Above photo: AP.
US Senate overwhelmingly votes to uphold US arms transfers to Israel.
The show of support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza coincided with an announcement by Trump stating that Netanyahu will return to the US capital ‘in the not-so-distant future’
US senators voted 82-15 and 83-15 on 3 April to reject two resolutions of disapproval regarding Washington’s massive arms transfers and other military assistance to Israel.
The resolutions were offered by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and received the support of only 15 out of 45 Democrats in the Senate.
“The United States must end our complicity in these atrocities, we cannot be part of this any longer,” Sanders said in a video he released on Wednesday.
Sanders has presented four resolutions since January 2024 to end or freeze US arms transfers to Israel, with none of them passing a vote on the Senate floor. His latest push sought to cancel the White House’s proposed sales of $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions to Israel.
Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has green-lighted about $20 billion in arms deals for Israel.
Thursday’s vote in the Senate coincided with Trump’s announcement that Israeli Prime Minister and wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is due in the country soon.
“I think he’s going to be coming to the country some time in the not-so-distant future. Maybe next week,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Netanyahu’s office reported earlier in the day that he spoke with Trump alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who pulled his country out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a welcome to the Israeli premier.
A founding member of the ICC, Hungary has become the first EU nation to withdraw from the court in support of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
During a joint press conference with Netanyahu, Orban asserted that the ICC had become a “political court.”
“It’s important for all democracies. It’s important to stand up to this corrupt organization,” Netanyahu said.
US gives Lebanon ultimatum to disarm Hezbollah or face war
Israel bombed the Lebanese capital twice in the last week and has vowed to ‘strike anywhere’ in the country
Lebanon is facing increased pressure from the US in the form of an ultimatum to either disarm Hezbollah by force within a specified time period, or face a renewed Israeli war against the country, according to Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
US envoy to the region Morgan Ortagus, who praised Israel’s war against Lebanon during a speech at the Lebanese presidential palace in February, is expected to visit Lebanon in the next two days.
This visit “carries a US message demanding the initiation of a plan to disarm Hezbollah as a condition for all other issues, from [Israeli] withdrawal to reconstruction,” Al-Akhbar reported on 3 April.
“Threatening messages have been reaching officials that deviate from the framework of UN Resolution 1701 and carry suicidal proposals for Lebanon,” sources told the newspaper.
According to the report, officials feel cornered and unable to circumvent US–Israeli pressure, which is pushing Lebanon to accept one of two options: “disarming [Hezbollah] by force, which would mean an internal conflict, or a new large-scale Israeli war to disarm it,” the report goes on to say.
The sources reveal there is a possibility of a new Israeli army operation against Lebanon.
“Israel will launch a military operation within a specific timeframe, and that the Americans have given the green light for it. It is unknown whether this will occur after Ortagus’s visit or whether she will delay her visit until after the operation is carried out,” they said.
They added that Lebanon as a whole is “living in a state of fear.”
Last month, the US announced it was facilitating indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to discuss Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails, 13 “disputed” points along the border which Tel Aviv was meant to withdraw from years ago, and the five points occupied by Israeli forces after the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024.
According to Al-Akhbar, Washington and Tel Aviv are now demanding – as part of these talks – the disarming of Hezbollah “within a specific timeframe.”
The US is also looking to secure an eventual normalization of ties between Lebanon and Israel, “or else push the country into civil war by pitting the army against the resistance.” Any internal attempt to push Hezbollah into surrendering its weapons is likely to cause chaos and civil strife in the country.
Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburb on 1 April, killing several people, including top Hezbollah member Hassan Bdair and his son. It had struck the Beirut suburb the week before that, marking the first attack on the capital since before the ceasefire reached in late November last year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “strike anywhere in Lebanon against any threat to the State of Israel.”
Tel Aviv has continued to carry out deadly strikes on Lebanese territory since the truce agreement took effect, violating the deal over 1,500 times.
Israel’s military also remains positioned in five locations along the border inside southern Lebanon, where they established themselves following the ceasefire deal in November 2024. This is aside from the Lebanese land that Israel has already been illegally occupying for decades.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz visited an Israeli outpost established on Lebanese territory near the town of Markaba on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Times of Israel during the visit on Wednesday, Katz vowed that Israel’s occupation in south Lebanon would be indefinite.
“We are here without a time limit. It doesn’t depend on time. It depends on the situation,” Katz said. “In other words, as long as the threat exists, and Hezbollah does not withdraw beyond the Litani, does not disarm, and the Lebanese army does not enforce, we are here to provide protection,” he added.
“I said that if there is no quiet in the Galilee, there will be no quiet in Beirut. If one building is demolished, if this continues, then many roofs in Dahiye [Beirut suburb] will shake. We will not compromise; we will respond forcefully to any attempted attack and any attack,” he went on to say in an open threat to the Lebanese capital.
Israel’s two recent attacks on Beirut followed rocket fire from south Lebanon. Hezbollah, which publicly announces all its operations, categorically denied any involvement and said it is committed to the ceasefire.
Yet the resistance group’s leadership stressed recently that it will be forced to act if Israel continues its aggression against Lebanon and the state is unable to diplomatically bring Israeli violations to an end.
