A majority of Democrats are changing their views on Israel. What does that mean for the US-Israel relationship?
More and more Democratic politicians are beginning to support limiting certain weapons transfers to Israel
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, during a news conference in Washington, D.C., May 22. Raskin recently co-sponsored a bill to block certain arms transfers to Israel. Photo by Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Eric Alterman August 29, 2025
Americans’ views of Israel are rapidly changing, especially within the Democratic Party. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats now disapprove of Israel’s war in Gaza, according to one recent Economist/YouGov survey. A majority of Senate Democrats recently voted for an effort, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, to block the sale of certain U.S. arms to Israel.
The greatest city in the world — and the one that (no coincidence) happens to boast the largest Jewish population of any on the planet — is poised to elect a Muslim mayor who not only supports the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, but has said he’d honor the International Criminal Court’s warrant to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, He even refuses to consider visiting Israel, as every New York City mayor has done as long as there has been an Israel.
What’s more, these positions appear to be actually helping him. One poll of New York City voters found that 60% of Democratic voters say they’d be more likely to vote for a candidate who, like Mamdani, declines to step foot in the Jewish state.
Recently, Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Jewish member of Congress and among the most influential of all Democratic representatives, joined 38 Democratic House members in agreeing to co-sponsor the so-called “ Block the Bombs Act” bill that, if passed, would restrict the U.S. from sending certain weapons to Israel. This prompted Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, to complain to the Jewish Insider that “It’s difficult when two-thirds of our community is voting for a political party whose base is hostile to Israel.”
Halder is onto something, though he misunderstands the changes he is attempting to describe. His problem is not with “base.” It’s with the party itself.
Given the fact that about 70% of American Jews reliably vote Democratic, the party’s ongoing transformation calls into question the ability of institutional Jewish leadership and the self-described “pro-Israel” community to accurately represent their views, making Halder and company all generals without much infantry to command.
That’s their problem. A larger question for the rest of us is: “What now?” Will these fundamental changes in the way Israel is viewed by Democrats change the United States’ stance on Israel? And will that, in turn, change Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world?
The short answer: I doubt it.
Well before the Hamas terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel had cast aside any concerns that its behavior might offend Jewish liberals and/or leftists in the Democratic Party. After all, it had the unwavering support of the Christian Zionists all-but running the Republican Party policy on the issue, as well that of some wealthy Jewish conservatives equipped with the resources to fund legacy organizations supportive of whatever the Israeli government does — regardless of whether it’s popular in the U.S., in Israel or anywhere but inside Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Almost all of the “legacy” Jewish organizations, and especially AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Jewish Committee, have moved further and further rightward in recent years as the Israeli government has come to be dominated by religious fundamentalists, for whom the idea of “land for peace” that once dictated discussion among diplomats has become anathema. The election of Donald Trump has only accelerated this development.
Since Oct. 7, Israel has consistently doubled down on exactly the actions that were already driving mainstream Democrats, who were frustrated by years of an increasingly one-sided relationship with Netanyahu, away from the previous “pro-Israel” consensus.
The de facto annexation of the West Bank — an idea that is immensely unpopular with American Jews — has progressed rapidly in the last two years. Just this past week, the government approved E1, a controversial West Bank settlement construction project that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich bragged would “erase” the idea of a Palestinian state “from the table.”
No less significantly, Israel is in the process of expanding its war in Gaza despite a worldwide outcry amongst its allies against the plan; a war that has already killed over 60,000 people, over 83 percent of whom are civilians according to Israel’s own count.
What’s more, the Gaza Health Ministry’s count of more 60,000 fatalities (which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians) does not include those bodies still buried beneath the rubble, or those people who have recently died due to Israeli restrictions on food aid and its incompetent distribution mechanisms. These increasing numbers of deaths led the World Health Organization to recently confirm Gaza is experiencing “famine.”
The Trump administration finds these anti-humanitarian actions not only defensible but admirable. Trump himself cheered the planned incursion into Gaza City on Truth Social, writing last week that the remaining hostages in Gaza will only be returned when Hamas is “confronted and destroyed” — an apparent endorsement of Israel continuing its war, and a turn away from the administration’s previous efforts to seek a ceasefire.
Mike Huckabee, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, has said what Israel does or doesn’t do on the West Bank is none of America’s business. “In his first term, the administration was very clear that it is not a violation of international law for Israelis to live in Judea and Samaria,” the ambassador told The Jerusalem Post recently. “That was a very clear doctrine of the first Trump term. But beyond that, the U.S. has not taken a position on what Israel should do. It should make its own decisions.”
No dissent inside the administration is tolerated on this issue. Shahed Ghoreishi, a press officer in the State Department, was fired after he drafted speaking points that the U.S. did not “support forced displacement of Palestinians.” This same department also sanctioned ICC officials this month for issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders and daring to investigate the American role in the humanitarian catastrophe that is Gaza today.
Again, not-so-surprisingly, the Trump administration is undertaking this “pro-Israel’ offensive just as Israel’s popularity with all Americans has reached a historic low, with no bottom in sight. According to the latest round of the University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll published this week, “more Americans say they sympathize with Palestinians (28%) than with Israelis (22%).” For people 18-34, those numbers are 37% to 11%.
The same poll found that 41% of Americans, including a staggering 67% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans, believe Israel’s actions in Gaza either constitute “genocide” or to be “akin to genocide.” Just 22% of Americans think Israel is justified in its actions there, a figure that includes a mere 7% of Democrats.
What is therefore most remarkable is not merely the speed of attitudinal changes among Americans, and particularly Democrats, about Israel, but how little these changes have so far mattered in what we used to call “real life.”
This is especially true not only inside the administration, but also within the Democratic Party. True, the DNC now finds it impossible to pass the sort of “pro-Israel” resolutions internally that used to be merely business as usual. Angry debates almost always ensue when the issue is raised. But while the vast majority of Democratic voters have turned against Israel, the number of elected officials in the party willing to do so when actual consequences might arise will almost certainly remain marginal for the foreseeable future. Like it or not, Israel is in no danger of losing any significant weapons transfers, much less the “qualitative edge” the U.S. has promised to help it maintain.
Should any Democratic senators or representatives wish to act on the opinions of their constituents —or their own — in this matter, they still will likely face fighting off the likes of the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt calling them “antisemites.” Of even greater concern is the possibility that they could become a target of AIPAC and other “pro-Israel” coalitions, who have proved willing to pour millions of dollars — dollars often contributed by conservative Republicans — into taking them down.
The truth is that given the power and influence of the forces that line up in support of Israel’s government, the turn against Israel amongst all Americans, but most intensely among Democratic voters, Jewish and non, will likely remain a symbolic act, not a change in what we call “facts on the ground.”
Whether they be well-funded conservative legacy Jewish organizations, right-wing Jewish billionaires, the Christian Zionists who make up the Republican base, and Trump and his cronies, the pro-Israel movement has the resources to ensure that American support of Israel remains rock-solid as far into the future as the eye can see, Democratic dissent notwithstanding
We can expect more fights in synagogues and seder tables. The issue of student protests and the question of what constitutes “antisemitism” when it comes to Israel will continue to poison our politics and provide the Trump administration and its allies with an excuse to undermine the independence of our higher education system and the freedoms we thought we were guaranteed under the Constitution. But will it change U.S. policy toward Israel in the foreseeable future? Alas, don’t bet on it.
