Massie bill on Israel funding splits Democrats: ‘Never seen anything like it’

House Democratic leadership on Tuesday urged members to vote with their conscience on a controversial amendment to cut U.S. funding for Israel, underscoring deep divisions in the caucus over America’s relations with the Jewish state.

Fiscal hawk Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) sponsored the amendment, seeking to add it to a national security and State Department spending bill that is expected to come up for a vote this week. The text of Massie’s amendment says none of the funds of the act will be made available for Israel and lowers overall spending in the bill by $3.3 billion.

After a Democratic caucus meeting in which Massie’s bill was a focus of debate, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) expressed shock at the fraught conversations around Israel in his conference.

“I’ve been around a long time, I’ve never seen it,” he said.

Thompson said conversations centered around Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership, and noted deeply negative views of the long-time Israeli leader among young, Democratic voters.

Many of these voters have adopted a view that Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, launched after the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack, amounted to a campaign of genocide against Palestinians living there. Congressional Democrats have also raised urgent concern over Israel’s policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank.

Thompson said arguments centered around, “Do you cut off resources for Israel at this point,” or take a more diplomatic approach and “continue with some conversation.”

Increasing negative views of Israel among Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents was recorded in a Pew survey conducted in March, taken shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran. In the survey, published in April, 80 percent of this group had an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 69 percent in 2025 and 53 percent in 2022.

Pew noted that Democrats under 50 are slightly more likely than older Democrats to have a very unfavorable view of Israel (47 percent vs. 39 percent).

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said the conversation about Israel in the caucus meeting was “all over the place.” Nadler said he is against the bill and called it “poorly drafted,” arguing it would eliminate funding for U.S. embassy operations in the country, among other unintended consequences.

That argument was echoed by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), who called it an “overly broad amendment” that was not written well. She described the conversations as “thoughtful,” and sought to project party unity, despite disagreements.

“We all agreed that, however people vote, we’re all on the same team, and there are reasonable, sorts of reasons, that people vote on all sorts of things.”

Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) came out of the meeting saying that there was no yelling and that “people were very cogent.”

The text in Massie’s amendment takes aim at the $3.3 billion in security assistance, from 2019 through 2028, that is provided by a U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by President Obama in 2016. The MOU also provides for $500 million for cooperative missile defense.

The Massie amendment is expected to fail, as there likely won’t be much GOP support for the measure. Most conservatives have touted their strong support for Israel.

But it will underline the split between progressive Democrats critical of Israel and supportive, centrist Democrats – potentially putting a bullseye on members from activist groups on both sides.

A stark example of that was the ousting last week of five-term congressman Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) – who has voted in support of U.S. military aid to Israel – by primary challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist and staunch Israel critic who drew backing from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

On the other hand, during the last election cycle, pro-Israel Rep. Wesley Bell (D), backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), knocked former Rep. Cory Bush (D) out of her Missouri House seat.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif), Democratic caucus chairman, said the caucus is aware of the “strong positions” people have on Israel but that the party doesn’t want people to miss the larger goal of combatting Trump’s domestic agenda.

Progressive Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have both come out in support of the Massie bill.

“The Israeli government committed war crimes in Gaza and helped drag America into war with Iran. Americans should not be financing more weapons for Netanyahu,” Casar, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote on the social platform X.

“I am aware that the amendment as written may cut off both military weapons (~$3.3 billion) and some diplomatic funding (~$50 million). While I would prefer to vote on an amendment that stripped just military funding, I think opposing the billions in military funding is what’s most important here,” Casar added.

The amendment vote comes after a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October last year. Despite the ceasefire, both sides have had several flare-ups and have accused each other of violating the agreement. President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, enshrined in his “Board of Peace,” has yet to make any meaningful progress on disarming Hamas, strengthening new Palestinian governance or carrying out reconstruction.

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