In late November, the White House and its allies scrambled to kill a Senate measure blocking three weapons shipments to Israel — a delicate move, since the measure was led or sponsored by senators close to Biden, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to plead that the measure would embolden Hamas at precisely the wrong moment. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) called senators into his office, one by one, to urge a no vote. The influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee launched a blitz of online ads targeting the measure’s supporters.
Yet 19 senators — more than a third of all senators who caucus with Democrats — voted for at least part of Sanders’s proposal, sending an unprecedented message of dissatisfaction with Biden’s Middle East policy from his own party. It was the first time Congress had ever voted on blocking arms sales to Israel, and the White House was unable to head it off.
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