Jamie Raskin
D · U.S. House, MD-8 · Tier 3/4
Tier 3/4, between “Pro-Israel, critical” and “Critical / conditions aid”
A prominent progressive Jewish lawmaker with a substantial record of conditioning arms: a Block the Bombs cosponsor who voted against the April 2024 Israel aid supplemental, was among the first Jewish Democrats to call for a ceasefire (Nov 2023), signed letters accusing Israel of violating US arms-sales law, led letters urging the State Department to affirm U.S. opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza (January 2024, with Ayanna Pressley) and demanding answers on the detention of student activist Mahmoud Khalil (March 2025, with Pramila Jayapal and Mary Gay Scanlon), was an original cosponsor of the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act (H.R.2411), and reversed on the Antisemitism Awareness Act — he voted for the 2024 House bill, then urged the Senate to reject it in April 2025. But he stays within a liberal-Zionist frame — he does not call the war genocide, is not on the genocide resolution, affirms Israel’s right to defend itself, and centers a two-state solution. In his own words in June 2024: “I have not called for a cutoff of all military aid to Israel.” In July 2026 he voted for the Massie amendment stripping Israel’s military financing “to register my profound objection to providing billions of dollars of more weaponry and support to the Netanyahu government,” noting that it spared Iron Dome and David’s Sling, a cut to which “would be disqualifying in my mind.” He also signed letters backing refugee priority status for Gazans with U.S. citizen or permanent-resident relatives (June 2024), urging sanctions on Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence (October 2024) and urging Secretary Rubio to demand a surge of infant formula into Gaza (August 2025). In September 2026 Raskin signed the Dexter–Ruiz letter seeking the release of Gaza pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from Israeli detention without charge (Sep 8) and a 72-member letter urging Netanyahu to contain settler violence in the West Bank and “halt further settlement approvals” (Sep 24). After settlers beat the Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, he wrote on Oct 16, 2026 that the attack was “unconscionable and a moment of reckoning for the world,” asking: “Are we going to tolerate accelerating vigilante violence against Palestinian civilians and foreign observers by right-wing vigilantes who operate with government protection?” (as quoted by the Washington Post); on Oct 21, after Brad Lander’s detention, he wrote that “the IDF targets volunteers for helping Palestinians harvest olives” (as quoted by the Times of Israel). On Oct 21, 2026, after the army detained some three dozen Americans at the olive harvest, he wrote that “vigilante settlers continue to terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank with scant consequences.”
A 3/4. His foot in 4 is a real record of limiting weapons: he cosponsored Block the Bombs (August 2025) and the Ceasefire Compliance Act (May 2026), and voted Nay on the April 2024 aid package and Aye on the July 2026 Massie amendment to strip Israel’s military financing, on top of an early ceasefire call (November 2023) and letters accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms-sales law. In April 2025 he also urged the Senate to reject the Antisemitism Awareness Act he had voted for in 2024. What keeps a foot in 3 is his Yea on the April 2024 resolution condemning “from the river to the sea,” and the liberal-Zionist frame he keeps: in his own words in June 2024, “I have not called for a cutoff of all military aid to Israel” (Block the Bombs is offensive-only); he does not use “genocide” and is not on the genocide resolution; and he affirms Israel’s right to defend itself within international law and a two-state outcome, the frame of the September 2025 letter he led with Brad Schneider, in which 178 House Democrats, as “long-standing supporters of the U.S.–Israel relationship,” opposed West Bank annexation.
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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).