U.S. Democrats’ split over support for Israel widens ahead of midterms

Democratic former U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, voted to cut military aid for Israel, while Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, right, voted the other way -- exposing the divide in the party. Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/File

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More than 100 U.S. House Democrats voted this week to cut military aid to Israel, exposing a widening party divide that could reshape both November’s midterm elections and the future of one of Washington’s most durable foreign policy alliances.

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The measure, offered by conservative Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, was defeated overwhelmingly after nearly all his fellow Republicans and 98 Democrats opposed it.

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But the vote was striking because 103 Democrats backed ending the aid, while 10 others voted present — a near-even split that would have been almost unthinkable for most of the modern U.S.-Israel relationship.

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“When more than 100 House Democrats are willing to vote to cut military aid, that’s no longer a protest vote,” veteran political strategist Mike Fahey told AFP.

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“That’s a signal that the party is undergoing a generational and ideological realignment.”

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The revolt reached deep into Democratic leadership. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries opposed the amendment, but his deputy Katherine Clark voted for it, as did former speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of Congress’s longest-serving defenders of the alliance.

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“For the good of the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, it is clear U.S. policy must change,” Pelosi said.

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Clark said Washington should not provide a “blank check” to any country that fails to comply with U.S. law, interests and values.

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The amendment had little chance of becoming law. But it became a political marker, revealing how much support for Israel has eroded inside the Democratic Party after years of war in Gaza, mounting Palestinian casualties and frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.

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It isn’t simply a Washington dynamic; opinion among left-leaning voters has shifted sharply.

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A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that nearly three-quarters of Democrats want to reduce or end military support for Israel, while 40 per cent want to eliminate it entirely.

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Other surveys show a broader generational shift, with younger Americans far less willing to accept unconditional U.S. support for Israel than older voters.

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The shift is already playing out in Democratic primaries.

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Progressive candidates in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Colorado have won races while openly criticizing U.S. aid to Israel and attacking the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby known as AIPAC.

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In Michigan, a key battleground state, Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has made opposition to Israel’s war and U.S. military aid a central part of his campaign against Congresswoman Haley Stevens, a longtime Israel supporter backed by pro-Israel groups.

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That fight has national implications.

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Anger over Gaza helped weaken Democrats in Arab American areas of Michigan in the 2024 presidential election, when Donald Trump carried the state, and party strategists fear the issue could again depress turnout or intensify intra-party conflict.