House defeats Israel aid cutoff, exposing deep Democratic split

The House rejected Thomas Massie’s bid to end $3.3 billion in annual security assistance to Israel by 314-104, but the vote’s most consequential number was inside the Democratic column. One hundred three Democrats voted yes, 98 voted no and 10 voted present, while Massie stood alone as the only Republican in support.

The yes side was no longer confined to the party’s hardest-left members. It reached Greg Casar of Texas, the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair, Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker, and Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 House Democrat, who broke with Hakeem Jeffries and said the “status quo is not tenable.” Jeffries argued the amendment was overly broad and could touch humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, peace-building, embassy operations and U.S. efforts against Hamas and Hezbollah.

The result also tracked the political pressure reshaping the caucus. Politico noted that only 37 House Democrats backed a similar bid two years ago, and this year’s push came after primaries in which progressive challengers defeated incumbents while attacking ties to pro-Israel groups. Reuters said the outcome reflected a widening rupture between U.S. progressives and Israel over the Gaza war, a split that now reaches into the party’s leadership and its electoral calculations for 2026.

The fight sat inside a larger budget clash. The amendment targeted the annual $3.3 billion security package that flows under the 2016 U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, which runs through fiscal 2028, and the House later passed the underlying fiscal 2027 State Department spending bill 217-209. Reuters said the vote was a sharp departure from years when bills supporting Israel passed almost unanimously, underscoring how far the Democratic caucus has moved.