US Support for Israel Faces Loss of Democratic Support

For generations, support for Israel was a unifying force in Washington. Today, however, Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the war with Iran, and the close ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and American Republicans are all contributing to a decline in Democratic support, threatening to turn one of the United States’ closest alliances into a partisan divide. Support for Israel among Democratic voters has plummeted sharply, with candidates who criticize Israel winning Democratic primaries, and even moderate lawmakers becoming more willing to challenge decades of American backing for Israel. This shift is clearly evident in Congress. Earlier this month, nearly half of House Democrats voted in favor of an amendment aimed at cutting off aid to Israel, although it failed—a measure that would likely have been rejected by a wide bipartisan majority in the past. Israel receives $3.8 billion annually in U.S. military aid, along with billions more in emergency funding over the past few years.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and some of his aides opposed the measure, describing it as too loose. However, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic Whip Cathy Clark were among those who voted in favor. The divide among Democrats is growing over whether military aid to Israel should continue unchanged, be limited to defensive weapons, or be halted entirely.

Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he hopes Israel’s October elections will help restore bipartisan American support, opening a new chapter beyond Netanyahu’s leadership. “New governments can change course,” Coons told Reuters, adding, “Netanyahu has kept Israel in a state of war for years, partly to avoid the political consequences of his choices.”

Overall, pro-Israel sentiment is waning. A June Quinnipiac University poll found that 48 percent of voters and 66 percent of Democrats believe the United States supports Israel excessively, up from 16 percent and 20 percent, respectively, when the question was first asked in 2017. Danny Danon, Israel’s representative to the United Nations, said in an interview, “Yes, there is a sharp debate, but support for Israel remains entrenched in the mainstream across broad segments of both parties.”

This shift faces a major test in Tuesday’s Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, where voters will weigh competing views on American support amid a growing number of Democratic members of Congress questioning long-term U.S. military aid. The race between progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed and incumbent Rep. Haley Stevens—who will face Republican Mike Rogers in the November midterms—reflects the broader Democratic debate over Israel and longstanding U.S. military support.

Stevens filmed a video with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the major donors to her campaign, in which she said that the close relationship with Israel “yields trade, which in turn leads to economic growth and keeps our freedoms safe.” In contrast, Said, a former public health official, told Fox News, “The question is whether we want a policy under which our money is sent to Israel to fund genocide and apartheid instead of being invested in our children.”

A United Nations investigation and several human rights organizations have accused Israel of committing genocide during its military destruction of the Gaza Strip, an accusation Israel rejects, stating that it is fighting the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and taking steps to minimize harm to civilians. Israeli policy has become a significant factor in other electoral races leading up to the congressional elections, including in New York, Florida, and Colorado.

Tensions with Democrats escalated 11 years ago when Netanyahu, in a speech delivered to Congress at the request of Republican majority leaders, attacked the agreement reached by then-Democratic President Barack Obama to impose restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.

Anti-Israel sentiment has grown since Israel launched its war on Gaza. Since then, the Israeli campaign has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza.

Protests that erupted at universities in 2024 intensified pressure on Democrats to reassess their support for Israel. Some analysts say that President Joe Biden’s refusal to do so contributed to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s loss to Trump in the elections later that year.

In the current primary election cycle, some candidates adhering to traditional party lines suffered defeats against more progressive opponents who questioned support for Israel, particularly in districts dominated by Democrats.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, head of J Street, a progressive pro-Israel organization competing with AIPAC, said the debate within the Democratic Party reflects anger at Netanyahu and AIPAC, describing it as “a toxic combination that has unfortunately helped make Israel a genuinely divisive issue within the Democratic Party.”

Shibley Telhami, a professor of political science and government at the University of Maryland and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, described this as “a shift in the intellectual paradigm that now portrays Israel as the villain, even the genocidal villain, in an unprecedented way.”

In an interview, Telhami said that while some conservative influencers have joined this attack, the Republican Party will continue to support Israel as long as evangelical Christians and Trump remain steadfast.

Republican Representative Mike Lawler, who represents a district outside New York City with a large Jewish population, exploited the Democratic shift in stance toward Israel to attack his opponent, Kate Crowley, in a fierce battle for a House seat.

In South Florida, moderate Representative Jared Moskowitz, who supports aid to Israel, faces competition in the Democratic primary scheduled for August 18 from socialist democrat Oliver Larkin, who is building his campaign on the conviction that Israel committed genocide in Gaza and supports an immediate halt to U.S. military aid to Israel.

Veteran U.S. Representative Diana DeGette suffered a defeat in the Colorado Democratic primary to Mila Keyros, who was born in Ethiopia. Keyros called for ending wars, including by halting military aid to Israel, while DeGette said she supports sending only defensive weapons to Israel.

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono, who has called for a two-state solution and increased humanitarian aid to Palestinians, said, “I think the support for Israel’s right to exist is already there. What we seriously question is the (Israeli) leadership, period.”