House Democrats are Finally Shifting on Israel. Party Leaders Must Listen

More than 100 Democratic lawmakers voted against arms for Israel. They’re listening to the people – their bosses are behind

By Norman Solomon, The Guardian

The Democratic party is in dire need of a mutiny.

Top leaders at the party’s helm are unprepared to navigate the political sea change about Israel. Last week, nearly half of House Democrats voted to block $3.3bn in weaponry and other aid to that country. A recent New York Times poll found that 74% of Democratic voters “opposed providing additional economic and military support to Israel, including large majorities in all age groups”.

Such polling numbers are not new. But the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and his Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, still follow an old playbook of unwavering service to Israel. The moral bankruptcy amounts to political malpractice, as voters tend to bypass a party with leadership they see as lacking a moral compass.

The day before 103 House Democrats ignored his guidance, Jeffries sent out a “dear colleague” letter filled with the kind of pro-Israel rhetoric that has worn transparently thin. The amendment to cut off aid, he claimed, “would restrict our country’s ability to confront Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in the region who are sworn enemies of both the United States and Israel”.

But Nancy Pelosi’s vote for the weapons cutoff was a weathervane for how drastically the Democratic winds have swung away from Israel. Consider the former speaker’s remarkable words at an Israeli-American Council conference in 2018: “I have said to people when they ask me: if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain is our commitment to our aid, I don’t even call it aid – our cooperation – with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.”