Yesterday, July 30, for the first time, a majority of Senate Democrats supported a resolution by Senator Bernie Sanders to block an $18 billion weapons sale to Israel—amid the Israeli government’s ongoing assault on Gaza and escalating starvation.
Though the resolution failed by a vote of 27-72—blocked by every Republican and 17 Democrats—this was a watershed moment in U.S. foreign policy and a powerful sign that the Democratic base is reshaping the party’s stance on Israel, militarism, and human rights.
“These votes don’t erase the fact that AIPAC and its billionaire donors have had a stranglehold on Democratic foreign policy for years,” said Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese. “That grip is finally starting to break—but the damage to trust in the Democratic Party and our democracy is real. Base voters see the influence of money, and they’re sick of it.”
While 26 Democrats stood on the right side of history, others revealed troubling contradictions.
Senators Jon Ossoff, Jack Reed, and Sheldon Whitehouse flipped their votes—supporting a similar resolution earlier this year, only to abandon it now, even as the humanitarian crisis deepens. Meanwhile, Senators Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker, both with long histories of defending U.S. military aid to Israel and deep ties to pro-Israel lobby groups like AIPAC, voted to block weapons sales under pressure from a mobilized public.
“They are not leading—they are catching up,” Geevarghese said. “This shift didn’t come from moral clarity in Washington. It came from the moral clarity of the grassroots.”
Despite the backtracking and political hedging by some electeds, the direction of change is clear—and it’s being driven from the ground up.
Polling underscores just how out of step many Democrats in office have been:
- 78% of NYC Democratic primary voters say Israel is committing genocide
- 46% believe Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war
- A majority support restrictions on U.S. arms to Israel
- Only 8% of Democrats nationally support Israel’s military campaign in Gaza
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens, voters are demanding action, not empty rhetoric. You can’t condemn famine while funding the bombs that cause it. The era of blank-check support for Netanyahu’s far-right regime is ending—and the political realignment is being led by ordinary people, not Washington insiders.
At Our Revolution, we’re organizing to make sure this shift is real, lasting, and accountable. The next phase of this fight is here—and we know who’s been standing with the people all along.