No more blank checks for war criminal Netanyahu: Sanders tells Congress

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Congress to stop drawing more “blank checks” for “war criminals” like Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a new poll says nearly 60 percent of Americans oppose more economic and military support for the occupying entity.

In a post on X on Monday, the veteran senator cited a recent poll showing that 57 percent of Americans no longer support the flow of economic and military assistance from the United States to Israel.

“According to a recent New York Times poll, 57% of Americans oppose the U.S. providing more economic and military support to Israel, while just 37% support,” Sanders wrote on his X account.

“Congress should listen to the American people. No more blank checks for war criminals like Benjamin Netanyahu,” he stressed, as Netanyahu has been wanted since 2024 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Under a ten-year agreement signed in 2016, the US committed $38 billion in military aid to Israel through 2028, including $5 billion for the so-called Iron Dome anti-aircraft missile system.

Overall, American assistance accounts for roughly 16% of the regime's military budget.

Back in March, Sanders filed three resolutions, seeking to block nearly $660 million in arms sales to Israel.

Furthermore, Netanyahu lured US President Donald Trump into an unprovoked war against Iran on February 28. The pointless US-Israeli aggression assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders and targeted the country's infrastructure, including economic facilities.

More than 3,300 Iranians have lost their lives in the aggression, according to the latest data.

Separately on Monday, a New York Times/Siena poll found that Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 37 percent, the worst mark since he returned to office, amid economic hardship in the wake of the Iran war.

According to the poll, the criminal war on Iran has been a major drag on Trump’s declining popularity, with almost two-thirds of voters saying that his decision to go to war was wrong.

However, 70 percent of Republicans still support the disastrous move.

The poll also showed that Trump is facing a backlash in respect of all major policy areas, asked from participants such as immigration, the economy, Iran, and the cost of living in the US.

Moreover, the poll also found that more Americans – 37 percent to 35 percent – noted that they sympathize with Palestinians more than Israeli settlers, after Netanyahu’s two-year genocidal war in the Gaza Strip claimed the lives of well more than 70,000 Palestinians.

For young respondents up to the age of 29, the disparity is even more pronounced, the poll further showed, as only 14 percent said that they support Israel more, against 64 percent for the Palestinians.

Only 37 percent of respondents - and five percent in the 18-29 age range - support “additional economic and military support to Israel.”

The poll also revealed that 49 percent of respondents strongly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with 56 percent expressing a similar stance on the Iran war, which paused after a Pakistan-brokered temporary ceasefire took effect on April 8, forty days into the war.

Negotiations in Islamabad, however, subsequently stalled amid Washington's excessive demands and unreasonable positions.

According to the poll, more than 50 percent of the voters said that Trump should not go back to war with Iran if a deal is not reached.

In retaliation for the aggression, Iranian armed forces responded with daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in Israeli-occupied territories and US military bases across the region.

Iran also closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world's oil and gas, to ships belonging to the US and its allies that participated in or supported the aggression, triggering a significant spike in oil prices, as the US imposed an illegal naval blockade on Iranian vessels and ports.

Tehran says the illegal US blockade on Iran’s ports should be lifted before the next stage of talks for ending the war begins. Iran has also asserted it has no intention of reopening the Strait of Hormuz as long as the blockade remains in place.

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