(AFP) – More than 100 US 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. The measure, offered by conservative Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, was defeated overwhelmingly after nearly all his fellow Republicans and 98 Democrats opposed it. 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 US-Israel relationship.
“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. “That’s a signal that the party is undergoing a generational and ideological realignment.” 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. “For the good of the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, it is clear US policy must change,” Pelosi said. Clark said Washington should not provide a “blank check” to any country that fails to comply with US law, interests and values.
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.
It isn’t simply a Washington dynamic; opinion among left-leaning voters has shifted sharply. A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that nearly three-quarters of Democrats want to reduce or end military support for Israel, while 40 percent want to eliminate it entirely. Other surveys show a broader generational shift, with younger Americans far less willing to accept unconditional US support for Israel than older voters. The shift is already playing out in Democratic primaries. Progressive candidates in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Colorado have won races while openly criticizing US aid to Israel and attacking the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby known as AIPAC.
In Michigan, a key battleground state, Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has made opposition to Israel’s war and US military aid a central part of his campaign against Congresswoman Haley Stevens, a longtime Israel supporter backed by pro-Israel groups. That fight has national implications. 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 intraparty conflict.
Progressives argue that Democratic leaders are only now catching up with their voters. They say the party cannot credibly campaign on human rights, economic justice, and opposition to Trump while continuing to send billions in military aid to Netanyahu’s government. But pro-Israel Democrats warn that the left is moving too far, too fast — and that Republicans will use the divide to portray Democrats as hostile to Israel, weak on security, or tolerant of antisemitism. The National Republican Congressional Committee quickly seized on the House vote, saying Democrats had become consumed by a “radical, antisemitic faction” and promising that voters would remember.
The issue is also straining Democratic unity in the Senate. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has become one of Israel’s strongest defenders in his party, told a political event in Washington he would consider leaving if Democrats officially became what he called the “anti-Israel party.” “You look at the kinds of individuals that are winning our recent primaries,” he added. “It’s becoming more anti-Israel and hostile to people” who are pro-Israel.
Pro-Israel Democrats acknowledge the warning signs. Democratic Majority for Israel, which backed the defeat of Massie’s amendment, called it reckless and said it would have weakened Israel and undermined US security interests. But the group also said the number of Democrats who supported the measure sent “a loud and clear message” that Israel must repair its relationship with the party, especially younger voters.
– Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
