Senate Democrats’ anti-Israel votes reveal the true size of its leftist faction

Politicians’ votes are clarifying. What their talking points conceal, votes can reveal. In this case, that the Democrats’ Achilles’ heel remains Israel. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi worked overtime to keep caucus-dividing Israel votes off the House floor. Israel was the most sensitive issue for the Harris-Walz campaign, which unsuccessfully tried to please both pro-Israel and anti-Israel voters.

Senate Democrats’ sharp divisions came into clear view last Wednesday, with recorded votes on three resolutions calling to restrict arms sales to Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer worked hard to avoid votes that would split his caucus during campaign season, but divided they are. There were 19 votes to block mortar rounds, 18 votes to block tank rounds, and 17 votes to block bomb-guidance kits that help save civilian lives. This was a notable jump from the 11 senators – ten from Schumer’s caucus – who voted against stopping another anti-Israel resolution from Senator Bernie Sanders, the original Squadnik, back in January.

Last week nearly 40 per cent of Schumer’s caucus voted for at least one, if not all three, of the resolutions. Schumer didn’t vote for Sanders’ resolutions but also didn’t whip votes against them. Meanwhile, both Schumer’s deputy, majority whip Dick Durbin, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who’s expected to be the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking Democrat come 2025, voted with Sanders.

The National Security Council’s spokesperson told Jewish Insider the Biden administration had informed “interested senators” that they “strongly opposed” the resolutions.

Even the Jewish Democratic Council of America – typically the Democrats’ ambassador to the Jewish community – opposed Sanders’ resolutions.

In short, many Americans (and Israelis, including left-wingers) understood that restricting these arms sales to Israel was a terrible idea. Democratic Majority For Israel (DMFI) praised senators who voted against the resolutions and in a post-vote statement, DMFI president and CEO Mark Mellman called these resolutions “dangerous and counterproductive...[and] a betrayal of our ally, Israel”.

For their part, the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) applauded Senate Republicans for their “unanimous opposition to this betrayal of Israel and the empowering of the terrorist regime in Tehran”. The RJC said the votes “mark a dangerous new low for anti-Israel Democrats in the US Senate, who voted to cancel $20 billion [£15.9 billion] in pending arms sales to Israel that were already authorised by Congress.”

When elected officials reference bipartisan support for Israel, they’re referring to decades-worth of laudable history. The real question is how true that remains today. According to a mid-October Harvard-Harris poll, 81 per cent of Americans support Israel against Hamas, including “85 per cent of Republicans and 76 per cent of Democrats,” the Algemeiner reported. While 94 per cent of Americans aged 65 and older support Israel in that poll, the figure drops to 57 per cent among 18-24 year olds.

This generation gap in support for Israel is happening alongside a change among Democrats. That became obvious when the Squad joined the House of Representatives in 2019, but the change includes Senate Democrats too. Tyler Stapleton, director of Congressional Relations at FDD Action, told me: “The votes signal a shift among Senate Democrats towards restraining US support for Israel. Productive measures could have been introduced and considered while the Democrats held the Senate majority and the White House, but little effort was made to engage with the Israeli government.”

In place of engagement with the Israelis, Schumer allowed a post-election protest vote by his anti-Israel faction. It had been clear that this faction existed but after last week, the public better knows its size. Like an iceberg, it is larger than it initially looked, because some members had remained hidden. Now that the Senate’s Corbynites have more fully revealed themselves, Americans appalled by their leftism know who they should actively oppose – for the good of America and of our allies.

​Melissa Langsam Braunstein is a writer based in the Washington DC area

@slowhoneybee