Volume 17, Issue 5

July 30, 2025

Today, the Senate will vote on – and should approve – joint resolutions of disapproval that would block the Trump Administration’s proposed taxpayer-financed sales of 1,000-pound bombs, joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs), automatic rifles, and related support to the government of Israel.

By voting for the suspension of these arms transfers, Senators would make it clear that the United States will not continue to send weapons to Israel that are being used to perpetrate crimes against humanity, that the United States demands that Israel allow the influx of all available aid necessary to end the starvation in Gaza, and that it is past time to achieve a lasting ceasefire.

Since the heinous October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, the Israeli military has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 143,000 in its nearly two-year bombing campaign in Gaza. Thousands more are now dying from starvation and disease caused by Israeli government restrictions on humanitarian aid and attacks on vital medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure.

On July 28, B’Tselem - the independent Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories - released a detailed report that finds that "for nearly two years, Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip." This week United Nations world hunger experts declared that the besieged civilian population in Gaza is at risk of famine.

The desperate situation is the result of months of ineffectual Biden and Trump administration policy, egregious decisions by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Hamas to perpetuate the conflict, Israel’s repeated and illegal bombing of civilian population centers, including schools, hospitals, and aid workers, and the inability or unwillingness of other national leaders to effectively intervene.

There is overwhelming evidence that U.S. weapons transferred to Israel have been used in violation of humanitarian law and that Israel has acted in ways that have blocked humanitarian assistance from the U.S. government, from other nations, and nongovernmental aid groups.

President Biden’s and President Trump’s failure to uphold U.S. and international law and to use all available U.S. leverage to bring about a ceasefire and release of surviving Israeli hostages has made the United States complicit in this horrific chapter in human history.

U.S. law and regulations relating to conventional arms transfers – and basic human decency – clearly require withholding military assistance when our weapons are used contrary to international humanitarian law:

• Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act bans the United States from providing security assistance to any government that engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights.
• The “Leahy law” (22 U.S. Code § 2378d) requires an automatic cutoff of U.S. security assistance to foreign military units credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights.
• Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act “… prohibits the United States from providing security assistance or arms sales to any country when the President is made aware that the government ‘prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.’”

Despite the war’s devastating toll on civilians, the Trump administration has accelerated military aid to Israel and reversed earlier restrictions on the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs. In February, the Trump administration notified Congress of seven major arms sales to Israel amounting to over $11 billion of lethal weapons.

In March, Prime Minister Netanyahu unilaterally broke the phased ceasefire that had been negotiated between Israel and Hamas, and before the last two phases could be negotiated. Since then, the violence against civilians and the humanitarian situation in Gaza have worsened.

Israel’s blatant and ongoing violations of international and U.S. law, the urgent need to provide all available assistance to those delivering food and medical aid to civilians, and the Trump administration’s failure to fully exert U.S. leverage by suspending arms sales to Israel require that Congress takes meaningful steps to force changes in Israeli policies that will help to end the starvation of civilians in Gaza.

The vote on the joint resolutions of disapproval put forward by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) present a clear choice for every Senator: do you stand for peace and the protection of civilians, or do you want to facilitate the perpetuation of the war and a full-scale famine in Gaza?

It is past time for the Senate to uphold U.S. law and to act to protect civilians caught up in this devastating war. – DARYL G. KIMBALL, executive director

For Immediate Release: July 25, 2025

Media Contacts: Daryl Kimball, executive director (202-463-8270 x107)

(Washington, D.C.)— In response to questions on broader nuclear arms reductions between the United States and Russia after New START expires, President Donald Trump states, "I would like to see it."

"We are starting to work on that. That is a big problem for the world, when you take off nuclear restrictions that's a big problem," Trump added.

Trump was responding to a question from TASS about the looming expiration of New START.

When told that he earlier called for the United States and Russia to cut their nuclear weapons stockpiles, Trump said he would like to see that happen.

In response, Arms Control Association Executive Director, said: "President Trump is right, it is in the mutual interests of the United States, Russia, and the world to maintain the limits set by the New START agreement."

New START is last remaining bilateral nuclear arms reduction agreement between the United States and Russia. If New START expires with no successor arrangement, Washington and Moscow could, in theory, increase their arsenals beyond New START limits, by uploading more warheads on existing long-range missiles. 

"Unless Trump and Putin reach an interim deal to maintain existing limits, we could soon see each side increasing the size of their deployed nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 35 years by uploading warheads on existing missiles, which is no one’s interests," Kimball stated. 

New START expires in 195 days, on Feb. 5, 2026, Trump said, "That's a problem for the world."

Kimball noted that, “given the fact that negotiating a new treaty would take time, it is vital that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin reach an interim deal agreement to continue to respect the current strategic nuclear weapons limits until a new, more comprehensive framework deal can be achieved between the U.S and Russia.”

Unfortunately, neither side has taken steps to do so. “To reduce the nuclear danger, Trump and Putin need to translate words into action. They should immediately direct their teams to begin talks on a new framework to deal to cap and further reduce their deadly nuclear arsenals." 

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The Arms Control Association is an independent, membership-based organization dedicated to providing authoritative information and practical policy solutions to address the threats posed by the world's most dangerous weapons. ACA is one of many organizations that has recently issued a "New Call to Halt and Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race."