The United States Senate stood at a moral crossroads today—a moment of reckoning not just for lawmakers, but for the soul of a nation complicit in the slaughter of innocents.
On one side: the crushing weight of political expediency, the relentless pressure of billionaire-funded lobbies, and the deafening silence of those who know better but dare not speak.
On the other: the faint, flickering light of conscience.
Senator Bernie Sanders, one of ten Jewish members of the Senate, stood against the machinery of war, demanding an end to the United States’ role in the slaughter of Gaza, but the Senate resisted the choice to uphold the law, and instead bowed to the relentless pressure of power and profit
Only 15 senators, all Democrats, supported Sanders’ demand for an end to America’s complicity in the carnage unfolding in Gaza.
His resolution sought to block $8.8 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel—sales that would deliver 35,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs, the very weapons that have turned Gaza into a graveyard for children.
But when the roll was called, the fractures in our democracy were laid bare.
New Jersey’s senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, stood on opposite sides of history.
Booker, once a progressive darling, voted Nay—choosing to arm a government that has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, orphaned 17,000 children, and reduced an entire civilization to rubble.
The Gaza Strip now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world, but Booker voted to let the American-made bombs keep falling. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 3,105 and 4,050 limb amputations have occurred since October 2023.
Kim, to his credit, voted Yea—joining the small but growing chorus of dissent against the machine of endless war.
According to Code Pink: Women for Peace, a left-wing, anti-war charity organization that has protested against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Booker accepted $893,998 from pro-Israel lobbies like AIPAC.
“We know Democrats and Republicans in Congress are bought off by the Israel lobby and the weapons industry and every one of them votes in favor of sending the bombs that are dropping on Gaza. Both parties conspired to make this genocide possible,” said Code Pink co-director Danaka Katovic. “It seems like the only thing they can agree on, is sending the money of the American working class—who struggle to make ends meet every day—to bomb and starve people all over the world,”
On a number of occasions, demonstrators sought to expose the hypocrisy of Booker, who, despite his rhetoric on democratic values, continues to support actions that they argue go against the will of the American public.
“Cory Booker has received $893,998 USD from AIPAC to date and was the sole Democratic co-sponsor of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act that aimed to criminalize support for the BDS movement,” said Hannah Sanam, who added that she does not care “about his filibuster (because) he supports genocide just like the rest of them.”
“It has been over 540 days since Hamas brutally attacked Israel; an attack that we must work to ensure can never be replicated,” said Kim. “To that end, the priority must be the safe return of hostages, including Edan Alexander, through a diplomatic agreement that also leads to a durable peace to end the suffering that doesn’t leave Hamas in charge of Gaza.”
Ever since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brilliantly advanced his own interests while proceeding without any obvious strategy that would advantage Israel.
At this point, Israel has leveled much of Gaza, killing some 47,000 Palestinians, including 13,000 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Some think those numbers are inflated, others an undercount: The medical journal The Lancet estimated 64,000 dead.
Attorney Steven Donziger, who spent decades battling Chevron over pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest, estimated in February that Israeli military forces killed at least 360,000 people in its then 15-month-long genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, arguing that the besieged territory’s true death toll is much higher than figures reported by mainstream media.
“Today, the Senate voted on two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, which would stop a portion of potential arms sales of offensives weapons from the United States to Israel,” said Kim. “I will continue to stand with Israel and the Israeli people. I voted for these Joint Resolutions because while I support providing tools critical for Israel’s defense, I do not believe that these systems, which include those that can level entire city blocks and that have been used in incidents with disproportionate civilian casualties, achieve the primary objectives I’ve outlined. In fact, their use will make it harder.”
“I have long supported systems like Iron Dome and David’s Sling that protect scores of Israelis from terrorist groups and other common adversaries like Iran and Iranian proxies,” said Kim. “The threat in particular from Iran is real and existential, and systems to stop drone and ballistic missile attacks are vital. Israel needs these tools and others that ensure it retains its Qualitative Military Edge because it is surrounded by actors who seek its demise, and that the history of the State of Israel is one founded on the assurance of continued existence.”
