Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has written a blistering letter calling President Joe Biden “complicit in a massacre” and demanding he cut US aid to Israel by $10 billion over the war against Hamas.
“Israel's military campaign will be remembered as one of the darkest chapters of our modern history,” Sanders wrote in a letter that came on a day when Biden himself publicly criticized Israel for its campaign in Gaza.
“And this is done with bombs and equipment produced and supplied by the United States and heavily subsidized by American taxpayers. Tragically, we are complicit in this massacre,” he wrote.
The US has long provided billions in military aid to Israel and Egypt, and Biden requested a new infusion after the brutal Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called it “hypocritical” for the US to provide $10 billion in “unconditional” funds to Israel, which is waging its war against Hamas in Gaza
Sanders told it Washingtonpost it was hypocritical “to give another $10 billion in unconditional funds to a right-wing, extremist government led by Netanyahu… to continue this war.”
Biden said Tuesday that Israel is losing support around the world during his campaign in Gaza.
Speaking at a behind-closed-doors political fundraiser in Washington DC on Tuesday, Biden said: “They're starting to lose that support because of indiscriminate bombings that are happening.
“I think he has to change, and with this government in Israel, this government is making it very difficult for him to move. Bibi has to make a difficult decision. This is the most conservative government in Israel's history,” he said.
Sander too turned up the heat about Biden in an appearance on CBS' “Face the Nation.”
President Joe Biden leveled his strongest criticism yet of Israel – over Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in October
Graves damaged during the Israeli ground offensive are seen in the Fallujah neighborhood, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, December 13, 2023
“The United States must do everything it can to pressure Netanyahu's right-wing extremist government to end this disastrous military approach, which is causing such horrific damage to human life in Palestine,” he said .
“You're talking about 1.9 million displaced people,” he said. “It is a humanitarian disaster and the United States must exert all possible pressure to tell Netanyahu to stop this disastrous military approach.”
Biden has requested $14 billion in additional aid to Israel, while holding regular consultations with Netanyahu and sending powerful US military assets to the region.