US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed by phone Wednesday (local time) the possibility of resuming strikes on Iran. [AP]
US President Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed by phone Wednesday (local time) the possibility of resuming strikes on Iran. [AP]

The pro-Israel consensus within the Democratic Party is eroding rapidly. Although the House voted down a measure to cut all US aid to Israel, more Democrats voted for it than against it — a result The New York Times described as a symbolic sign that decades of bipartisan, unconditional support for Israel in American politics is cracking.

According to the Times, the House voted Wednesday on an amendment to the foreign affairs appropriations bill, rejecting it 314-104 with 10 abstentions.

The amendment would have eliminated the full $3.3 billion in military and humanitarian assistance allocated to Israel. Every Republican voted against it except Rep. Thomas Massie, who introduced the measure.

Among Democrats, however, the vote broke the other way — more members voted yes than no. Some lawmakers said they backed the amendment not because they supported cutting humanitarian aid, but to send a message that unconditional military support for Israel could no longer continue.

The Times called the vote "a sharp and dramatic shift" from the firmly pro-Israel stance Democrats had maintained for decades.

The vote also exposed divisions within Democratic leadership.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Whip Pete Aguilar voted against the amendment, but Assistant Democratic Leader Katherine Clark, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, voted for it.

"I don't agree with the full content of the amendment or the Republicans' intent, but I voted yes because I believe we must change course," Clark said.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also voted yes, calling it "a regrettable choice" but saying she supported it "because of the message the bill sends."

Jeffries, long regarded as one of the most prominent pro-Israel figures in the party, took the unusual step of convening two caucus meetings as internal opposition mounted.

While opposing the amendment, he said the US-Israel relationship needed a "massive reset" and pledged that, if Democrats regained the majority, the party would pursue linking security assistance to Israel with respect for Palestinian human rights.

Skepticism toward Israel within the Democratic Party has deepened as the war in Gaza drags on.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, saying "the right to self-defense does not include indiscriminately bombing civilian housing."

Rep. Seth Moulton, once considered a staunch pro-Israel Democrat, voted to cut all aid. "We can no longer allow the status quo to enable the Netanyahu government's actions that run counter to our moral conscience and national security interests," he said.

Moulton also said he would no longer accept political donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group known as AIPAC.

Democratic voter opinion is shifting just as quickly.

A poll conducted jointly by the Times and Siena College in May found that 74 percent of Democratic voters opposed additional military and economic aid to Israel. Opposition was a majority across all age groups, not just among younger voters.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a centrist pro-Israel organization, said the vote "reflects one of the fastest shifts in public opinion in American politics." He added: "The era of supporting Israel right or wrong is over. We are establishing a new standard."

The Times said the significance of the vote lay less in whether the bill passed than in what it revealed about the transformation underway inside the Democratic Party — that the pro-Israel position long shared by both parties is being rapidly reshaped among Democrats in the wake of the Gaza war.


sjy@heraldcorp.com