Ed Markey
D · U.S. Senate, Massachusetts · Tier 3/4
Tier 3/4, between “Pro-Israel, critical” and “Critical / conditions aid”
One of the most consistent Senate supporters of the Sanders arms-disapproval resolutions — he voted YES on all nine separate Sanders JRDs to block offensive-weapons sales to Israel — every one from the Nov 2024 round, when the three resolutions drew only 17 to 19 votes, through Apr 15, 2026, arguing that JDAMs and large bombs ‘go beyond what is needed for Israel’s current defense.’ At the same time he cosponsored Schatz’s two-state amendment as one of 49 senators, said in January 2024 that he will ‘always stand with the State of Israel… and support its right to exist’ (in the statement explaining his vote for Sanders’s Israel human-rights report request, which went on to say the Netanyahu government ‘cannot continue to conduct the war in Gaza the way it has until now’), is J Street-endorsed, and does not use the word genocide. On September 16, 2026 Markey wrote on X of a proposed sale of 40,000 bombs to Israel: “The United States must not send 40,000 taxpayer-funded bombs to Netanyahu for his war on Gaza and Lebanon and on Iran. We must block the sale of these weapons now.” Asked on WBZ NewsRadio’s NightSide with Dan Rea on Oct 15, 2026 whether Israel or Iran is the bigger threat to the United States, he answered: “Well, I think Israel under the control of Bibi Netanyahu is obviously a problem, and I don’t believe we should be sending any more military aid to Netanyahu,” before calling Iran a threat to the U.S. economy rather than a military one. In August 2026 Markey was one of six senators to sign Tlaib’s bicameral letter demanding the release of 20-year-old US citizen Sama Safi from Israeli military detention. Earlier he co-led, with Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley, the March 2025 letter seeking answers on the arrest and detention of Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk, and signed letters backing refugee-program priority for Gazans with U.S. citizen or permanent-resident relatives (June 2024), urging President Biden to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence (October 2024), seeking an independent U.S.-led investigation into the killing of American citizen Saifullah Musallet in the West Bank (July 2025), urging an end to U.S. funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (July 2025), pressing Secretary Rubio to account for potential Leahy Law violations by Israeli military units in Gaza (November 2025) and urging a stronger U.S. response to Israel’s moves to annex the West Bank, including the E-1 settlement (January 2026).
A 3/4 split resting on his early and sustained arms-blocking record. On his own statements alone he sits close to a 2 — he cosponsored the Schatz two-state amendment, said in January 2024 that he will ‘always stand with the State of Israel… and support its right to exist,’ frames his objection as offensive-only, and does not use the word genocide; his October 2026 radio line, “I don’t believe we should be sending any more military aid to Netanyahu,” reaches past that frame but ties the cutoff to Netanyahu rather than to all aid to Israel. What moves him onto the 4 side of the split is conduct, not vocabulary: he was an early mover on the Sanders arms-disapproval resolutions — the Nov 2024 round drew only 17 to 19 senators across its three resolutions — and voted to block offensive arms on all nine resolutions, across four rounds, through April 15, 2026 — among the most consistent records in the Senate, the chamber’s equivalent of cosponsoring Block the Bombs. The letters he has signed point the same way: he was one of 11 senators pressing for an accounting of potential Leahy Law violations by Israeli units in Gaza (November 2025) and one of 21 urging an end to U.S. funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (July 2025). He stays short of a clean 4: he voted for the 2024 supplemental that carried Israel’s military aid both times it came to a Senate vote (February and April 2024), and he keeps a heavy liberal-Zionist frame — so 3/4 rather than the 2 his rhetoric alone would suggest.
Open the full card, with votes, money and every source, on elect26 →
elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).