Some US lawmakers break silence to respond to a UN-backed
report warning of famine in Gaza, while most of Congress remains quiet on the
humanitarian crisis.
Sanders has long expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza throughout the conflict, and he also supported legislation to prohibit the sale of US weaponry to Israel.
“Let’s be clear: President Trump has the power to end the starvation of the Palestinian people,”
Vermont’s politically independent senator Bernie Sanders posted on X.
“Instead he is doing nothing while watching this famine unfold. Enough is enough. No more American taxpayer dollars to Nethanyahu’s [sic] war machine.”
A day after UN secretary general António Gutteres termed the starvation in the region a "failure of humanity," Marjorie Taylor Greene, a vocal far-right Republican from Georgia, likewise urged more empathy for Palestinians in a social media post on Saturday.
Last month, in contrast to most of her congressional colleagues, the US Congresswoman called the humanitarian disaster in Gaza a genocide. She went on to say in a lengthy article on X that although Israel's fight against Hamas was justifiable, human suffering was not.
“Does Hamas deserve it? Yes,”
Greene wrote, in part. “Do innocent people and children deserve it? No.”
“The innocent people in Gaza did not kill and kidnap the innocent people in Israel on Oct 7th,”
she continued.
“Just as we spoke out and had compassion for the victims and families of Oct7, how can Americans not speak out and have compassion for the masses of innocent people and children in Gaza?”
Greene linked the entirety of US financial and military aid to Israel to the conflict, arguing that it
“means every U.S. tax payer is contributing to Israel’s military actions”.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay for genocide in a foreign country against a foreign people for a foreign war that I had nothing to do with,”
Greene concluded.
“And I will not be silent about it.”
Far-right influencer Laura Loomer responded to the post almost immediately, allegedly petitioning the White House to ban injured Palestinian children from Gaza from entering the US.
Greene and Loomer, who both claim the mantle of Maga authenticity, have been at odds over the matter, with Loomer falsely calling Palestinian children "Islamic invaders" and a "national security threat."
Loomer, who is Jewish, once claimed that her ban from social media platforms for anti-Muslim hate speech was antisemitic, while Greene famously shared an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish space lasers may have caused wildfires in California.
On Saturday, Loomer hit out at Greene, falsely accusing her of calling for Palestinians from Gaza to be resettled in the US and asking: “Why are you advocating for GAZANS to come to the US? How is Islamic immigration ‘America First’?”
“As this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed,”
the report said.
“The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed.”
The Israeli agency heading aid distribution in Gaza, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), rejected the report, saying it “relies on partial, biased data and superficial information originating from Hamas”.
On Saturday, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said on X that
“the [international] media is missing the real story of ‘famine’ in Gaza. Hostages ARE starving, Hamas is getting fat, & the UN declares famine while 92% of THEIR food is stolen to be sold by Hamas. Meanwhile UN food sits rotting in sun. The UN should declare itself corrupt & incompetent.”
What specific criticisms did Republicans and Democrats voice about the report?
Some Republicans questioned the report’s accuracy,
suggesting the famine declaration was politically motivated or exaggerated.
Republican leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called the famine report a "lie," arguing the situation does not meet criteria for famine and disputing the evidence used by the UN experts.
Certain Republicans expressed concerns that the report ignores the security challenges Israel faces and may be used to unfairly criticize Israel’s military actions. Others viewed the report as part of a broader narrative to delegitimize Israel or pressure the U.S. government and its allies on Middle East policy.