Farley Weiss is President of the Israel Justice Organization,past president of the National Council of Young Israel and coauthor of the book Because It's Just and Right, the Untold Back Story of the U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Shockwaves went out when 40 Democratic Senators voted against selling Israel bulldozers to assist it in stopping Hezbollah missiles being fired indiscriminately at Israeli civilian communities. Israel wants to purchase the equipment because Hezbollah decided to breach the November 27, 2024 ceasefire with Israel massively, by firing - in the last six weeks - 6700 missiles at Israel. Israel does not want to repeat what happened when Hezbollah did the same in 2023, causing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians from their homes.
The only way for Israel to stop the missile firing is by putting boots on the ground and pushing the Hezbollah fighters out of the area from which they were firing missiles at Israel, that is, the southern part of Lebanon. Israel must do this because the army of the Lebanese government failed to disarm Hezbollah over the past 18 months despite its pledge to do so, as became obvious with the firing of those missiles.
The extraordinary nature of this vote by the Democratic Senators is that this was a purchase by Israel that would benefit the U.S. economy and provide U.S. jobs as well as being needed by Israel for its defense.
Unfortunately, this vote by the Democratic Senators was consistent with the Biden Administration policy after Israel was attacked by Hezbollah on October 8, 2023 and in which Hezbollah fired thousands of missiles at Israel. In an unprecedented letter on August 2, 2024 that was signed by an extraordinary 48 Republican Senators, the Senators delineated and blasted the Biden Administration’s partial arms embargo against Israel. They noted that the Biden partial arms embargo had been enforced despite then bipartisan approval for providing the weapons in question to Israel, especially during times of war.
The letter states: “We write once again to protest your administration’s partial arms embargo against Israel. The actions of the Biden-Harris administration run counter to our long history of robust military cooperation with Israel and cast doubt upon the reliability of the United States as a long-term security partner. Your actions also violate the will of Congress as expressed in the recent supplemental that funded emergency military support to Israel."
“When Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly raised the weapons hold in June, your administration adamantly denied the accusation," the letter continued. “All the while, you were deliberately delaying the delivery of weapons, ammunition, and equipment to Israel. These include 120 mm tank ammunition, 120 mm mortar ammunition, light tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, F-15s, F-35 engines, joint direct attack munition kits, 2,000-pound bombs, rifles and guided missile systems." The letter referenced 10 weapons and equipment sales and shipments that were alleged to have been delayed, and pointed to four instances in which the administration “ignored congressional inquiries."
In other words the Biden Administration already prevented Israel from obtaining weapons they needed to defeat Hezbollah and Hamas despite those weapons being approved by Congress and signed by President Biden. Israel further needed those weapons to stop Hezbollah and Hamas from firing missiles on Israeli civilian communities. There is no greater test of a friend than in a time of need - like when they are militarily attacked. The answer is that these 40 Democratic Senators are not friends of Israel.
The recent special Congressional election in New Jersey’s 11th District saw Analilia Mejia get elected despite claiming what Israel was doing in Gaza was a genocide. The Jewish Insider reports that Mejia was 17 points behind Harris’ 2024 performance in Livingston, NJ and 22 points before what Harris did in Milburn, NJ and these were the two heaviest Jewish areas in her district. It is obvious that this was due to Jewish voters being upset with Majia’s views on Israel and voting for the Republican Hathaway. A Jewish People Policy Institute poll in March 2026 found that 68% of strongly identifiable Jews supported the War against Iran and this is a much higher number then the average American voter.
The fact that the Jewish voter will change their vote when it concerns Israel has shown itself as President Trump became the first Republican in 100 years to start getting over 40% of the Jewish vote. A poll in 2024 showed that over 40% of New York Jewish voters voted for President Trump. Teach Coalition polled Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, and more than 40% of those surveyed favored Trump. The epicenter of Modern Orthodoxy in America is in Teaneck, N.J., where Trump received 71% of the vote. In Lakewood, N.J.-the epicenter of the haredi Jewish community in America-Trump got more than 90% of the Jewish vote, with high tallies in other haredi and Chassidic areas as well. The increased Jewish vote was also found in heavily Jewish pockets of other blue states, such as the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, which went heavily for Trump, as did Jewish areas in swing states like Pennsylvania, and the heavily Jewish areas of Miami and Palm Beach County in Florida.
It is obvious that these vote changes within the Jewish community are directly tied to the Pro-Israel policies of President Trump and the turn against Israel within the Democratic party. A 2024 Pew survey found that 89% of American Jews favor Israel in its war against Hamas. These results are consistent with an August 2019 finding by Gallup senior scientist Frank Newport, who stated, “My recent review of the available data shows that about nine in 10 American Jews are more sympathetic to Israel than to the Palestinians. (That compares at that time to about six in 10 of all Americans.)
Alan Dershowitz recently wrote an oped that at 87 years old he is switching to becoming a Republican and voting Republican because of the rise of anti Israel animus in the Democratic party. It is obvious that the Jewish vote, except for the Progressives among them, is switching from the Democratic party to the Republican party, and we likely will see in the next Presidential election the first time the Republican candidate receives a majority of the Jewish vote. The Jewish community will remember who stood with Israel at its time of war and 85% of the Democratic Senators have failed to do so.