military aid to Israel

Clear Majority of US Voters, Including 3 in 4 Democrats, Want to End Weapons Support to Israel: Poll

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Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Activists gather during a memorial vigil and emergency rally at Columbus Circle near Union Station in Washington, DC, on August 27, 2025, to protest a recent Israeli airstrike in Gaza that reportedly killed journalists and health workers. (Photo by Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images via AFP)

“Democratic politicians who continue to support sending weapons to Israel are acting in direct defiance of their own constituents’ wishes,” said one progressive commentator.

As its genocidal actions in Gaza become more brazen by the day, support for Israel among Americans has reached a record low.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, 60% of voters across all parties now say they oppose the United States sending more military aid to Israel, while just 32% say they support it. The pollster said it was the greatest amount of opposition it has recorded for the US-Israel alliance since it first asked the question in November 2023.

Opposition is even stronger among Democratic voters: 75% of them now oppose sending military aid to Israel, compared with just 18% who still support it.

Also for the first time ever in a Quinnipiac poll, more voters, 37%, said they sympathized with the Palestinians—an all-time high—compared with just 36% who said they sympathized with the Israelis—an all-time low.

In recent months, Israeli politicians have begun moving forward with a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and permanently empty it of its inhabitants, which international humanitarian organizations have described as an “ethnic cleansing.”

On Wednesday, every member of the United Nations Security Council, with the exception of the United States, joined in a statement backing the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s declaration that Israel was creating a “man-made” famine in Gaza.

Meanwhile, even Israel’s leaders have found it impossible to defend its “double-tap” strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday, in which the Israel Defense Forces launched a strike on the medical facility before launching another attack shortly afterward on the journalists and medical personnel who came to respond to the destruction.

That attack killed at least 20 people, adding to the potentially well over 100,000 Palestinians who experts estimate have been killed over the course of the nearly two-year military onslaught.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, 50% of Americans now agree with the international community’s assessment that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza. This includes 77% of Democrats and 51% of independents.

When Democrats were polled last month by Gallup, just 8% of them said they supported Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip, a dramatic decline from October 2023, when 36% expressed support.

In recent weeks, as the images of death and starvation coming out of Gaza have grown increasingly heinous and ubiquitous, some Democratic politicians have begun to take a harsher stance against Israel.

Last month, a majority of Democrats in the Senate, for the first time, voted in favor of resolutions introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to suspend US assault weapons and 1,000-pound bombs to Israel.

Twenty-seven Democrats voted for the resolution halting assault rifles, and 24 voted for the resolution to stop the sale of bombs. Notably, the top Senate Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), voted against both resolutions.

Despite overwhelming support from their voters, the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday voted down a resolution calling for the US to suspend military aid to Israel.

“Democratic politicians who continue to support sending weapons to Israel are acting in direct defiance of their own constituents’ wishes,” said Nathan J. Robinson, the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Magazine, in response to news of the latest polling numbers.

Previous polls have indicated that opposition to former President Joe Biden’s arming of Israel was a primary reason why Democratic voters chose to abandon the Democratic Party in 2024, potentially costing then-Vice President Kamala Harris the election.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said the poll showed that “Democrats continuing to ignore their base on the Palestine issue is insane,” adding that if they continue down this path, “they will continue to lose.”

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Continue ReadingClear Majority of US Voters, Including 3 in 4 Democrats, Want to End Weapons Support to Israel: Poll

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: the US could restrain Israel, but has chosen not to

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

According to a report released by Brown University’s Costs of War project, from October 7, 2023 to September 30, 2024, the US sent 17.9 billion dollars in military aid to Israel, which accounts for the largest amount of military funding ever granted to Israel in a single year. Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, as well as its 76-year project of colonization of Palestine would not be possible without the vital military, financial, diplomatic, and political support of the United States.

The US presidential elections, which will see Democrat Kamala Harris face off against far-right Republican Donald Trump, are set to be held on Tuesday, November 5. The elections are being held over a year into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, and the result of the elections may cast a shadow on the current situation in particular, and the Palestinian cause in general.

To discuss more about the impact of US policy, and the possible repercussions of the US presidential elections on the Palestinian cause, Peoples Dispatch interviewed prominent Palestinian politician, physician, and activist Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi is the Secretary General and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative, and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

Peoples Dispatch: What has the last year of Israeli genocide revealed about US policy towards the region?

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: It has revealed that the United States can restrain Israel if it wants, but it did not, which makes the United States complicit in the genocide being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people. A clear example that proves that the US has an influence on Israel, is its ability to restrain the Israeli aggression on Iran.

Peoples Dispatch:  Were people expecting more from Democrat Joe Biden?

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: The Palestinian people were completely disappointed by Biden and his administration, including his State Secretary, Defense Secretary and National Security Advisor, who all came to take part in Israel’s war cabinet meetings, and gave their blessing to Israel during its genocidal aggression on Gaza. They further sent American fleet, ships, aircrafts to support Israel. Biden has provided Israel with no less than 17.9 billion dollars of military equipment, and more than 50,000 tons of explosives and weapons. All of that was used in committing the genocide against the Palestinian people.

Peoples Dispatch: Are any major changes expected if either Kamala or Trump gets elected? Does the outcome of these elections impact the Palestinian struggle?

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi:  Trump’s election may make the situation even worse, while it is still unclear about Kamala Harris, who maybe will be more sensitive regarding the changes that are happening inside the Democratic Party, where the majority of the younger generation are against the policy of Biden in relation to what has been happening in Gaza and to Palestinians in general.

However, so far she could not make any definite decision or take any definite position to stop the genocide against the Palestinian people. Like Biden, Harris continued with the biased approach towards Israel. This needs to be completely changed, because when it comes to the reputation of the United States it has been negatively affected by the policy of this administration, not only in Palestine but also worldwide. We shouldn’t forget that Kamala Harris was the US vice president during the genocide, she was not outside the administration. Perhaps, she will adopt a different approach in comparison to Biden, but that needs to be proved in reality and in action.

Peoples Dispatch: With regards to the broader region, one of Trump’s pet projects while president was advancing normalization with Israel. What is your view of how Israel’s genocide has impacted the process of normalization? Have there really been major setbacks? Will these setbacks be recovered or is it irreversible?

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi: The war crimes in Gaza did not affect the existing normalization agreements between three Arab countries and Israel. Unfortunately, it has not changed at all, but the war crimes in Gaza and the genocide have restrained other countries from proceeding in normalization with Israel. Even the countries that maintained normalization agreements with Israel, are very embarrassed about the current situation, because their peoples are against normalization. It is not apparent yet whether the genocide will have further impact on normalization. The largest popular protest against normalization is happening in Morocco, and it is the most important country among the three countries that normalized with Israel”, the prominent Palestinian politician said, referring to Morocco, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, which signed the US-backed normalization agreements with Israel known as “the Abraham Accords” in 2020.

Keep reading Peoples Dispatch for analysis and news on the US elections from a perspective you won’t see on mainstream media.

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingDr. Mustafa Barghouthi: the US could restrain Israel, but has chosen not to