United States politics is seeing a sharp turn as backing for Israel weakens amid the war in Gaza and wider Middle East conflict. The shift is showing up in Senate votes, in public polling, and in warnings from analysts that the long-running bipartisan consensus on military aid is under pressure. The change matters now because it could shape the next presidential cycle, including 2028.
Senate votes show the pressure building
The clearest sign of the break came in recent Senate action over arms sales to Israel. When Bernie Sanders first tabled a joint resolution of disapproval last year, it drew just 15 Democratic Senate votes. A similar vote last July won 27 supporters, and on Thursday a measure aimed at halting the supply of Caterpillar D9 bulldozers to Israel drew a record 40 Senate Democrats, even though it was defeated.
Another measure, which would have restricted the sale of 1, 000lb bombs to Israel, was rejected by a 36-63 vote. The debate over these votes has become part of a broader fight over whether American military support for Israel still reflects public sentiment. The shift is especially visible among Democrats who are considering presidential runs, where the politics of United States aid are becoming more difficult to avoid.
Jon Hoffman, a foreign-policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said the relationship with Israel has become a “strategic liability” for the United States. He said it would be very difficult for a 2028 Democratic primary candidate to win without openly disavowing US aid to Israel, and possibly even the US-Israel special relationship.
Polling points to a deeper change
The political strain is being reinforced by public opinion. A poll released by the Pew Research Center last week showed a record 60% of US adults now have an unfavorable view of Israel, a 7% rise in just one year. The poll was fielded nearly a month into the joint US-Israeli intervention into Iran and also showed a sharp age gap, with a majority of adults under 50 in both parties now viewing Israel and Netanyahu negatively.
That kind of public movement matters because the Democratic Party’s traditional position has combined diplomatic, military, and economic support for Israel with backing for a two-state solution. The current shift suggests that arrangement is under strain as human rights concerns on the left and an America First foreign-policy mood on the right pull in the same direction.
Immediate reactions inside the party
Mark Kelly, the senior US senator from Arizona, said the situation is “not business as usual” and argued it is “not making us safer. ” He said the United States and Israel are fighting a war against Iran without a clear strategy or goal, and added that he opposes both the war in Iran and what he called reckless decisions by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump.
Ruben Gallego, another senator who has become a vocal opponent of sales of offensive weapons to Israel, said the latest vote showed that Netanyahu had “really screwed up the politics of the Middle East” and was destroying the bipartisan nature of support for Israel.
What happens next
The immediate question is whether the voting pattern now seen in the Senate will spread further through the Democratic field before the next presidential-primary cycle. The broader question is whether the United States is moving away from the long-standing consensus that military aid for Israel should remain largely insulated from domestic political pressure.
For now, the trend is unmistakable: public opinion, Senate arithmetic, and Democratic presidential ambitions are starting to move in the same direction, and the fight over Israel aid is no longer a background issue. It is becoming a live test of how far the United States will go in redefining a decades-old relationship.
