DNC avoids taking a stance on Israel, AIPAC

Democrats are, once again, punting on what to do about Israel.

DNC members rejected a symbolic resolution to limit the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and dark-money corporate groups in Democratic primaries — an unsurprising result that is nevertheless a blow to those within the party that have been infuriated by the pro-Israel group’s recent interventions.

They also punted on a pair of sweeping resolutions concerning conflicts in the Middle East that pushed the party to support conditioning military aid to Israel. The measures were referred to the party’s nascent Middle East Working Group, which is meeting for the fourth time this week and has been slow to coalesce around an agenda.

While the resolutions were not expected to pass, the outcomes reflect a party establishment still grappling with how to respond to the increasingly thorny politics around Israel and AIPAC — and their base’s sharp turn away from the longtime U.S. ally.

The AIPAC resolution called for the DNC to condemn “the growing influence of dark money” in Democratic elections, including from the pro-Israel group that has pumped tens of millions of dollars into recent primaries in Illinois and New Jersey.

Several members of the DNC’s resolutions committee said they voted it down because they had passed a resolution earlier in their meeting broadly condemning the influence of dark money in the midterms without calling out individual groups. Committee members similarly struck language from the catchall dark-money resolution that had singled out the glut of spending from AI- and cryptocurrency-aligned PACs.

DNC Chair Ken Martin amplified that messageon X: “We had various resolutions that focused on different industries and groups, and instead of going one-by-one, we passed a blanket repudiation,” he said. “I have made my position on this clear from day one: We must end the influence of dark money in our politics and restore power back to the people.”

Pro-Israel groups applauded the DNC for quashing the nonbinding resolution.

“The DNC made clear today that all Democrats, including millions who are AIPAC members, have the right to participate fully in the democratic process. And we plan to do just that,” AIPAC spokesperson Deryn Sousa said in a statement.

Halie Soifer, a former Kamala Harris adviser and CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, suggested that the votes show the party hasn’t shifted on Israel as much as it seems.

“There are misconceptions because there is a vocal, far-left faction of our party, but they are in no way leading here,” Soifer said. “The DNC as a whole has not shifted from where it has been … which is an organization that is inclusive of Jewish Americans and is supportive of the U.S.-Israel security relationship, as well as Israel’s future as a Jewish and Democratic state.”

But Florida Democrat Allison Minnerly, who introduced the AIPAC resolution, argued there’s “merit to calling out different PACs with intention” given their individual efforts to influence the party’s elections. She said in an interview after the vote that she was unsurprised but disappointed by the result.

DNC leadership “really does not want to continue having this conversation … but our voters, our base, does,” she said. “These are hard questions on a local and national level, but the DNC ultimately has to not just kick things down the road but address things head on because people are tired of waiting.”

A Pew Research survey released this week showed 80 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents hold unfavorable views of Israel, up from 69 percent last year and 53 percent in 2022. A NBC News poll conducted in late February and early March, meanwhile, found that 57 percent of Democrats view Israel negatively, a dramatic change from when just 35 percent held a negative view of the country after Hamas attacked it on Oct. 7, 2023.

The DNC has struggled for years with how to address the shift within its base — a challenge that has returned to the fore with Israel’s involvement in the unpopular U.S. operation in Iran. That’s being compounded by tensions over AIPAC after the historically bipartisan group intervened in a series of hotly contested primaries.

In a sign of how sensitive — and politically treacherous — both issues are for the party, one DNC member told POLITICO they had received calls about the resolutions from two potential 2028 presidential contenders.

Martin established a working group last summer to guide the party’s Middle East policy. It has yet to begin its work in earnest and has been plagued with internal dysfunction, with some members lamenting that the panel lacks heft within the broader party machine.

Some on the eight-member working group hoped by bringing the resolutions to a larger committee they could force discussion on issues around Israel. But the resolutions committee members sent the measures back to the working group — even as they raised concerns about its pace and progress.

Progressive activists and pro-Palestinian groups bristled at the DNC refusing to directly call out AIPAC and deferring action on measures that included recognizing the “State of Palestine” and pausing or conditioning military aid to Israel.

“Today’s vote once again showed that Democratic leadership is asleep at the wheel when it comes to one of the biggest existential threats to the party,” said Margaret DeReus, the head of the IMEU Policy Project, a pro-Palestinian group that had lobbied members to approve the resolutions. “Party leadership needs to wake up.”

​Politics