{"id":6374,"date":"2026-07-15T04:18:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6374"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:18:33","slug":"every-option-is-bad-democrats-squirm-over-house-vote-to-shut-off-aid-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6374","title":{"rendered":"&quot;Every option is bad&quot;: Democrats squirm over House vote to shut off aid to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/yV8c7HEvMv1iyTn7Mg8RXD24Ius=\/0x326:5616x3485\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/14\/1784044532337.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An upcoming House vote on a measure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/30\/israel-aid-vote-house-democrats-massie-gaza\" target=\"_blank\">blocking U.S. aid to Israel<\/a> has Democrats divided over how far they should go to signal displeasure with the Netanyahu government.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>The vote is revealing just how much anxiety Democratic lawmakers have about the growing anti-Israel sentiments coming from their grassroots base.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Even I&#8217;m a lean yes and think it&#8217;s a crappy amendment,&#8221; said one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer candid thoughts on their vote.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;For me, it&#8217;s more of a signal that something needs to change and we can&#8217;t just provide aid despite how it&#8217;s being used,&#8221; the lawmaker said, predicting &#8220;at least 40&#8221; of their colleagues will vote for the measure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>The House is scheduled to vote this week on Rep. Thomas Massie&#8217;s (R-Ky.) amendment to a State Department funding bill that would prohibit any of the money from going to Israel.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The measure \u2014 which does not make any carveout for non-military aid \u2014 has been the subject of frenzied internal discussion among House Democrats for weeks.<\/li>\n<li>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced in Democrats&#8217; closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday morning that he would vote against the amendment, according to several lawmakers who were present.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying: <\/strong>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28475648-jeffries-dear-colleague-july-14-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a> to colleagues obtained by Axios, Jeffries said the &#8220;overly broad&#8221; amendment would limit funding for &#8220;humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, peace-building and U.S. Embassy operations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He also warned that it would &#8220;restrict our country&#8217;s ability to confront Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in the region who are sworn enemies of both the United States and Israel.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;In my view, there are more decisive ways to achieve the urgent change necessary when it comes to the far-right Netanyahu government,&#8221; the Democratic leader wrote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>Centrist, pro-Israel Democrats cheered Jeffries for taking what they said is a brave and much-needed stand against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/24\/mamdani-lander-valdez-chevalier-espaillat-goldman\" target=\"_blank\">growing influence<\/a> of the party&#8217;s pro-Palestinian wing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;He was courageous this morning,&#8221; Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) commented to his staff as he was leaving the Tuesday morning meeting.<\/li>\n<li>Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told Axios: &#8220;That&#8217;s called putting principle and what&#8217;s best for America&#8217;s national security ahead of finger in the wind politics.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) told Axios he still plans to vote for the amendment and expects a &#8220;very sizable number of people [to] vote for the Massie amendment if it comes up this week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I simply think that a &#8216;yes&#8217; vote &#8230; is what clearly signals that the Netanyahu government&#8217;s actions are unacceptable,&#8221; Casar added.<\/li>\n<li>The Democrat who spoke anonymously said &#8220;some will vote &#8216;yes&#8217; to signal their opposition to unconditional [foreign military financing] and support for stronger oversight of how U.S. security assistance is used.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Reality check: <\/strong>The amendment has little chance of passing the House given largely unified Republican support for Israel. It would have an even tougher time getting through the Senate.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Democrats are instead approaching this as a symbolic vote, with some arguing that GOP leaders would only bring it to a vote as a political trap.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The Republicans don&#8217;t like Massie, but they let this bill go because that could divide us,&#8221; House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Jeffries made clear Democratic leadership isn&#8217;t whipping the vote, instead letting lawmakers vote their conscience.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami <a href=\"https:\/\/jstreet.org\/press-releases\/j-street-statement-on-massie-amendment\/\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> he and his group &#8220;support Leader Jeffries&#8217; decision to oppose the amendment while not whipping against it&#8221; and recognizes that many Democrats want to express opposition to how U.S. military aid to Israel is being used.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Members may reasonably conclude that voting no, present or yes is the best way to reflect those competing concerns,&#8221; he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The intrigue: <\/strong>Jeffries signaled openness to conditioning U.S. aid to Israel moving forward, writing in his letter that &#8220;a meaningful change in direction is needed&#8221; as the two nations prepare to negotiate a new memorandum of understanding.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Any future security arrangement between our two countries should &#8230; strictly adhere to our human rights laws and values,&#8221; he said.<\/li>\n<li>Casar said those comments are encouraging but that &#8220;the details are going to matter.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This story has been corrected to quote Casar as saying that a vote in favor of Massie&#8217;s amendment &#8220;signals that the Netanyahu government&#8217;s actions are unacceptable&#8221; (not acceptable). <\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An upcoming House vote on a measure blocking U.S. aid to Israel has Democrats divided over how far they should go to signal displeasure with the Netanyahu government. Why it matters: The vote is revealing just how much anxiety Democratic lawmakers have about the growing anti-Israel sentiments coming from their grassroots base. &#8220;Even I&#8217;m a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/yV8c7HEvMv1iyTn7Mg8RXD24Ius=\/0x326:5616x3485\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/14\/1784044532337.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}