At a time when Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians trying to get food aid on a near daily basis, when extremist settlers are pushing Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, and when Gaza is witnessing mass starvation as a result of Israeli government policy, the United States [00:00:17] should not and must not be providing more weapons to enable these atrocities. Mr. President, whatever happens tonight, history will condemn those of us who fail [00:00:35] to act in the face of these horrors. On this vote, the yeas are 24, the nays are 73, and the motion is not agreed to. Of course it's not agreed to. While the Senate did hold a vote late last night in order to once again attempt [00:00:54] to block, you know, a resolution, or they did vote to block a resolution that was brought by Senator Bernie Sanders, a Jewish American, who actually meant it when he said, never again. So I commend him for that. But this resolution was meant to end certain weapons sales to Israel, [00:01:13] which is currently starving 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Actually, to be fair to Israel, they might actually be starving less than 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, considering the fact that they've also engaged in a mass slaughter campaign. [00:01:28] And we don't know what the actual death toll in Gaza really is. So the silver lining is that for the first time ever, and if you want to call this a silver lining, please do so. A majority of Democrats voted in favor of blocking the military aid [00:01:43] to Israel the first time. This is the first time Democrats, a majority of Democrats voted in favor of blocking military aid to Israel. So first things first. What were the two resolutions sponsored by Bernie, along with Senators Jeff Merkley and Peter Welch. Well, one of Wednesday's resolutions [00:02:03] would have blocked the $676 million sale of 5000 heavy duty bombs and 5000 guidance kits for bombs. The other would have prohibited the sale of tens of thousands [00:02:19] of fully automatic assault rifles. Sanders argued that the arms transfers would clearly violate U.S. Legal requirements for foreign military sales, because Israel has used weapons provided by Washington to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians. [00:02:38] We actually do have certain laws on the books that prevents the United States from sending arms and guns and weapons to foreign countries that then use those weapons to carry out war crimes. And Israel has been doing that. But Israel is our special ally. [00:02:53] That does nothing for us. Nothing for us. I mean, just ask anyone who makes that argument. Why are they our special ally? And they never have an answer. But anyway, putting that aside, there are special allies. So they get away with literal murder. Okay. [00:03:09] He also said that the rifles in question will go to arm a police force overseen by Itamar Ben-Gvir, who advocates for the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from the region, who has been convicted of support for terrorism by the Israeli court [00:03:28] and who has distributed weapons to violent settlers in the West Bank to use against unarmed Palestinians and drive them out of their homes. But the overwhelming majority of Congress doesn't actually care about that at all, including some Democrats. [00:03:44] The resolutions ultimately failed 27 to 70, and Democrats were split on the vote. 12 Democratic senators who previously backed arms sales to Israel, joined Bernie Sanders to block the funding. [00:04:00] New supporters included Maine independent Senator Angus King, who said this week that he would no longer support Netanyahu's government because of his use of starvation as a weapon of war. Thank you to Senator King for coming to his senses. [00:04:16] Finally, he says, I had just had it. I kept expecting that Israel would wake up and realize what an awful thing they were perpetuating, and that surely they would at least open up humanitarian aid. [00:04:33] They just continued to not do it. And I just reached the point where enough was enough. So there are other new supporters that have flipped since the last vote in April, and that includes, Jeanne Shaheen, Jack Reed, [00:04:49] Patty Murray, Tammy Baldwin, Jon Ossoff, Tammy Duckworth, Raphael Warnock, Angela Alsobrooks and Sheldon Whitehouse. And to them, I say thank you for voting the right way on these resolutions. Notably absent, though notably absent from that vote was Democratic Senator [00:05:07] Elissa Slotkin, who during her interview with Krystal Ball, said that cutting off sales of offensive offensive weaponry to Israel was something that she wants to look at. Okay. [00:05:22] You cut off aid to Israel so long as they're committing crimes against humanity. There is a difference between a weapon to protect a country from incoming missiles versus other. Offensive and defensive weapons are different. [00:05:38] So would you support offensive weapons ban? Like, would you stop any offensive aid to Israel? That certainly to me would be a place to look. But I'm not going to cut off a blanket. Next sale on a defensive weapon. [00:05:53] She was lying about maybe wanting to cut off from offensive weapons. And