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1. Bernie Puts Dems to the Test
Thirteen months into the Gaza war and with no end in sight, Senator Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor to introduce three pieces of legislation that would effectively have frozen certain arms supplies to Israel.
“You cannot condemn human rights violations around the world and then turn a blind eye to what the United States is now funding in Israel—people will laugh in your face,” Sanders said in his Senate floor speech, arguing that Israel has violated American law by using U.S.-made weapons in an indiscriminate way that has caused massive civilian deaths in Gaza, and by deliberately blocking humanitarian aid to those impacted by the war.
The legislation brought forward by Sanders and progressives called for repealing the Congressional approval of arms deals to Israel that included tank shells, mortars, and precision kits for bombs known as joint direct attack munitions (JDAM). If passed, the measures would have paved the way to freezing these already-approved arms sales and would have denied Israel some of its key offensive ammunition, while keeping supplies of defensive arms untouched.
It didn’t pass, nor was it ever close to passing.
The legislation was defeated by a resounding majority made up of all Republicans and a majority of Democrats. Between 17 and 19 Democrats and Independents voted for Sanders’ legislative appeal in three separate votes on the bill.
But it wasn’t really about getting the Senate’s approval.
Sanders, one of Capitol Hill’s longest-serving lawmakers, knows the math very well and was under no illusion that his fiery speech and his co-sponsors’ description of Palestinian death and hardship in Gaza would move the needle far enough to win the vote.
By bringing these three bills to a vote, Sanders forced Democrats to take a stand. Now, free from election considerations and worries about how their positions will sway Jewish voters, or Muslim and Arab voters, or uncommitted swing state voters, Democrats are free to speak their mind on the Gaza war, on Israel’s conduct and on the Biden administration’s management of the crisis.
The results, however, were less than decisive, and all sides got to claim victory.
Sanders and the progressives looked at the fact that nearly 20 senators sided with the bills as proof of a real groundswell within the Democratic Party and as an indication that anger at Israel’s actions in Gaza is not confined to the very few on the far left.
Centrist Democrats also had reason to be pleased. Their stance, supporting Israel’s military actions and Biden’s policies, prevailed. They were never at risk of losing the vote. The vote, they believe, drew a clear line between the majority of Dems who are staunchly pro-Israel and the minority whose critical approach is still far from impacting policy.
As for the Republicans, they emerged joyful from the vote. Not only was an effort to block arms sales to Israel defeated, but they also got to point to the Democrats as the party in which a third of its senators believe Israel is committing war crimes and is not worthy of American weapons.
2. How Jewish Lobbies Split on the Sanders Vote
The arms-freeze vote posed a challenge for some Democrats who felt uneasy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to respond to American pleas to allow increased humanitarian assistance or to exercise more restraint but just as uneasy in supporting a move that amounts to an unprecedented arms embargo on Israel.
Pro-Israel groups were divided.
It was an easy call for the powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, which mobilized its supporters to oppose the bills and made sure that its voice was heard loud and clear on Capitol Hill. After the measures were defeated, AIPAC issued a statement celebrating the rejection of “dangerous efforts by Senator Bernie Sanders” to block arms sales to Israel.
The call to defeat Sanders’ bills was shared by Jewish Republicans, by most Jewish legacy organizations and by Jewish Democratic organizations aligned with the Biden administration.
The pro-Israel left went with Bernie.
Americans for Peace Now, a group that has historically led the pack in supporting tougher measures toward Israel, including limiting arms sales, was a clear supporter of the call to block certain weapons deals. A similar stance was adopted by the more powerful lobby group J Street, which has voiced its support in the past for conditioning aid to Israel but has now come out in support of the more sweeping Sanders legislation.
Here too, everyone had something to count as a win.
AIPAC got a chance to slam J Street. J Street got to do its own victory lap, touting what it viewed as, “a clear message of disapproval of the Netanyahu government’s conduct in Gaza and the U.S. administration’s approach to the crisis.”
3. Ossoff Takes the Plunge
One of the few surprises during Wednesday’s vote came from Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, who sided with Sanders and supported the move to limit arms transfer to Israel. (Ossoff voted for two of the resolutions, voting against restricting the sale of JDAMs.)
Ossoff, who is Jewish, holds progressive views but was not a safe vote on this issue. Georgia’s other senator, Raphael Warnock, also voted in favor of the measure, but Ossoff’s case is a bit more difficult. The 37-year-old first-term senator who just barely won his first run, is up for reelection in 2026 and will now run in a state which has since been flipped by Donald Trump.
Ossoff will need every vote he can get, and his recent vote doesn’t seem to be going down well with Georgia’s Jewish community. Jewish Insider reported that more than 50 Jewish groups condemned Ossoff and Warnock for their vote. The list includes the Atlanta Jewish federation, the Anti-Defamation League and local synagogues and schools. Ossoff now has less than two years to win back their support.
4. Will Trump Save Bibi From the ICC Arrest Warrant?
In other news, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
What followed was a frenzy of shock, accusations, finger-pointing and panic. Israelis and American politicians alike accused the international court of antisemitism, legal experts were called on to condemn the decision and Israeli media was quick to count all the 124 countries in which Netanyahu and Gallant cannot set foot now, for fear of immediate arrest.
The Biden administration clearly and forcefully condemned the ICC decision, calling it “outrageous.” But all eyes are on the incoming administration.
Will Trump save Netanyahu from jail in the Hague?
“You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January,” promised Trump’s future national security adviser Mike Waltz in a post on X. Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican voice on foreign affairs and national security, took to Fox News with a stern warning to any nation considering arresting the Israeli leader. “To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” he said.
What can the next administration actually do to block the move?
That is less clear.
With both chambers under Republican control, it is reasonable to expect Congress to pass legislation threatening officials in the ICC with personal sanctions. But that won’t stop the prosecution. It is also likely that a Trump administration will move to block international funding for the ICC. That would make life in the Hague harder but still won’t necessarily help revoke the arrest warrants.
Senator Graham’s threat of sanctioning America’s allies seems less likely to materialize, even for a Trump administration.
The only thing the next president has to offer Netanyahu right now is a warm welcome in the United States, one of the few countries Israel’s prime minister can still visit without having police officers waiting on the runway to arrest him.
5. Numbers, Again
In the last issue of this newsletter we discussed the varying statistics of how Jews voted in November and how each side is obliged by tradition and custom to endlessly argue that the Jewish vote tilted their way.
To be fair, here’s another data point: The Republican Jewish Coalition issued its own Jewish vote analysis, based not only on looking at exit polls but also on zooming into several counties and cities known for their high concentration of Jews. The RJC’s conclusion, not surprising, is that Trump made significant gains among Jewish voters. Check out the numbers for yourself.
Top image credit: Gage Skidmore / Vitaly V. Kuzmin (CC BY-SA 4.0)