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Sanders Files to Force First-Ever Vote in Congress on Blocking Weapons to Israel (truthout.org)

submitted 1 month ago by Keeponstalin to c/news

202 comments fedilink hide all child comments

On Wednesday, Sanders introduced six resolutions blocking six sales of different weapons contained within the $20 billion weapons deal announced by the Biden administration in August. The sales include many of the types of weapons that Israel has used in its relentless campaign of extermination in Gaza over the past year.

“Sending more weapons is not only immoral, it is also illegal. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act lay out clear requirements for the use of American weaponry – Israel has egregiously violated those rules,” said Sanders. “There is a mountain of documentary evidence demonstrating that these weapons are being used in violation of U.S. and international law.”

This will be the first time in history that Congress has ever voted on legislation to block a weapons sale to Israel, as the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project pointed out. This is despite the U.S. having sent Israel over $250 billion in military assistance in recent decades, according to analyst Stephen Semler, as Israel has carried out ethnic cleansings and massacres across Palestine and in Lebanon.

The resolutions are not likely to pass; even if they did pass the heavily pro-Israel Congress, they would likely be vetoed by President Joe Biden, who has been insistent on sending weapons to Israel with no strings attached.

However, Sanders’s move is in line with public opinion. Polls have consistently found that the majority of the public supports an end to Israel’s genocide; a poll by the Institute for Global Affairs released this week found, for instance, that a majority of Americans think the U.S. should stop supporting Israel or make support contingent on Israeli officials’ agreement to a ceasefire deal. This includes nearly 80 percent of Democrats.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is such a deeply bad faith argument but, yea, that's what advertising is and several media outlets coordinated with the campaign to box out Sanders and portray his ideas as fringe.

[+] FlowVoid -20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I mean, what you're describing is simply politics. Who gave you the idea that media are supposed to stay neutral in an election?

When the Michigan Chronicle and Houston Defender endorse Harris and say Trump is dangerous to democracy, that's politics. On the opposite side, Fox News has been portraying all Democrats as fringe for decades. They are not merely allowed to do that, that's what we expect the media to do in a democracy.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

I don't disagree - the media does have an implicit bias... but rarely do they cooperate directly with a campaign. Donna Brazile was fired over how overt it got.

The Sanders/Clinton primary was an example of how powerful dark money can be in campaigns and is a terrible portent of how centrists can create an uneven playing field where money rather than policy or appeal will dictate the winner.

I'd clarify that nothing the Clinton campaign did was illegal - but they absolutely prevented us from having a fair election.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Media is supposed to be neutral and was until the 90s. Media is not supposed to take any particular side. You're confusing the medias right and responsibility to criticize government with extreme bias against part of government.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

Media : plural of medium. The media "are" biased. That's inherent. With the internet, the media were supposed to be infinity minus one. That's probably the 90s you're dreaming of. Look up the history of yellow journalism. There's fantastic journalism out there, and some of it is mainstream.

[–] FlowVoid -2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

That's not true. Media have been endorsing and supporting particular candidates since the beginning.

One hundred years ago, the NYT endorsed John Davis for president over Calvin Coolidge. They weren't neutral.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In 1941, following such mistakes that were obviously bad ideas, and following the Nazis ridiculously good use of the media to gain and maintain power, the fairness doctrine was passed in the US. Until Clinton's repeal of the doctrine all media that reported orr discussed politics had to do so with equal weight to all sides of an issue and without bias towards any group.

The media working for politicians or political parties leads to Nazis, every time. Just like liberals compromising or choosing a moderate approach.

[–] FlowVoid 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

all media

Not true. The fairness doctrine only applied to broadcast media on public airwaves. It has never applied to newspapers (the NYT endorsed Eisenhower in 1952) or cable news.

And it was repealed in 1987, under Reagan. However, broadcast media (not newspapers or cable news) are still subject to the equal time rule.

The reason that these rules only affect broadcast media is that there is a limited number of broadcast licenses, but no limit to the number of newspapers or cable channels. It has nothing to do with Nazis, in fact the equal time rule originated in 1927.