In what is being viewed as a “seismic shift,” more than 100 Democrats in the US House of Representatives voted yesterday to end $3.3 billion in annual military assistance to Israel. The vote marks a dramatic break with decades of bipartisan support for the occupation state and signals that unconditional backing for Israel is becoming an electoral liability.
The amendment, introduced by Republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, failed by 314 votes to 104, while ten lawmakers voted present. However, the roll call showed that 103 Democrats supported the measure, compared with 98 who opposed it. Massie was the only Republican to vote in favour, while 215 members of his party rejected it.
The result meant that nearly half of the entire Democratic caucus, and a slim majority of Democrats who cast a definitive vote, backed ending the military funding. The scale of the revolt represented a significant change from April 2024, when only 37 Democrats opposed a separate package of military assistance for Israel. The number of Democratic lawmakers prepared to vote against Israeli aid has almost tripled in just over two years.
The amendment would have removed funding from a State Department spending bill and blocked the $3.3 billion in annual security assistance provided under the existing US-Israel agreement.