nothing makes that clearer than the fact that instead of staying in Washington to vote on Bernie's resolutions, which only applied to offensive weaponry, by the way, she was on the Colbert Report [00:06:12] claiming that there's no deep state. In fact, you know, she used to be a spy. She used to be part of the CIA. And, when she was asked about the CIA, which is part of the deep state, she's like, you know, these are these are great Americans, corn fed Americans. [00:06:30] They're just like you and me. They wear their blue jeans. They wear their white New Balance shoes. F out of here. Not a single Republican voted for either resolution. Okay, so let me emphasize that Republican [00:06:46] Lawmakers are even worse on this issue. All the people in the audience who want to glaze Democrats and get mad at me for ever criticizing Democrats. Republicans were worse on this issue. Are you happy? Does that make you feel better? [00:07:02] I don't care about Partizan obsessions right now, because there are bad people on both sides of the political aisle who are rooting for the mass slaughter that we're seeing in Gaza and the West Bank. [00:07:19] You want a Partizan show? There is a plethora of that garbage out there. Go watch it. I am not going to provide cover for Democrats engaging in bad behavior. Ever. That's not me. It never will be me. Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch gave the usual excuse, arguing that Hamas [00:07:38] and not Israel, is perpetuating the war. Quote, these are misguided resolutions and, if adopted, would abandon America's closest ally in the Middle East that drags us into wars that now has led to Americans having the stain of genocide [00:07:55] in their, you know, history soon. And so our funding for genocide continues. Now, Zittau has decided to mock, some of what has been going on here in, in a way, to basically draw attention to how depraved our government is. [00:08:11] So as the situation in Gaza becomes more and more horrific, we're actually seeing centrist Democrats desperately trying to act like they care deeply about the innocent civilians and Palestinians that are currently being slaughtered, with our help. So writer Frank Cappello from Mehdi Hassan's outlet, Zittau, [00:08:29] filmed a mock video basically posing as a centrist Democrat. And despite it being utterly ridiculous, I gotta say it sounds just like the real politicians and the arguments that they've been making in D.C.. [00:08:46] So let's take a look. Senator, can you comment on the ongoing humanitarian crisis and famine happening in Gaza? What is happening in Gaza right now is absolutely terrible. We need to be doing everything in our power to end this crisis now. Can you also comment on why you recently posed for a photo with Israeli Prime [00:09:02] Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he was visiting the Capitol last week? I also believe, as Democrats, that we can't just be employing an either or strategy. Okay. It needs to be both. And we need to both advocate for the people who are being killed and have [00:09:19] lunch with the person who is killing them. I actually went to that meeting to hold Netanyahu accountable. I asked him, what are you doing to end this mass suffering? And then he reminded me that this is all Hamas's fault. Will you be calling for weapons restrictions to put pressure on Israel? Well, I believe that Israel has the right to defend itself, [00:09:36] and it needs those weapons to do so. I will, however, be calling for a restriction on some commercial goods, for instance, I don't think anyone in Israel should be able to play the Nintendo Switch two. I don't know if you saw, but my office just published a strongly worded letter demanding that Netanyahu hold a public press conference where he announces an investigation into the [00:09:54] killings of Palestinians at eight sites. Or at the very least, he needs to tweet about it. That was perfect. That was so perfect. It is sad that you don't have a party in America [00:10:11] that you can put your support behind, because they're disgusted with what's happening in the Middle East right now. They're disgusted with what's happening to innocent civilians, because even if you vote for Democrats, there's no guarantee that they'll be on [00:10:27] the right side of history on this matter. And it's just the most depressing thing in the world. It really is the power of the Israel lobby in the United States. The possibility of blackmail against powerful people in this country. [00:10:43] All of that stuff really should make you question whether we live in a free country that is guided by democratic values, Liberal democracy. The people making decisions about what's right for us. [00:11:03] Obviously, I've questioned that historically because of the fact that we have this legalized bribery baked into our political system. But when it comes to our foreign policy, anytime it has to do with Israel, [00:11:18] it's so extreme, so extremely in favor of anything Israel wants, regardless of what kind of government's in charge that I think the issue goes even deeper than simple corruption. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. [00:11:34] Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.