The numbers do not lie. Seven percent of Gaza’s population—men, women, children, the elderly—have been killed or maimed. Ninety-two percent of homes have been obliterated. Hospitals lie in ruins. Schools are graveyards. And for 31 days and counting, not a single morsel of food, not a drop of clean water, not an ounce of medicine has been allowed in. This is not war. This is extermination.
And the United States is bankrolling it.
Sanders’ voice thundered through the chamber, a prophet ignored in his own land: “We cannot hide from this reality. We are complicit.”
He spoke of the 2,000-pound bombs—weapons so indiscriminate that 90% of their victims are civilians. He invoked U.S. law, which forbids arming regimes that blockade humanitarian aid. He laid bare the grotesque truth: that while Americans reel at the horrors abroad, their own government fuels the fire.
Yet even now, the gears of power grind on. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, has already vowed to spend millions to crush dissenters. Elon Musk and the billionaire class loom like specters, threatening any who dare defy them. And in the shadows, a darker plan takes shape—Donald Trump’s chilling vision of Gaza as a “Riviera,” its people expelled, its land seized, its suffering erased in the name of profit.
Ethnic cleansing. The words hang in the air, heavy with the weight of history.
The vote failed. The bombs will flow. The killing will continue.
But the question remains: How long will America look away? How long will we fund the destruction of a people? How long before the world holds us accountable for the war crimes we enable?
Tonight, as the Senate retreats into the comfort of compromise, Gaza’s children sleep—those who still can—under drones and debris, their futures stolen, their voices unheard.
History will remember this day. The only question is whether we will be remembered as the enablers of atrocity—or those who finally, finally, said enough.
A Moral Reckoning in the Senate: New Jersey’s Split Vote on Gaza Arms Sale Exposes America’s Complicity in Carnage
The halls of Congress echoed with the weight of history today—not with the measured tones of deliberation, but with the deafening silence of moral evasion. As
The answer, written in the split votes of New Jersey’s senators, was as damning as it was predictable.
Cory Booker, a man who once styled himself a progressive champion, voted Nay—aligning himself with the Netanyahu government’s relentless bombardment, a campaign that has orphaned 17,000 children, turned hospitals into ruins, and left Gaza a wasteland. His record is clear: a staunch defender of Israel’s right to exist, yet conspicuously silent on Palestine’s right to live. He has marched in lockstep with AIPAC, even co-sponsoring the Israel Anti-Boycott Act—a bill so draconian it sought to criminalize dissent. His vote today was not an aberration; it was the culmination of a career bought and paid for by the lobbyists of war.
Andy Kim, to his credit, voted Yea—joining Sanders in an attempt to halt the sale of 35,000 bombs, weapons so indiscriminate they have flattened entire neighborhoods, burying families beneath rubble. His statement was cautious, measured, but it carried a truth Booker dare not acknowledge: These are not defensive weapons. These are tools of annihilation.
The numbers defy denial. Fifty thousand dead. Ninety-two percent of homes destroyed. No electricity for 17 months. No food, no water, no medicine for 31 days and counting. This is not war. This is extermination. And the United States—the land of liberty, the nation that claims moral leadership—is bankrolling it.
Sanders’ voice cut through the chamber like a clarion call: “We cannot hide from this reality. We are complicit.” He spoke of the 2,000-pound bombs—weapons that kill nine civilians for every one combatant. He invoked U.S. law, which forbids arming regimes that block humanitarian aid. He laid bare the grotesque truth: that while Americans mourn the horrors abroad, their tax dollars fuel the fire.
Yet even now, the gears of power grind on. AIPAC, armed with $127 million in election spending, has already marked dissenters for defeat. Elon Musk and the billionaire class loom like specters, threatening any who dare defy them. And in the shadows, a darker vision takes shape—Donald Trump’s chilling fantasy of Gaza as a “Riviera,” its people expelled, its land seized, its suffering erased in the name of profit.
Ethnic cleansing. The words hang in the air, heavy with the weight of history.
The vote failed. The bombs will flow. The killing will continue.
But the question remains: How long will America look away? How long will we fund the destruction of a people? How long before the world holds us accountable for the war crimes we enable?
Tonight, as the Senate retreats into the comfort of compromise, Gaza’s children sleep—those who still can—under drones and debris, their futures stolen, their voices unheard.
History will remember this day. The only question is whether we will be remembered as the enablers of atrocity—or those who finally, finally, said *enough.