{"id":799,"date":"2026-07-22T16:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=799"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:07:21","slug":"why-some-dems-are-standing-by-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=799","title":{"rendered":"Why some Dems are standing by Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last week, House Democrats voted on an amendment that would have cut $3.3 billion in annual US military aid to Israel from a State Department funding bill. The amendment was brought to the floor by Rep. Thomas Massie, an outgoing Republican from Kentucky. It failed 314-104, but 103 Democrats \u2014 nearly half of the House Democratic caucus \u2014 supported it, signaling a significant shift in the party\u2019s longstanding support for aid to Israel.<\/p>\n

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In 2024, a similar vote came up in the House to cut military aid to Israel. Then, just 37 House Democrats voted for the measure. Now, two years later, 103 House Democrats voted to cut funding. That shift in support was accelerated after the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel\u2019s subsequent military campaign in Gaza, which has killed large numbers of Palestinian civilians. The debate is also playing out in Democratic primaries across the country. In New York and Colorado, Democratic socialist candidates who have sharply criticized Israel and opposed continued US military aid recently won House primaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Historically, Jewish Americans have overwhelmingly identified with and voted for the Democratic Party, while Democratic lawmakers have generally supported Israel and US military assistance to the country. In 2016, the Obama administration signed a 10-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Israel, committing the US to seek $38 billion in military assistance for fiscal years 2019 through 2028. Congress must vote to approve this funding, so the shift in Democratic support of Israel could have real consequences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There is still a very strong support for Israel among many House Democrats, but the shifting views are notable. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries opposed the Massie amendment, arguing that it was overly broad and could jeopardize humanitarian assistance. But in a letter addressed to his House colleagues he also called for a \u201cmajor reset\u201d in US policy toward what he described as Israel\u2019s \u201cfar-right Netanyahu government.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today, Explained <\/em>host Sean Rameswaram spoke with Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider, who represents Illinois\u2019s 10th Congressional District, and remains a strong supporter of Israel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There\u2019s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained<\/em> wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Can you walk us through last week\u2019s vote? You voted against the measure to cut aid to Israel, and a lot of your colleagues obviously did not. How did that play out for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Growing up in the \u201960s, \u201970s, and for the last 65 years, I fundamentally believe that the US-Israel relationship is important. I also believe that the aspiration for peace in the Middle East, not just between Israelis and Palestinians, but broadly throughout the region, is something that is in the United States\u2019 interest and the interest of the people in the region. So this is not a new issue to me, and it\u2019s something I thought long and hard about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tom Massie doesn\u2019t believe any of that. His intentions with this amendment were anything but pure. It was hastily crafted and poorly written. And one of the biggest issues with it is not only does it [not] address this 10-year memorandum of understanding, something negotiated by President Obama eight years ago, but there are also two years left on the MOU.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It was a messaging bill and nothing more, and it was a negative message. I voted no because I think if we\u2019re going to move toward peace, we need to do so in a constructive way. A lot of my colleagues were saying we need to send a message to the Netanyahu government.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been extremely critical of this government, their failure to address the settler violence in the West Bank, the failure to plan for a day-after in Gaza following what was a horrific war. If we\u2019re going to move towards peace, if we\u2019re going to find a path where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side and the region can have the peace they deserve. Because we\u2019re not just talking about Israelis and Palestinians, there\u2019s progress being made between Lebanon and Israel in giving Lebanon, the people of Lebanon, the liberty and freedom they all deserve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Can I ask you if you still take money from AIPAC? And if so, how much?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I appreciate the support I get from people who care about the issues that I advocate for. So people who are pro-Israel, pro-US-Israel relationship are likely to support me because I\u2019m pro-US-Israel, pro-US-Israel relationship. I\u2019m also pro-addressing gun safety and reducing gun violence in this country. So I get the support of those groups. The support I get doesn\u2019t determine my positions. I think my positions determine who supports me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Has your position on Israel shifted at all since October 7th, or at any point in your political career? And if so, can you tell us how?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So my position hasn\u2019t changed because I\u2019ve always been committed to promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians and finding a path where both can live together, which I believe ultimately is two states: a Jewish democratic state of Israel, and a Palestinian state living side by side. My frustration with the current Israeli government has grown and continues to grow. Every conversation I have with them, whether it\u2019s the US ambassador to Israel, whom I\u2019ve had the privilege of working with many times, or my meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I\u2019ve had an engagement with the prime minister going back now for almost 30 years. But in the last several years, every single conversation I have with them talks about the need to address settler violence, the need to get humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of the things that I am proud of and will say loudly and proudly is that immediately after October 7th, as the war began, my team and I worked hard to push for humanitarian aid into Gaza to do everything we could to make sure that the civilians who were always caught in the middle of any war wouldn\u2019t suffer more than they did. And the suffering was horrific. And I did challenge Israel when they made what I\u2019ll call ill-conceived, ill-advised, in some cases illegal decisions to deprive humanitarian relief from entering Gaza. We pushed hard, and we worked with the Egyptians to get the Rafah crossing open. We pushed the Israelis to open the Karam Shalom crossing. And to not just get aid to those crossings, but get aid into and across the territories within Gaza.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Why are you so optimistic about the situation? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I am always going to be optimistic. I have to hold onto that optimism for the prospects of peace because the alternative is too dark. And let\u2019s separate the issue for folks living in the region and the folks living here. And for the Israelis and Palestinians, these are two peoples who are totally traumatized \u2014 traumatized not just over the last couple of years, but for decades. So I recognize the trauma that Israelis have and are experiencing, and I recognize the trauma that the Palestinians have and are experiencing. And that\u2019s part of what I feel is my obligation: to hold onto that optimism and speak to a better future and work to try to find ways to bring the parties on both sides of the issue together to make the hard choices and take the risk to get to a path to peace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So the reason I\u2019m holding onto optimism \u2014 and it\u2019s not 24\/7; I have my moments when I am down and where I feel like the hill we\u2019re climbing is just too steep \u2014 is you take a deep breath and you dig deep, and you say, I can\u2019t give up on hoping and working towards peace because otherwise peace is never going to happen.<\/em> And I want to find people who are like-minded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And that is not just on the Israeli side of the equation. We have to find people on the Palestinian side, and for those on the Palestinian side, we have to find Israelis. And I meet, and I spend time with them on a regular basis. They come to my office. When I\u2019m in the region, I talk to them. We have to strengthen and empower those voices who believe that peace will only come when the Israelis see the Palestinians as a people worthy of engagement and a shared future, and the Palestinians see the Israeli as a people worthy of engagement and a shared future, and recognize that until they get there, there\u2019s no future for either side. We\u2019ve got to have a path where both are pointing in the same direction.<\/p>\n

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See More:<\/span><\/p>\n
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  • Congress<\/li>\n
  • Israel<\/li>\n
  • Palestine<\/li>\n
  • Podcasts<\/li>\n
  • Politics<\/li>\n
  • Today, Explained podcast<\/li>\n
  • World Politics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Israel is breaking the party in half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy some Dems are standing by Israel - American Living Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=799\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why some Dems are standing by Israel - American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Israel is breaking the party in half.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/americanlivingreport.com\/?p=799\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Living Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-22T16:07:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=799#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=799\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b970e3bc484fe2e26860a4380d70de8\"},\"headline\":\"Why some Dems are standing by Israel\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-22T16:07:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=799\"},\"wordCount\":1509,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=799#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/f760197b0cd15dc16d0b6580d9eebc00.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=799#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=799\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanlivingreport.com\\\/?p=799\",\"name\":\"Why some Dems are standing by Israel - 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