In DC, Lapid tells Democrats who voted to block arms sales not to ‘give up’ on Israel

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, during a trip to Washington this week, met with Democratic senators who recently voted to restrict arms sales to Israel in an effort to change their minds on the issue.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the centrist former prime minister said he told the group of Democrats “not to give up on Israel and to show solidarity in the face of its challenges,” and stressed the importance of continued cooperation between Israel and the Democratic Party.

Lapid traveled to the US capital at the same time as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ostensibly to attend the memorial service of late Republican pro-Israel senator Lindsey Graham.

But he appeared to use his trip to lobby on his country’s behalf to a Democratic Party that has largely soured on Israel. The trip also gave Lapid an opportunity to showcase his diplomatic chops ahead of Israel’s election, in which he is part of the bloc running to unseat Netanyahu.

The meeting came some months after an April vote in which 40 out of 47 Senate Democrats voted to prevent the sale of military equipment to Israel. Another measure to block the sale of bombs garnered 36 Democratic votes. While the Senate as a whole voted against both measures, the votes reflected a substantive decline in the party’s support for Israel.

According to Lapid’s office, the meeting was organized by Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, a pro-Israel stalwart, who was one of the seven Democratic senators to oppose both measures.

They were joined in the meeting by senators Tim Kaine (Virginia), Michael Bennet (Colorado), Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire), Cory Booker (New Jersey), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Alex Padilla (California), John Hickenlooper (Colorado), and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada).

Lapid also ran into Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive critic of Israel, his office told The Times of Israel.

“Boycotting those who speak out against you is not the way,” Lapid said Wednesday in a post on X.

“In the face of opposition in the Senate, you need to work hard, meticulously, to repair relations with both parties. It’s not always fun, but that’s how you fix things. Not with whining and not with boycotts,” he said.

Successive polls have shown that Democratic backing for Israel has plummeted following the wars in Gaza, Iran, and on other fronts, after decades of robust support for the country. Most Democrats now support ending US military aid to Israel, and a number of anti-Israel candidates have recently won Democratic primaries.

In the April votes, 40 out of 47 Senate Democrats voted in favor of a failed resolution to block a $295 million sale of bulldozers, and 36 Democrats backed another unsuccessful resolution aimed at blocking a $152 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs to the IDF.

The two resolutions were authored by independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who has pushed several similar unsuccessful efforts to block arms sales to Israel. The number of Democratic senators that support such efforts has more than doubled in less than two years, amid Israel’s multifront war.

In 2024, 19 Democrats voted for at least one of the resolutions to block arms that was on the table at the time. Last year, 24 senators endorsed such a move.