The Senate Inches Closer To Taking Away Israel's Blank Check

Amid reports of Palestinian starvation, a majority of the Democratic Caucus—but no Republicans—voted to block U.S. weapons shipments to Israel.

U.S. support for Israel used to go without question. "You see this napkin? In 24 hours, we could have the signatures of 70 senators on this napkin," Steven Rosen, a top American Israel Public Affairs Committee official, joked to a reporter at The New Yorker over dinner in the early 2000s.

Israel enjoyed guaranteed access to American-made weapons, and it enjoyed the largest disbursement of U.S. taxpayer aid since World War II to pay for those weapons. (U.S. aid has covered 70 percent of the war in Gaza, according to the Israeli newspaper Calcalist.) When push came to shove, the U.S. military was even willing to step in directly to fight Israel's wars.

But the consensus is no longer automatic. The Israeli army's conduct towards Palestinian civilians after the Hamas attack of October 2023, and the Israeli leadership's decision to strike Syria and Iran while the U.S. was trying to negotiate with both countries, has led to unprecedented debates in Congress over support for the Middle Eastern republic.

Israel's supporters now have to make an affirmative case for U.S.-funded weapons. Although they still hold a majority, it is shrinking fast. In April 2025, only 15 senators voted to disapprove of American weapons shipments to Israel. On Wednesday night, 27 senators voted to block a shipment of rifles to Israel. A majority of the Democratic caucus voted against the shipment.

Many senators cited the growing famine in Gaza as the reason for their changing votes. "I had just had it. I kept expecting that Israel would wake up and realize what an awful thing they were perpetuating, and that surely they would at least open up humanitarian aid. They just continued to not do it, and I just reached the point where enough was enough," Sen. Angus King (I–Maine) told Politico.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) had put forward two separate resolutions on Wednesday, one on a shipment of rifles and another on a shipment of bombs. Strangely, the shipment of rifles—which have a more plausible defensive purpose—garnered more disapproval than the shipment of purely offensive bombs.

"Israel's capacity to strike those who would launch missiles and rockets at Israeli civilians depends upon the deterrence provided by the Israeli Air Force," Sen. Jon Ossoff (D–Ga.) said in a press release explaining his vote to block rifles but not bombs. He added that the rifles "would likely have been allocated to police forces under the control of Itamar Ben-Gvir," the hardline Israeli National Security Minister.

Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats from Rhode Island, also voted to block rifles and not bombs. Neither immediately responded to Reason's questions by email.

Republicans, meanwhile, all voted to keep the weapons flowing. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch said on the Senate floor that cutting off weapons to Israel "would mean abandoning America's closest ally in the Middle East" and that "it is in the interest of America and the world to see this terrorist group [Hamas] destroyed."

Sanders countered that Israel is not carrying out "an effort to win a war. It is an effort to destroy a people…American taxpayer dollars being used to starve children, bomb schools, kill civilians, and support the cruelty of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his criminal ministers."

In March 2025, the Israeli government completely closed all border crossings into Gaza. "We've done that because Hamas steals the supplies," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the time. In May 2025, the Israeli government handed over control of food distribution to a new American-run organization known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). 

Since then, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a partnership between the United Nations and several non-governmental charities, has found that the amount of food getting to Palestinians in Gaza has reached "famine thresholds." And the distribution of that food has been marred by chaos and violence. More than a thousand people have been reported killed while trying to obtain food. Whistleblowers and leaked video footage indicate that Israeli troops and GHF guards have shot at crowds of aid seekers. (The GHF denies the reports and blames Hamas for the killings.)

Even President Donald Trump, whose administration supports the GHF and who insists that the war should end with Hamas' unconditional surrender, admits that there has been mass starvation in Gaza. He told reporters on Tuesday that anyone denying the starvation is "pretty coldhearted or, worse than that, nuts," and he promised to get more food in. The Israeli army promised on Saturday that it would open "humanitarian corridors" and airdrops without offering details.

Foreign supporters who were otherwise willing to cosign most Israeli military action seem to have taken starvation as a bridge too far. France declared last week that it would officially recognize an independent state of Palestine. Canada followed suit, and Britain said that it would recognize Palestine if no ceasefire is reached in Gaza by September. They are all demanding a demilitarized Palestine with political reforms.

The Trump administration has joined Israel in denouncing the Palestinian statehood push. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against the Palestinian Authority, the historically U.S.-backed rival to Hamas, for "internationalizing" the conflict by seeking independence. Trump threatened Canada that Palestinian recognition would make it "very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them."

But the Republican coalition has seen some defections. Earlier this month, Reps. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–Ga.) supported a bill to cut $500 million from U.S. aid to Israel and all U.S. aid to Ukraine. The bill failed overwhelmingly.

According to the Financial Times, Trump privately told a donor that "my people are starting to hate Israel." The Israeli foreign ministry, uneasy about these trends, is beginning an outreach program aimed specifically at young America First influencers.

Indeed, the recent votes in Congress are a lagging indicator of where public opinion has been moving. A recent Gallup poll shows that 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the Israeli campaign in Gaza, including 83 percent of Democrats. While a solid majority of Republicans approve, their disapproval rate—22 percent—is larger than the dissent bloc in Congress would suggest.

And only 9 percent of Americans below the age of 34, regardless of party, approve of the war. There is an enormous generational gap, perhaps more significant than the partisan gap, over this issue. Although that kind of shift takes a while to be felt in elections and staffing, current politicians' attempts to catch up are leading them to unexpected places.