{"id":3851,"date":"2026-11-05T11:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T06:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3851"},"modified":"2026-11-05T11:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T06:03:44","slug":"democratic-congress-could-test-decades-of-us-support-for-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3851","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Congress could test decades of US support for Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Democrats\u2019 takeover of Congress and growing Republican unease over Israel could trigger the biggest reassessment of US support for its closest Middle East ally in decades, \u200bafter an election shaped in part by anger over the Iran war.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Democrats won both the Senate and House in Tuesday\u2019s midterms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many winning candidates were progressives who \u200ccampaigned against military aid to Israel and the US-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s embrace of President Donald Trump and other Republicans had already strained decades of bipartisan support for Israel.<\/p>\n

Democratic control could bring greater scrutiny of military aid and West Bank violence, along with hearings and challenges to Trump nominees, although the president\u2019s veto limits the party\u2019s ability to force major policy changes.<\/p>\n

One successful progressive was Abdul El Sayed<\/a> of Michigan, the \u200bfirst Muslim elected to the US Senate despite Republican attempts to win over Jewish voters who might have been uncomfortable with his faith and his criticism of Israel.<\/p>\n

There were also \u200bsigns that Republicans might reexamine their party\u2019s traditional support for Israel.<\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday blamed the election<\/a> rout on the war against Iran \u2060and identified Israel as an issue for Republicans.<\/p>\n

He said in a social media post that one pollster identified four actions that would bring disgruntled Trump voters back: \u201c1) End the war 2) Focus \u200bon cost of living\/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump announced<\/a> in a Fox News interview on Tuesday that he had made a deal with Netanyahu that Washington would end \u200bannual security assistance to Israel.<\/p>\n

However, it was not immediately clear that he had the legal authority to stop the billions of dollars in military assistance Washington sends Israel each year.<\/p>\n

Policy toward Israel has emerged as a generational divide in US politics. Opinion polls show younger voters, including some Republicans, feel the country has been too supportive of Israel and insufficiently supportive of residents of the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Sentiment shifting<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Congressional sentiment had already been shifting. In September, 46 \u200bof the 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted<\/a> for a resolution to force Trump\u2019s administration to report to Congress on increasing violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Republicans blocked \u200bthe measure, but the near-unanimous Democratic vote was a sharp departure from decades of reliable bipartisan backing for Israel.<\/p>\n

Democrats will likely focus again on West Bank violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that we apply our laws \u200cand international law \u2060and our policies uniformly across the board when it comes to the actions of countries. There should not be an Israel exception,\u201d said Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who has led attempts to put human rights conditions on Israel aid.<\/p>\n

Democrats\u2019 power remains limited, however. Trump promised to be \u201cMr. Veto,\u201d and they are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majorities needed to override his vetoes if the president refuses to sign their bills.<\/p>\n

Still, there might be enough resistance to sending US tax dollars abroad, and anger over the Iran war, for the \u201cAmerica First\u201d wing of the Republican Party to also push \u200bback.<\/p>\n

The election result could see \u201cweird bedfellows of left \u200band right come together in condemnation of \u2060Israel,\u201d said Price Floyd, a former US official and senior adviser with Argyll Strategy, a London-based strategic communications firm.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Making noise<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Majorities also mean Democrats can summon administration officials to public hearings, a rarity under Trump\u2019s Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Congress can do is they can make \u2026 a lot of noise. They can threaten to \u200bhold up nominees. They can create lots of questions about various assistance deals and force the president to do waivers (if he lifts sanctions),\u201d \u200bsaid William Wechsler, senior director \u2060of Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council.<\/p>\n

Opinion polls showed the Iran war was a top election issue. Many Americans blamed higher prices \u2013 especially for gasoline \u2013 on the conflict Trump began in February.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, which advocates for a strong US-Israel alliance, said Israel\u2019s changing leadership could change the \u201cmood music\u201d of dealings between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu lost his governing majority \u2060in an October \u200b27 Israeli election, but denied opponents a clear path to unseat him. Negotiations to form a new government are \u200bexpected to be protracted.<\/p>\n

A new Israeli government, particularly one less closely tied to Republicans, could engage in a more cooperative way with Democrats, Schanzer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is going to change in the United States until January when Congress takes their seats and \u200bby then, there may be a new Israeli government that would also have an impact on this,\u201d Schanzer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats\u2019 takeover of Congress and growing Republican unease over Israel could trigger the biggest reassessment of US support for its closest Middle East ally in decades, \u200bafter an election shaped in part by anger over the Iran war. Democrats won both the Senate and House in Tuesday\u2019s midterms. Many winning candidates were progressives who \u200ccampaigned against military aid to Israel and the US-Israeli war on Iran. Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s embrace of President Donald Trump and other Republicans had already strained decades of bipartisan support…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}