Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is now forcing Senate Democrats to reckon not only with the images of starvation and suffering in Gaza but also the tectonic shift within voters in their own party.
Sanders – the democratic socialist independent, former presidential candidate and gadfly-turned vanguard of the left-wing – will force two votes to pressure the Senate to block arms to Israel in response to civilian massacres in Gaza and the impending famine.
The votes are similar to those Sanders held in the weeks after the election, when many wondered whether President Joe Biden's outspoken support for Israel's war in Gaza after a surprise assault by Hamas may have cost Kamala Harris votes in Michigan and with young voters.
"What polling shows is the American people are sick and tired of supporting a racist extremist government in Israel, which is now starving, starving children to death with U.S. taxpayer money," Sanders told The Independent.
Unsurprisingly, Sanders's fellow progressive, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) supports his push to block arms to Israel.
But the next generation of Democratic Senate leaders is clearly angry. On Tuesday, before Sanders announced his votes, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who like Sanders is Jewish, unloaded on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Many expect Schatz to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the first senator to support a ceasefire, as Democratic whip in the Senate.
The same can be said of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a potential candidate to succeed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer when he eventually retires. Klobuchar told The Independent she confronted Netanyahu about Gaza a few weeks ago when Netanyahu visited DC.
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