humanitarian harm to Palestinians.
In a public statement, Merkley said the U.S.
should not send “a single dollar or a single bomb” to the Netanyahu
government until every child and mother in Gaza has sufficient nutrition,
highlighting the severe starvation and humanitarian crisis there.
He sees ongoing U.S. weapons transfers as
enabling a campaign that is starving Palestinians and contributing to civilian
suffering. Merkley was among 27 Senate Democrats who voted to block arms sales,
reflecting growing frustration over Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the
associated humanitarian fallout.
