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Bernie Sanders slams Schumer’s $110B aid package over money for 'right-wing, extremist' Israel
By Elizabeth Elkind
Published December 06, 2023
Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., laid into Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s proposed $110 billion aid package in a letter to Senate colleagues on Tuesday night over funds allocated toward Israel in its ongoing war against Hamas.
"At a time when some 16,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last two months, two thirds of whom are women and children, and more than 40,000 have been injured… No, I do not think we should be appropriating $10.1 billion for the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military strategy," Sanders wrote.
Senate Democrats unveiled the details of their $110 billion aid proposal earlier on Tuesday. It includes money for Ukraine, Israel, humanitarian aid for Gaza and elsewhere, and some funding for the U.S. border.
Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to hold a vote for the mammoth package sometime this week.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., slammed Senate Democrats supplemental aid package
Sanders criticized the global aid bill as not doing enough for Americans back in the U.S.
"There are pieces of this bill I strongly support, but in its present form I do not think it serves the best interests of the American people," the senator wrote. "I am deeply concerned that this legislation has no investments to address the emergency needs of working families in the United States – 60 percent of whom are living paycheck to paycheck."
He continued, "Let’s be clear: it is not only foreign countries that face emergencies. We face enormous crises in this country right now in terms of child care, primary health care, housing, and much more. The American people want action on these vitally important issues."
Sanders called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘extremist’ (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)
Sanders, among the most prominent Jewish members of Congress, has also been one of the most critical of Israel’s actions in the wake of Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians.
He’s previously called to condition U.S. aid to Israel on its actions in Gaza, something mainstream Democrats criticized.
In his letter on Tuesday night, Sanders said Israel "has every right to defend itself" but "It does not, however, have the right to wage all-out war against innocent men, women, and children who had nothing to do with the Hamas attack."
"Despite pleadings from the Biden administration, the UN and humanitarian groups, and leaders throughout the world, the Netanyahu government has continued its reckless and dangerous military policies," he wrote.
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"We must not provide Netanyahu and his right-wing government a $10 billion blank check to continue on this course."
Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-schumers-aid-package-money-right-wing-extremist-israel