Bernie Sanders preparing resolutions to block $20B in US arms sales to Israel

AP Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is preparing a series of Senate resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel. It’s a longshot political effort but the most substantive pushback yet from Congress over the devastation in Gaza ahead of the first year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war. In a letter to colleagues out Wednesday, Sanders, the Vermont Independent, said that the U.S. cannot be “complicit in this humanitarian disaster.” Though Senate passage is unlikely, the action sends a message as the Biden administration works on a cease fire deal and hostage release. The war has killed 41,000 in Gaza after the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel that killed 1,200 taking some 250 hostages.