The Senate overwhelmingly rejected a resolution to ban certain arm sales to Israel late Wednesday evening, exposing stark divisions among Democrats over support for Israel and the country’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Senators voted 27 to 70 in a failed vote to halt the U.S. government from transferring tens of thousands of assault rifles to Israel with every Senate Republican voting “no” on the measure. A record number of Senate Democrats — more than half of the caucus — voted in favor of the resolution from Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to block at least $675 million in weapons sales to Israel, citing concerns that the country is not doing enough to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The vote was the third occasion that Sanders, a longtime critic of the Israeli government, has forced the upper chamber to vote on blocking arms transfers to Israel. Sanders persuaded more than ten Democrats who objected to a similar resolution in April to back the measure to block the sale of rifles to Israel — including Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Ossoff is viewed as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent running for reelection in 2026. The National Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSC), Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, hammered the Georgia Democrat for supporting Sanders’ resolution.
“Jon Ossoff is a radical leftist who time and again refuses to stand with Georgia’s Jewish community,” NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia said in a statement. “He’d rather please the pro-Hamas extremists in his party than stand with Israel and Jewish Georgians. In 2026, voters will send him packing.”
Ossoff explained his opposition to supplying Israel with thousands of rifles as a protest against Netanyahu’s approach to the war against Hamas, which he argued has led to a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
He voted against a second resolution from Sanders that would have blocked the sale of two types of bombs and guidance kits to Israel, arguing Israelis have the right to defend themselves. The Senate also rejected that measure during a vote of 24 to 73.
“I do not believe the United States Senate should acquiesce without objection to the extreme mass deprivation of civilians in Gaza, including the intolerable starvation of children, that have resulted from the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government,” Ossoff said in statement following the vote.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer voted against the resolution despite a majority of his caucus supporting the prohibition of certain weapons sales to Israel.
Senate Republicans, who have been steadfast supporters of Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted as a bloc against the resolution seeking to restrict United States’ support for Israeli military operations.
“The solution to all of this isn’t to deprive Israel of the weapons it needs,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch of Idaho said during debate on the resolution Wednesday evening. “The solution is in the hands of Hamas.”
The White House warned that Trump would veto the measures if the resolutions passed the upper chamber, the Daily Caller News Foundation first reported. The statement of administration policy argued that the United States must stand with its “ally” Israel and that the weapons transfers would allow Israel to deter and defeat its regional foes.
Three Senate Democrats — Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona — did not vote. All three Democrats are seen as rising stars in the party and have sought to present themselves as moderate on certain issues.
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