The Democrats’ Break With Israel Is in Their Votes

Democratic leaders continue to call themselves friends of Israel. Their voting record is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile with that claim.

For years, Democratic leaders have described their support for Israel as ironclad, even as disagreements over Israeli policy have grown. But friendship between nations, and between political parties and allies, is ultimately measured not by vocabulary but by decisions made when that ally needs something from Washington. By that measure, the Democratic Party’s shift over the past two years is becoming increasingly difficult to dispute.

In April, 40 of the Senate’s 47 Democrats voted to block the sale of bulldozers to Israel, and 36 voted to block the sale of 1,000-pound bombs, in the middle of the war with Iran; fewer than 20 had backed such a measure two years earlier. In July, 103 House Democrats voted for an amendment to cut U.S. military funding for Israel, with another 10 voting present. This week, nearly every Senate Democrat backed a resolution requiring a State Department report on Israeli conduct in Judea and Samaria, referred to in the resolution as the “West Bank.”

What was once easier to dismiss as pressure from the party’s progressive fringe is also reaching its senior ranks. Gregory Meeks and Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrats on the House and Senate foreign affairs committees, have both placed holds on a pending $2.8 billion sale of 2,000-pound bombs. Meeks says he remains “firmly committed to Israel’s security,” and there is no reason to doubt his sincerity. But when senior figures in a party seek a veto over what a democratic ally may buy to defend itself, the disagreement is no longer merely one of rhetoric or tone.

Nor did this tension begin with the current war. The Obama administration concluded the Iran nuclear deal over Israel’s objections and, in its final weeks, allowed U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334 to declare Israeli settlements, including in East Jerusalem, to have no legal validity. The Biden administration later held back 2,000-pound bombs in the midst of Israel’s war for survival. Each step arrived alongside declarations of unwavering support, which is precisely why the distinction between what a party says and what it does matters.

The movement is visible beyond congressional votes. In Michigan, Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed went on national television the morning he won his primary and said Israel had become “so aggressive and frankly so bloodthirsty” under Netanyahu, while describing it as an “illegal apartheid regime.” His defeated rival endorsed him the next day. A party confident that such rhetoric falls outside its mainstream would have had an opportunity to draw a line. Instead, its nominee received the support of the Democrat he had just defeated.

For Americans watching this debate from thousands of miles away, these may look like ordinary arguments over foreign policy. Those of us who live in Israel experience their consequences differently. We live under Hamas rockets, Hezbollah drones, Houthi strikes and Iranian ballistic missiles. The U.S. Embassy counts more than 700,000 American citizens in Israel, Judea and Samaria, and the Golan Heights, and by our estimate at least 500,000 of them are eligible to vote. Our records suggest that roughly 300,000 voted in 2024 and that about nine in ten supported Republican candidates, including many who remain registered Democrats.

That divergence is worth understanding. American Jews in the United States still lean Democratic, but Jews who have built their lives in Israel have reached a different verdict. They did not reach it primarily over taxes or immigration. They reached it while watching, from Israel, decisions in Washington that determine whether weapons arrive, whether Iran is confronted and whether the United States stands behind Israel when it is attacked.

The stakes are especially concrete this year. November 3 will decide control of Congress, and in whichever chamber Democrats win, Meeks and Shaheen would be in line to chair the foreign affairs committees. The next U.S.-Israel security memorandum would then be negotiated with a Congress whose Democratic caucus has already shown a growing willingness to restrict arms sales to Israel. Close House races can be decided by a few thousand votes, and Americans living in Israel can supply that margin.

Democratic leaders may continue to describe their party as a friend of Israel, and many undoubtedly believe deeply that it is. But voters do not have to choose between rhetoric and speculation about intentions. There is a record. When Israel needed weapons, when it faced Iran, and when decisions carrying real consequences reached Congress, members had to vote.

Those votes tell their own story.