Politically Homeless in America
This week didn't make liberal Zionists politically homeless. It confirmed they already were.
Many American Jews are becoming politically homeless, and this week made it clear why, both in Congress and on America’s most-watched podcast. First, on Tuesday, 103 House Democrats voted to end all American military aid to Israel—not just to reduce or condition it, but to end it. Thomas Massie’s amendment to the 2027 State and Foreign Operations bill would have cut the full $3.3 billion in annual Foreign Military Financing with no exceptions. The amendment failed 104 to 314, but nearly half the Democratic caucus supported it. Minority Whip Katherine Clark, who led floor strategy that day, voted yes, while her leader, Hakeem Jeffries, voted no.
A party whose whip and leader can’t agree on supporting its central Middle Eastern ally is in open conflict with itself. The old certainties are gone.
Many reactions to this vote miss the real issue. This isn’t about Democrats turning against Jews or forcing American Jews out of the party. American Jews are not all the same. Anti-Zionist Jews on the left have found a place in the Democratic coalition. Orthodox Jews joined the Republican Party years ago and have little reason to go back.
The real impact is on liberal Zionists, who make up a big part of American Jewry. They support abortion rights and a Jewish state, care about climate policy, and back the Iron Dome. They might criticize Netanyahu but still defend Israel’s legitimacy. For years, this wasn’t seen as a contradiction—it was what it meant to be a mainstream Democratic Zionist. No one forced them to choose.
That has changed, and this week showed it more clearly than ever. The alliance and aid are still there, but the days when you didn’t have to choose between your party and your Zionism are over.
This is the real trap. On the left, support for Israel has gone from a bipartisan norm to a source of conflict within the Democratic Party. The pro-Israel side is losing ground among young people, activists, and now half of House Democrats. Recent Democratic primary wins by anti-Zionist candidates like Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York and Melat Kiros in Colorado make this clear. It’s understandable that liberal Zionists feel uneasy about these results and Tuesday’s vote in Congress. But the Republican Party, which some suggest as an alternative, isn’t a true home either. Its support for Israel is a receding inheritance: a majority of Republicans under 50 now hold an unfavorable view of Israel—57 percent, up from 35 percent in 2022—and a post-Trump party is more likely to follow its voters than lead them. That same base is where antisemitism is resurging—Nick Fuentes and his “groyper” movement went mainstream through a Tucker Carlson interview watched more than 20 million times, in a year the ADL logged near-record antisemitic incidents.
That leads us to Wednesday. The day after the House vote, Vice President JD Vance spent three hours talking with Joe Rogan, whose show reaches more young American men than any TV network. This is the group whose support for Israel is dropping fastest. The timing was important: the United States was in a war with Iran, and Vance had helped negotiate the deal to end it. On Rogan’s show, he did something Republicans usually avoid—he downplayed Israel’s special status, calling it just another ally like France or the UK. His grievance was concrete: a reported, FARA-registered, Israeli-government-funded campaign that paid conservative influencers to keep young MAGA voters supportive of Israel and that, he said, attacked him over the Iran deal. But he pushed past the documented story, claiming elements within Israel’s system were “beyond a shadow of a doubt” swaying American opinion to keep the war going. Israel, he said, is losing the battle for American support.
Vance went even further. Rogan brought up the Epstein files, a case that has captured the attention of Vance’s MAGA base and which Vance admitted the administration mishandled. Without being asked, Vance said Jeffrey Epstein “clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.” There is no evidence for this. The idea that Epstein was a Mossad asset is a common claim in antisemitic corners of the internet and has been denied by former Israeli leaders. Vance didn’t just repeat the rumor; he said Epstein was linked to the “left of center” of Israel’s “deep state,” mentioning his real friendship with former prime minister Ehud Barak. A sitting vice president took an old story about Jews and hidden power and, on the country’s biggest platform, gave it the weight of his office. This wasn’t a fringe congressman but the likely future leader of his party, gliding from a real influence campaign into conspiracy. So, in one week, liberal Zionists saw 103 Democrats vote to cut off aid on Tuesday, and the Republican heir apparent spread Mossad conspiracy theories on Wednesday.
