The Democrats’ takeover of Congress could trigger the biggest reassessment of United States support for Israel in decades, after an election shaped in part by anger over the war with Iran.
Democrats won control of both the Senate and the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Many of the winning candidates were progressives who had campaigned against military aid to Israel and against the American-Israeli war on Iran, which began in February.
That support had already been strained. Israel’s campaign in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close embrace of President Donald Trump and other Republicans had weakened the bipartisan consensus that sustained American backing for Israel for decades.
Democratic control is expected to bring greater scrutiny of military aid and of violence in the West Bank, along with public hearings and challenges to Trump nominees. The party’s power to force policy change remains limited, however, because the president has promised to use his veto, and Democrats are unlikely to command the two-thirds majorities needed to override him.
One of the election’s notable winners was Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, despite Republican efforts to appeal to Jewish voters uneasy about his faith and his criticism of Israel.
There were also signs of rethinking among Republicans. Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that the election rout had been blamed on the Iran war, and cited a pollster’s list of four steps that could win back disgruntled Trump voters: ending the war, focusing on the cost of living, putting America first, and changing the relationship with Israel.
Trump said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday that he had made a deal with Netanyahu under which Washington would end annual security assistance to Israel. It was not immediately clear, however, that he had the legal authority to stop the billions of dollars in military assistance sent to Israel each year.
Policy towards Israel has become a generational divide in American politics. Polls show younger voters, including some Republicans, believe the country has been too supportive of Israel and insufficiently supportive of residents of the Palestinian territories.
Congressional sentiment had already been shifting. In September, 46 of the 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted for a resolution requiring the Trump administration to report to Congress on rising violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Republicans blocked the measure, but the near-unanimous Democratic vote marked a sharp break from decades of reliable bipartisan backing.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who has led efforts to attach human rights conditions to aid for Israel, has argued that American laws and policies should be applied uniformly, with no exception for Israel. Democrats are likely to return to the issue of West Bank violence.
With majorities in both chambers, Democrats can summon administration officials to public hearings, hold up nominees and press detailed questions about assistance deals. Analysts quoted by Reuters said that ability to make noise, rather than to pass laws over a veto, may be Congress’s main lever for now.
The Iran war was a top election issue, with many Americans blaming the conflict for higher prices, especially for petrol. Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which advocates a strong US-Israel alliance, noted that nothing will change in Washington until the new Congress takes its seats in January, by which time Israel may also have a new government. Netanyahu lost his governing majority in an Israeli election on 27 October, though opponents were denied a clear path to replace him, and negotiations to form a new government are expected to be protracted.
A new Israeli government, particularly one less closely tied to Republicans, could engage more cooperatively with Democrats, Schanzer said, changing the tone of dealings between the two countries.
Sources: Reuters, “Democratic Congress could test decades of US support for Israel”, 4 November 2026 — https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democratic-congress-could-test-decades-us-support-israel-2026-11-04/
