103 House Democrats Vote to Cut $3.3B in Funding to Israel, Marking Shift
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Over 100 Democrats voted for a House measure to cut $3.3 billion in military funding for Israel on Wednesday, marking a shift within the party even as the amendment still overwhelmingly failed to pass.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), failed 104 to 314. The legislation would have stripped the 2027 State Department and national security funding bill of a provision to grant Israel billions in foreign military financing, while also prohibiting any funds under the bill from being spent on Israel.
The amendment received 103 votes from Democrats and a lone Republican vote from Massie. Ninety-eight Democrats voted “no,” and 10 voted “present.” Two hundred-and-fifteen Republicans voted “no.”
The voting numbers represent a significant shift among Democratic politicians, who were once nearly unanimously supportive of sending U.S. aid to Israel and voted accordingly. By contrast, 194 Democrats voted for a resolution reaffirming the U.S.’s “commitment to Israel’s security” on October 25, 2023, in the early stages of its genocide in Gaza, while only 9 Democrats voted against it. A vote in 2021 to fund Israel’s Iron Dome missile interceptor system similarly garnered 210 “yes” votes from Democrats, and only 8 “no” votes.
Prominent Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (New York) voted against Massie’s measure on Wednesday. Ahead of the vote, Jeffries said he thought the measure was “overly broad.” Other Democrats used similar language about the amendment text being supposedly “overly broad” and “poorly drafted,” which was also present in pro-Israel group J Street’s statement on the legislation.
Israel Continues to........
