Once again, the Democratic Party’s internal conflict over Israel is surfacing on a major platform.
Opponents of Israel’s military strategies and the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in recent Democratic primaries are preparing for contentious test votes at the Democratic National Committee’s spring meeting in New Orleans on Thursday. The discussions will focus on resolutions about recognizing a Palestinian state, setting conditions on military aid to Israel, and condemning the growing influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other dark-money groups.
While the resolutions brought before the DNC’s committee are unlikely to be approved and would be nonbinding even if they were, they represent the latest public confrontation between pro-Israel party leaders and a base with increasingly negative views on Israel. Progressive activists are frustrated by the significant special-interest spending in Democratic primaries often targeting their candidates.
Illustrating the sensitivity around Israel-related politics, an anonymous DNC member disclosed receiving direct calls from two presidential hopefuls concerned about having to address the DNC’s positions on Israel and AIPAC should they run. The resolutions also expose divisions within the task force established by DNC Chair Ken Martin last year to develop the party’s Middle East strategy. This committee is still in its early stages and lacks a formalized agenda.
James Zogby, a DNC member and president of the Arab American Institute, who is also part of Martin’s Middle East Working Group, stressed the need for the party to recognize voters’ evolving opinions on Israel.
“Public opinion has shifted. Democrats have clearly shifted. Candidates have shifted. And we’re not where we were five years ago even,” Zogby said. “We have to avoid the mistakes that we’ve been making, which simply show us to be unwilling to accept or unable to accept the political realities.”
A Pew Research survey released this week revealed that 80 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents now view Israel unfavorably, a rise from 69 percent last year and 53 percent in 2022. An NBC News poll from late February and early March indicated that 57 percent of Democrats hold a negative view of Israel, a stark contrast to the 35 percent with such a view after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Allison Minnerly, a DNC member from Florida who introduced the resolution criticizing AIPAC and corporate-aligned spending, stated, “The Democratic Party, time and time again, is presented with absolutely winning issues. People 1) hate corporate money and 2) do not want to be involved in further conflict in the Middle East.” Last year, she also unsuccessfully pushed for an arms embargo on Israel.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, opposes the current measures, arguing that critiques from prominent elected officials do not necessarily indicate a widespread shift in support for Israel’s security or its right to exist as a Jewish state. She views the foreign-policy resolutions as a “distraction” from the party’s early successes in the midterms by focusing on domestic issues.
The DNC and an AIPAC spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
The Democrats have encountered this situation before. A 2024 party analysis found that their approach to Gaza had negatively impacted the top of the ticket, but they chose not to release the findings publicly.
At a party meeting in Minneapolis last summer, Minnerly’s weapons ban failed, and Martin withdrew his measure for “unrestricted” aid to Gaza and a two-state solution, opting instead to create a task force to address the party’s divisions.
The Middle East Working Group is scheduled for its fourth meeting this week in New Orleans. Some members expressed concerns to POLITICO about the group’s lack of structure and real institutional power, and disagreement persists on how best to fulfill their mission.
Joe Salas, a member from California, believes that the situation in Gaza contributed to the party losing the White House in 2024. He proposed a resolution to recognize the “State of Palestine” and to pause or condition weapons transfers to military units implicated in violations of international humanitarian law, hoping it will guide the task force.
Andrew Lachman, another task force member and past president of the California Jewish Democrats, is wary of members undermining the commission’s work with broad resolutions. “It would be much better for us to try to find ways for us to work together as a party, to stand together against these wars, than engaging in this kind of approach,” he stated.
The resolutions have sparked renewed lobbying among interest groups. The IMEU Policy Project, a pro-Palestinian organization, sent a memo on Wednesday urging members to support the measures. The group warned that the gap between Democratic leadership and voters on this issue could become a liability in 2026 unless decisive action is taken, according to a memo shared with POLITICO.
