Bill Foster
D · U.S. House, IL-11 · Tier 2/3
Tier 2/3, between “Mainstream pro-Israel” and “Pro-Israel, critical”
Cosponsored Block the Bombs (H.R.3565) on July 14, 2026, saying “The United States simply cannot continue sending unconditional military aid to the Israeli government” and that, having first backed the Ceasefire Compliance Act (cosponsored March 2026), which would have withheld offensive weapons unless Israel changed course, “Netanyahu refused” and “unconditional restrictions on our arms transfers, like those included in the Block the Bombs Act, are now necessary”; the next day he voted No on the Massie amendment to strip Israel’s $3.3 billion in military financing. In December 2023 he called “The mounting and unnecessary civilian death toll and worsening humanitarian crisis” in Gaza “unacceptable” and backed Senate efforts to require that U.S. weapons be used in accordance with U.S. and international humanitarian law. He signed the April 2024 Gottheimer–Wilson letter urging Speaker Johnson to give the Senate’s aid package “an immediate vote” and then voted for it, citing “especially defensive weapons – to Israel as it defends itself from Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups” alongside humanitarian aid for Gaza, was an original cosponsor of the October 2023 “Standing with Israel” resolution, and voted against both ICC-sanctions bills and the Antisemitism Awareness Act and Present on H.Res.894. In October 2024 he signed the letter urging President Biden to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence. In August 2025 he signed the Pressley–Pettersen letter urging Secretary Rubio to demand “a massive surge of humanitarian aid” into Gaza, infant formula above all, and in September 2025, with most House Democrats, the letter opposing West Bank annexation. In September 2026 he signed the 72-member letter urging Netanyahu to contain settler violence and halt settlement approvals, and on October 9 he cosponsored the Stop the Settlements Act (H.R.10642), which would sanction those who build or expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and ban imports of settlement goods. In June 2026 Foster signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, led by Reps. Becca Balint and Joaquin Castro, on Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon, saying Israel’s “targeted, mass destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure does not constitute Israeli self-defense” and asking that, if U.S.-origin arms were confirmed in those operations, the administration “stop arms transfers being used in these operations until these violations cease”; the letter also affirmed that “Israel has a right to defend itself.”
A 2/3. Two conditioning cosponsorships — the Ceasefire Compliance Act (Mar 2026) and Block the Bombs (Jul 2026), with his own words that unconditional military aid cannot continue — and Gaza-civilian concern on the record since December 2023 take him out of mainstream support. But no vote has matched them: he voted for the April 2024 package, and voted No on the Massie amendment the day after signing on to Block the Bombs, one of five of its 82 cosponsors to do so; his Block the Bombs signature is among the last. The money is what holds him at 2/3 rather than 3: DMFI’s PAC spent $40,851 to elect him in 2024, 1.2% of what his campaign raised that cycle, and he has not disowned it. Counter-case: 3/4 on the two conditioning bills plus his early backing (Dec 2023) for legal conditions on U.S. weapons, if that spending is read as too small to weigh.
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).