Political Quotes

On the recordMay 8, 2025
Mr. President, if the Senator had heard my remarks, I talked about the need to release the hostages and I talked about who started the war, which is the terrorist organization called Hamas, led by war criminals. There is no debate about that. But what the Senator did not tell us is whether or not he thinks it is a good idea for U.S. taxpayers to be spending billions of billions of dollars on an extremist government in Israel whose stated policy is to starve children; whether or not he thinks it is a good idea to cut off all humanitarian aid getting into Gaza right now--no medicine, no clean water, no healthcare facilities open. So the issue is not who started the war. Everyone knows who started the war. The issue is whether you commit war atrocities, criminal war acts by punishing an entire people for the acts of a terrorist organization. Did Israel have the right to defend itself? Yes, nobody denies that. Did it have a right to kill over 50,000 people--60 percent of whom are women, children, and the elderly? No. Did it have a right to injure 112,000 people, to destroy almost every housing unit in Gaza, to bomb hundreds of schools at every university in Gaza? No. Israel had a right to defend itself, but it does not have the right to engage in ethnic cleansing and to starve children. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii. ____________________
Said by
Bernie Sanders
Independent · Vermont

Share & report

More from Bernie Sanders

Sep 9, 2025

This is not only grossly immoral. It is insane economics.

truthout.org
Aug 30, 2025

Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans' lives in danger, and he must resign.

commondreams.org
Sep 13, 2025

What is so radical about saying we need an economy that works for everybody, not just for Mr. [Elon] Musk and his billionaire friends?

nbcnews.com
Sep 7, 2025

a test case of whether or not democracy can prevail.

commondreams.org

Other voices in this conversation