A Senate vote this week to block certain arms sales to Israel may have been largely symbolic, but for many Democrats and foreign policy observers, it underscored something more consequential: a shift inside the Democratic Party that is beginning to test the long-standing bipartisan consensus on the Jewish state.
More than three dozen Senate Democrats backed the effort, a notable increase from similar votes in past years and a sign that unease with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the wars in Gaza and Iran is no longer confined to the party’s left flank.
The vote involved two resolutions introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to block specific U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, including bombs and military bulldozers used in the Gaza war. Thirty-six Democrats voted to block bomb transfers, while 40 supported halting the sale of military bulldozers to Israel, with only a handful opposing the measures.
That level of
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