Democrats rapidly shift on Israel amid Gaza assault, evidence of famine

A growing number of prominent Democrats are calling for cutting off sales of offensive weapons to Israel over its assault on Gaza – part of a notable shift on an issue that deeply divided the party during the 2024 election.

The stark departure from decades of nearly unconditional Democratic support of Israel has accelerated in recent weeks as a months-long blockade on aid has led to famine in Gaza, according to an assessment from the global authority on hunger.

In just the last 10 days, Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vermont, said he now believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a charge he had carefully avoided making for nearly two years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Jeff Merkley , D-Ore., released a report declaring that Israel is implementing a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. A group of Senate Democrats introduced the first-ever resolution to recognize a Palestinian state.

And former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a staunch defender of Israel, called the situation in Gaza “horrific” and said the war should end immediately – a significant departure from his previous position as he seeks to become New York City’s mayor.

The developments have forced many Democrats, including party leaders, to wrestle with voters’ growing desire for the United States to cut off offensive weapons to Israel and rethink the U.S.-Israel relationship. That has often cut against some elected officials’ instincts to defend the country, even if it means facing swift blowback from many Democratic voters.

Support for Israel has long been virtually untouchable in U.S. politics, and the dramatic shift in opinions within the Democratic electorate has taken party leaders by surprise. Israel has also become increasingly isolated on the global stage as its military offensive in Gaza is about to enter its third year.

An independent United Nations commission this week said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, which Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected as a “fake report” based on “falsehoods.” Israel has also repeatedly denied that people in Gaza are starving and has tried to discredit international organizations that have found otherwise.

“We’ve had a dramatic shift in the past two months,” said Rep. Ro Khanna , D-Calif., who said the evidence of famine in particular changed the calculus for many Democrats. Khanna is leading a letter in the House to urge the Trump administration to recognize a Palestinian state.

“We need to be very clear that we must stop the horror going on,” Khanna said. “We must stop the bombs and the military weapons sales that are killing civilians.”

A Quinnipiac University poll published last month found that 75% of Democrats oppose sending more military aid to Israel for its war in Gaza and 77% think Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. An AP-NORC poll released Thursday found that 71 % of Democrats say Israel’s response in Gaza has gone too far, up from 63 % a year ago.

Across the electorate, views have dramatically shifted. When voters were asked in the Quinnipiac poll whether their sympathies lie more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians, 37 % said Palestinians while 36 % said the Israelis. That marked an all-time high for Palestinians and all-time low for Israelis since Quinnipiac began asking registered voters the question in December 2001.

President Joe Biden’s unconditional support of Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks – in which militants killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages – fractured the Democratic Party as he was seeking reelection. But the politics of the issue have shifted even more over the past several months, Democratic lawmakers and experts said. Some former national security and foreign policy officials from the Biden administration, for example, have urged lawmakers to support resolutions cutting off offensive weapons to Israel and have publicly questioned Biden’s level of support while he was in office.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has closely aligned himself with Trump and the Republican Party more broadly, making Israel a more partisan issue than it has been in the past. And some of Israel’s actions this year – including the blockade and its offensive to seize Gaza City even as hundreds of thousands of residents remain trapped – have further alienated voters and lawmakers, including a handful of Republicans.

In what some lawmakers and experts said was a “watershed moment,” more than half of Senate Democrats in July supported two resolutions to block weapons sales to Israel that Sanders has put forward seven times during the course of the war.

“People, especially Democrats, independents and more and more Republicans, do not want to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money to starve children in Gaza,” Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in an interview. “If you’re a politician, you look around and say, number one, what’s going in is atrocious and number two, I go home and people tell me they don’t want to support Netanyahu and ask me why do I continue to do that.”

The Trump administration has said its support for Israel remains “unwavering” and criticized those pushing for recognition of a Palestinian state.

“They’re largely symbolic – they have really no impact whatsoever about bringing us any closer to a Palestinian state. The only impact they actually have is it makes Hamas feel more emboldened,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a visit to Israel this week.

Standing next to Netanyahu, Rubio said, “You can count on our unwavering support and commitment.”

The Democratic Party is broadly divided into two groups on Israel, according to Ivo Daalder, former NATO ambassador under President Barack Obama and senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center. Daalder said the groups are traditional pro-Israel Democrats who are now willing to criticize Netanyahu and want a ceasefire and those who say the U.S. needs to distance itself from Israel.

