$450 Million In Bombs And Bulldozers For Israel Pose A Test For Democrats

Democratic senators could soon send a historic message that Washington is grappling with the devastating wars in Iran, Lebanon and Gaza — and moving toward a foreign policy overhaul by reconsidering the flow of American weaponry to Israel.

On Wednesday evening, the Senate will consider legislation led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would block roughly $150 million in 1,000-pound bombs and $300 million in bulldozers that President Donald Trump wants to send to the Israelis. Supporters of the bills hope the votes will rally the largest-ever opposition from senators to arms for Tel Aviv — more than 30 or potentially 35 — and apply new pressure to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid a fragile ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and bids to end the U.S.-backed Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

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A sharp uptick in support for limiting weapons transfers would represent a major stand for human rights and adherence to U.S. and international laws about respect for civilians and limitations on violence even in war time, those advocates argue, though the immediate effect is limited since unanimous Republican support for shipping the weapons to Israel means the initiatives have no chance of passing Congress, much less being signed into law by Trump.

Simultaneously, the vote could offer evidence of how the Democratic Party is handling key challenges as it seeks to win back power: bridging the gap between a staunchly pro-Israel party establishment and intense skepticism of Israel among Democrats’ base, and wedding their criticism of Trump’s choices to a new international vision for the party.

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Both the bombs and bulldozers are central to current conflicts and to long-running concerns about U.S. policies in the Middle East. Israel used 1,000-lb. bombs just last week in a massive bombardment of the Lebanese capital of Beirut and repeatedly in civilian areas in Gaza, while such bombs havereportedly also been used in the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign in Iran that Trump and Netanyahu launched on Feb. 28. And Israeli forces have used bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank — central to any chance of an eventual Palestinian state – and to destroy civilian infrastructure in Lebanon

“The Israeli military repeatedly targets our village of Sinjil … with bulldozers that come to destroy roads and steal our land. Israel knows it can do this with impunity, in village after village … carry out this ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” Kamel Musallet, a Palestinian American whose son was beaten to death in the West Bank by Israeli settlers last July, told HuffPost. “I would ask my elected officials who continue to vote in support of this why they think it is a better use of our tax dollars to destroy Palestinian homes and communities than to build homes for Americans here. We deserve justice and protection. My son deserves justice.”

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In a horrific 2003 incident, Israeli forces used a militarized, American-made bulldozer to crush an activist and U.S. citizen attempting to shield a Palestinian home, Rachel Corrie. Twenty years later, amid the Gaza war, the Biden administration reportedly halted a shipment of bulldozers over alarm about their use.

The prospect of a significant majority of Democratic senators opposing military aid to Israel is another indicator that backlash to U.S.-Israeli entanglement is driving political change, even if slowly. The first vote on blocking weapons for Israel occurred in November 2024, a year into then-President Joe Biden heavily backing Tel Aviv’s military response to the October 2023 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and drew the support of 19 senators, all Democrats or aligned independents. A similar bid in July 2025 — once Democrats were no longer voting against the putative leader of their own party — was endorsed by a slim majority: 27 senators and one who was not present, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).

Now, at least 30 and possibly several more votes in favor are expected.

Ahead of the vote, congressional aides and activists told HuffPost they are closely tracking the choices of bellwether Democratic senators whose votes could indicate that the willingness to question weapons for Israel has definitively spread beyond the party’s progressive wing, and whose decisions could spur a domino effect among their colleagues. Among them are Slotkin, Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.) — the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee — and Sen. Chris Coons (Del.), a key player on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The group also includes possible candidates for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination: Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly (both Ariz.). Proponents of the legislation seek to both secure new votes and prevent Democrats who have voted similarly in the past from reverting to unquestioned U.S.-Israel coziness.

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“We see this as a continuation of where the party is at,” said one aide, who was not authorized to speak to the press. “Theoretically, everyone agrees: 7% of the party supports the war. We think the Senate should be using every tool to stop it and that includes blocking the sale of bombs … explicitly to help the war effort.” 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued an emergency declaration to rush the bombs to Tel Aviv soon after the Iran war began, in an echo of former Democratic Secretary of State Antony Blinken bypassing normal congressional procedure to speed weapons to Israel in 2023.

That message from advocates of the bills is likely to grow louder as some cautious Democrats say their concerns for the war are demonstrated by another set of votes: ongoing votes for war powers resolutions rejecting Trump’s moves against Iran, which are consistently doomed but have rallied near-unanimous Democratic support.

Hannah Morris of the liberal pro-Israel organization J Street argued it is inconsistent to treat the two legislative efforts as separate.

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“No matter what, this vote [on weapons for Israel] will be seen as an up or down vote on the war on Iran,” she told HuffPost. “If you have voted for the [war powers resolutions], you should vote for these [resolutions of disapproval], but if you vote against [them] you are essentially blessing the last [weeks] of war and greenlighting any potential reigniting of the war.”

Her group is pushing lawmakers to view votes for blocking the weaponry as reflecting the pro-peace feelings of many Jewish Americans, Morris continued, framing the move as “reflecting their constituents as opposed to this necessarily being a vote about Israel.”

“For the senators where this might be a first-time ‘Yes,’ they will want to frame this as a vote in opposition” to Trump’s policies, she said.

Hassan El-Tayyab, of the Friends Committee for National Legislation (FCNL), told HuffPost that Trump’s continued pushes against Tehran — like his new blockade on the Strait of Hormuz — and ongoing Israeli attacks in Lebanon boost the argument for a move beyond war powers resolutions to challenge the U.S.-Israel status quo. 

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Pro-Israel hardliners are blasting the effort from Sanders (which notably is partly co-sponsored by the moderate Democrat who has previously led congressional opposition to U.S.-backed Israeli militarism, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland). The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) deemed the gambit “a dangerous effort” putting Israelis at risk.

Fear of being cast as anti-Israel could lead to some senators splitting their votes on the bills, with more skittish legislators choosing not to vote against bombs for Israel — that might be deployed against Iran, Hamas or its other enemies — but opposing the bulldozers because of their most likely use against civilians.

A second congressional aide told HuffPost they assume up to five legislators could vote differently along those lines.

Still, they added: “Netanyahu and U.S. allies do notice if it’s now 35 Democrats instead of 27.”

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