The key facts
- Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections.
- On election day, Trump announced plans to end military aid to Israel by the end of 2026, without details.
- Vance named the war with Iran as the cause of the defeat; Trump called this assessment 'mostly correct.'
The Republicans' defeat and its causes
The Democratic Party won one of the largest midterm election victories in the United States in decades, taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate from the Republicans. Vice President JD Vance blamed the administration's 'catastrophic defeat' on the war with Iran, which had been unpopular around the world from the very start. 'The reason we lost is the war. The President said so himself last night,' Vance declared, and Donald Trump called his vice president's assessment 'mostly correct.' According to Vance, pollsters identified four key policies for winning back defected voters: ending the war, focusing on the cost of living and inflation, America First, and changing relations with Israel. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., reposted these words with the caption: 'Every word of this is one hundred percent right.' This is reported by The National.
Announcement of ending military aid to Israel
On election day, Trump unexpectedly announced that he would end military aid to Israel by the end of 2026, without providing details of the plan. For Israel, this is a sensitive threat: for decades the country has relied on American military aid and diplomatic cover at the UN, where the United States holds a veto in the Security Council, and about 200,000 American citizens live in Israel itself. Alongside Trump's defeat, Democratic candidates won who are unusually skeptical toward Israel. According to a Pew Research Centre poll this year, 52% of Americans view Israelis favorably, down from 64% in 2019.
Reaction from Israeli politics
The Israeli opposition began talking about a change of course. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, who after last week's inconclusive elections may get his first chance to form a government, said in an address to Americans that he is working to create a 'national emergency government' — a phrase used by several opposition leaders who see a critical threat to Israel's diplomatic standing. Yair Golan, leader of the center-left Democrats party, said the midterm elections 'show how toxic Netanyahu is for both Democrats and Republicans,' and that the continuation of Netanyahu's rule and of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir 'could lead Israel to international sanctions, international isolation, and a collision with the United States.'
A debate over strategy: 'Israel does not pick sides in America'
Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid called on his compatriots to offer 'leadership and a working plan instead of panic.' He acknowledged the growth of the anti-Israel wing in the House of Representatives, but stressed: 'even after the elections, we are talking about 25 members of Congress out of 435.' In his words, Israel should return to the rule that worked for 70 years and was broken in 2015, when Netanyahu spoke in Congress against Barack Obama: 'Israel does not pick sides in America. We work with everyone.' This conciliatory tone immediately provoked a sharp reaction on social media: Democratic congressman-elect Brad Lander replied that American voters — Jews and non-Jews alike — 'are hungry to see respect for international law and human rights,' not ' whirlwind tours' by Israeli politicians.