Both doors are, in their own ways, shut. This is the harsh irony of the “You have a home with us” ads New York Republicans ran at Jewish voters that week, the ones comparing Democratic Socialists to Nazis. An invitation is not a home. That is political homelessness: they want your vote, not you.
But this is not a rout. Ninety-eight Democrats, including the party leader, voted to keep the aid. This is a party in a difficult, public debate, not one that has abandoned its position.
That half still has ambitious champions. Josh Shapiro, an observant Jew and self-described Zionist considering a 2028 run, maintains his support for Israel while criticizing Netanyahu, stating he does not “waffle or waver because of polling.” Rahm Emanuel, also a potential candidate, argues a pro-Israel Democrat can still win the White House, but only if the “status quo” changes. He has told Israelis in Tel Aviv not to expect unconditional American aid. Gavin Newsom also expresses pride in supporting Israel while criticizing Netanyahu and has distanced himself from labeling Israel an “apartheid” state. None are the reflexive Zionists of a decade ago. Together they constitute the surviving pro-Israel position: supportive, done with Netanyahu, and openly conditional. That is the lane worth fighting for.
But honesty goes both ways. These leaders are the exception, not the rule. About three in five Democrats now tell pollsters the United States is too supportive of Israel. The clearest sign of where the party is heading isn’t Shapiro but Ro Khanna, a congressman who once admired Israel’s economic model and now calls its conduct in Gaza genocide. He was among the 103 who voted to cut the aid, and after being detained by armed settlers in the West Bank, he took his case to the likes of Hasan Piker and Drop Site News. Even then, interviewers pushed him to say Hamas had a right to attack Israelis on October 7 and criticized him when he refused. When a former supporter goes that far and still doesn’t meet the left’s standards, it shows the center of gravity is shifting, not staying in place.
The right still has a counterbalance, though it is shrinking. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, defends Israel’s actions and focuses on Iran; the pro-Israel group he represents is real. But Rubio represents the party’s present, while Vance is its future—he is younger, popular with the base, led the Iran talks, and his comments about Epstein were intentional, not accidental. Even Rubio is now negotiating to reduce aid. The right is starting to look like the left: an establishment that still defends Israel, but is being overtaken by a group that does not. The pro-Israel Democrat is losing his party, and the pro-Israel Republican is being replaced by someone who supports Israel one day and questions it the next. Both sides are moving in the same direction, and neither is slowing down.
But the biggest factor is not in Washington at all. Liberal Zionists have lost ground not only because of the American left but also because of Israel’s own path: a government pushing for West Bank annexation, prolonging the fighting in Gaza, and weakening its own democracy. If this continues, no Democratic primary fight will make the pro-Israel position defensible. But this direction is not set in stone. If Israel moves away from annexation and toward regional integration, and works to restore its democracy, it would give its supporters abroad something worth defending again. The way back to a political home depends as much on Jerusalem as on Washington.
For me, voting Republican was one of the hardest political decisions I've ever made. It's not who I ever thought I was, and it's not how I naturally see myself. But I reached a point where I felt I couldn't ignore what I was seeing.
In my eyes, bigotry toward Jews and the Jewish nation is the ultimate litmus test.
I don't feel like I walked away from the Democratic Party. I feel like the Democratic Party walked away from me.
I don't think this was a defeat for liberal Zionists but a right sizing. I'd wager that most people who would be categorized as liberal or progress Zionists would have supported the Massie amendment. And the reason is clear: Protest against a Right Wing Israeli government who, in the words of Joaquin Castro wants to "ethnically cleanse" the Palestinian people. In Ro Khanna's interview with Haaretz this week, the same To Khanna who sponsored the bill, he made clear he's a Zionist who believes in the right of the Jewish people to self determination and a 2 state solution.
If liberal Zionism is defined as supporters of Israel who aren't willing to do more than give a strongly worded statement if Palestinians were being ethnically cleansed (which is the explicit intention of the Israeli Right Wing) or permanently disenfranchised (which is the policy preference of most Israeli Jews), then yes, this was a defeat for Liberal Zionism. But while that may be how Liberal Zionists in the US have operated until now, that will not continue. Apartheid is unacceptable to most American Jews, including most Zionist ones. And they aren't going to tolerate an Israel that has that as it's goal any longer.