Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump are once again on opposing sides about a central tenet of Republican orthodoxy: This time, on Israel and Gaza.
Earlier this week, Trump directly contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu refuted claims by multiple international groups saying that Gaza was at the point of starvation, calling it a “bold-faced lie.”
Trump responded during a joint press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer when he finally acknowledged that there is “real starvation” in Gaza.
Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right MAGA firebrand from Georgia, jumped in on it and called the war in Gaza a “genocide,” using language that historically only progressives used to describe the war.
And public opinion has largely shifted against Israel despite the brutal Oct. 7, 2023 terror incursion where Hamas squads murdered 1,200 innocent people and took 251 hostages in addition to carrying out acts of depravity on the populace.
With Joe Biden exiting the stage, Democrats are having their reckoning with the party’s historic support for Israel. But many Republicans feigned ignorance.
“I haven’t seen what the president said. So, was it today?” Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, one of the more MAGA House members who got a promotion last year, responded when asked about Trump’s comments by The Independent on Tuesday.
The Senate remains one of the last true bastions of Republican orthodoxy on foreign policy, which is to say, support for a strong military and America having a prominent role as the enforcer of the global order. Support for Israel remains a core tenet of this style of support, both because of Christian conservatives’ theology about the Holy Land and the critical strategic position of Israel in the Middle East.
Republicans historically viewed Israel’s placement in an area of the world rife with conflict as another asset for intelligence and security purposes. Trump represented a break from that, focusing more on “America First” ideology wherein he adopted more isolationist rhetoric, though he still robustly backs Israel and assisted with its war with Iran.
That might be why Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Independent to contact his office. Sen. Todd Young, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Marine Corps veteran, refused to answer questions.
Despite the fact that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) faces a MAGA primary challenge from Texas’ wayward and scandal-ridden Attorney General Ken Paxton, read from the hymnal of the Bush Republicans.
“I think there’s definitely a humanitarian crisis, but i think the blame is not Netanyahu, the blame is Hamas,” Cornyn told The Independent. When asked if that’s what Trump meant, Cornyn said “you’d have to ask him.”
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Despite the fact Trump relocated the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in his first term and continues to support Israel militarily, he clearly views the American relationship with Israel in a far more transactional light than his Senate counterparts. During one point of Israel’s war with Iran, Trump famously said “they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, told The Independent there is “clearly a humanitarian crisis there,” said people should remember that Hamas caused this.
Democrats for their part sought to exploit Trump’s remarks on Gaza. Unburdened from having to defend Joe Biden’s record on Gaza, numerous Democrats pointed to Trump’s record to raise the suffering in Gaza.
“What we can do is continue to call upon President Trump, who now has acknowledged that people are starving to death in Gaza, to call upon Prime Minister Netanyahu to let the UN a delivery system,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), told The Independent.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joined Van Hollen’s letter this weekend to cease funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and instead resume sending money to the United Nations for food distribution. But Sanders said Trump deserves no credit.
“Look at any newspaper in America today and you see pictures of starving children, this is not a brilliant observation,” he told The Independent.
Last week on the Senate floor, Sen. Amy Klobuchar delivered a speech excoriating Netanyahu. This came weeks after she met with Netanyahu during his visit to Congress.
But Klobuchar said her remarks were not an about-face.
“The reason I went was to raise the lack of humanitarian aid into Gaza and that they had to have more access points,” she told The Independent. “I think it’s getting worse and worse and I know they’ve let some aid in but it is not enough. This is a crisis, it’s a humanitarian crisis, and people are starving.”
Sen Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucus with the Democrats, went one step further. On Monday evening, he released a statement that he would not support any type of aid whatsoever to Israel as long as children starved. For an even-keeled moderate, it was a stunning remark.
“They’ve cut off water, off and on, and they’ve really and they’ve created a situation now where it’s so desperate that people are I are going after the aid in a desperate kind of way, and they’re, they’re using armed troops in that situation,” he told The Independent. “They have the power to fix it. If they fix it, I’m with them until they fix it. I’m out.”
But Senate Republicans will likely attack any Democrat who signed Van Hollen’s letter, specifically vulnerable Democratic senators, even as some of the Democrats are Jewish supporters of Israel. One in particular: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who faces a tough re-election next year.