The first group “recognizes there are problems with what’s happening in Gaza but they’re not willing to say that Israeli policies should make us question our support for Israel,” Daalder said. “There’s another group of people who have been empowered by Israel’s behavior in Gaza to say no, actually Israel and America’s interests in the Middle East are increasingly diverging. … We should support Israel’s right to exist but it doesn’t mean we should support this government.”

Daalder added that the second group has grown over the past several months “because of the way, from March onwards, Netanyahu has behaved.”

The fissures in the party have featured prominently in the New York City mayoral race, which in many ways has put into sharp focus just how quickly Democratic voters have moved away from long-standing party orthodoxy on the issue – and how some senior Democrats have struggled to adapt.

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee who is leading the race, has been far more critical of Israel than other lawmakers. Some of his rhetoric – including accusing Israel of committing apartheid and genocide in Gaza and his reluctance to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” – has discomfited some Democrats. But even those who disagree with some of Mamdani’s language say his bluntness on the horrors in Gaza validate what many voters see for themselves.

“Mamdani is speaking what many Democrats – and an increasing number of MAGA Republicans – see as the truth about Israel in Gaza and the West Bank in a way that’s long been taboo for most American politicians,” said Frank Lowenstein, a State Department official under Obama who worked on Israeli and Palestinian affairs. Lowenstein said that Mamdani’s comments will alienate some moderates but that he has tapped into voters’ broad frustrations on the issue.

“Democratic candidates are going to have to realize the ground underneath their feet has changed on this issue,” Lowenstein said. “You can certainly go too far, but to the extent Mamdani represents a giant swing in the other direction from reflexively supporting Israel … polls show he’s directionally correct politically. The grass roots of the party is done with defending Israel and done with Netanyahu right now.”

Cuomo, who lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani but is now running as an independent, has portrayed Mamdani as holding extreme views on Israel. That made his comments to the New York Times this week all the more notable, in which he called the situation in Gaza “horrific” after earlier this year calling himself a “hyperaggressive” defender of Israel.

“There is no doubt that the people of New York and the nation see the continued carnage that is happening and are deeply, deeply disturbed and want it over, and believe it has gone on way too long,” Cuomo said.

Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (New York) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (New York), have so far declined to endorse Mamdani, in part because they have expressed concerns about his comments on Israel but also due to his self-proclaimed status as a democratic socialist. Another senior Democratic lawmaker from New York, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, said this month that “9 out 10 Democrats are pro-Israel and want peace in the Middle East.”

Jeffries – who has met twice with Mamdani – said after his victory that the State Assembly member would have to “clarify” his position on Israel and antisemitism.

“‘Globalizing the intifada,’ by way of example, is not an acceptable phrasing,” Jeffries said. “He’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward. With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism.”

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have said party leaders’ reactions to Mamdani illustrate that they are increasingly out of step with their voter base. A New York Times-Siena College poll this month of voters in New York City – which has the largest population of Jews outside Israel – found that 44 percent sympathized more with Palestinians while 26 percent sympathized more with Israelis.

During a Democratic fundraiser in Iowa last week, Van Hollen blasted Democratic leaders who have not backed Mamdani and accused them of practicing “spineless politics” that “people are sick of.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) endorsed Mamdani last week, becoming one of the highest-profile leaders in the state to back his candidacy after voicing doubts earlier. In an op-ed, she wrote that while she and Mamdani do not agree on everything, she shared his goal in making New York more affordable and believed he would stand up to Trump. Hochul also noted that she spoke to Mamdani about “the need to combat the rise of antisemitism urgently and unequivocally” and commended him for meeting with Jewish leaders across the city.

Daniel Shapiro, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said all Democrats agree that Trump is not using U.S. leverage effectively to help bring the war to an end. He said much of the shift in public opinion on Israel is specific to the war in Gaza and could change with time.

“Sometimes the strongly held and legitimately held views people have are responding to that acute and very emotional situation but not addressing the broader strategic questions about the U.S. relationship with Israel and our interests in the Middle East,” Shapiro said. “Before Democrats return to power, we need to make sure that we do that. That’s the real obligation of policymakers who have actual authority.”