Earlier this month, US politicians Rahm Emanuel and Rep. Ro Khanna made highly publicized trips to Israel.

Both are potential candidates for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination and the visits were seen as early forays in a possible race.

Emanuel, from the more pro-Israel wing of the party, warned that the Israel-US relationship was “at a crossroads.” At the same time, the far-left Khanna said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a “moral test” for the party.

The same week, nearly half of Congressional Democrats voted to cut aid to Israel in a vote seen as a watershed moment. Rhetoric about Israel, AIPAC and Gaza have also been central to Congressional and Senate races in New York, Maine, Colorado and Michigan.

Israel seems to be everywhere in US politics, but when Americans are asked open-ended questions about their voting priorities, Israel does not make the list.

Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories

By signing up, you agree to the terms

So why do US politics seem so focused on Israel, when the median American voter doesn’t view Israel as a priority?

For more on this topic:

Domestic issues, Ukraine more important to voters

Polls have repeatedly shown that Americans, especially young people and Democrats, are becoming more hostile to Israel. Some research has also found that, when asked, respondents say the war in Gaza affected their vote.

Pollsters find those results when they specifically ask about Israel, though. When US voters are asked open-ended questions about their electoral priorities, or given a wide range of options, Israel does not make the list.


Anti-Zionist protesters in New York City, October 7, 2024. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

Those surveys have repeatedly found that domestic issues far outweigh Israel and other foreign policy concerns for voters. Polls on foreign policy generally found that the war in Ukraine was more important to voters than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although Ukraine is far less prevalent in domestic politics.

In April 2024, during the war in Gaza, a Pew poll on Americans’ top foreign policy priorities found that “finding a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians” was in 14th place out of 22 options.

Also in 2024, a Gallup poll asked registered voters an open-ended question about the most important factor determining their vote. The top issues were the economy, immigration, abortion, the preservation of democracy and disliking a particular candidate. No foreign policy positions made the list.

A Marquette Law School poll this year found that 16 percent cited the war in Iran as their most important issue, but the survey took place during the conflict, and the war involved the US directly. Months earlier, before the war, the same pollsters found that the war in Ukraine was the top priority for 1% of respondents, the only foreign issue on the list.

An AP-NORC poll from late last year asked respondents, “Which problems would you like the government to be working on in the year 2026?” Only 2% mentioned Israel/Palestine, while 4% said Ukraine.


Anti-Israel protesters in Times Square, New York City, June 16, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

For voters who supported New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an anti-Zionist who has made Israel central to his politics, 62% said his “support for Palestinian rights” swayed their vote. Again, though, the survey asked respondents specifically about the issue.

There do not appear to be any national surveys showing that American voters are focusing on Israel in the ballot box.

Israel not a priority for Jewish voters, either

Even when candidates make Israel a top issue, voters say they’re not that interested.

Maine’s former Senate candidate Graham Platner mentioned Israel and AIPAC in 88% of his fundraising emails, more than any other Congressional candidate in the US. In that race, though, only 3% of voters said foreign policy was their top issue.

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has made attacks on AIPAC and criticism of Israel central to his campaign, but only 0.4% of voters said foreign policy was their most important issue.


A pro-Israel protester outside Columbia University in Manhattan, April 22, 2024. (Luke Tress)

The pattern also holds for Jewish voters.

During New York City’s mayoral race, Jews said domestic issues like abortion, the economy and immigration were more important than Israel or antisemitism.

A national survey this year asking Jews to identify their two top electoral issues found that only 17% named Israel, while 83% said a candidate’s position on Israel was “not a dealbreaker.”

When asked by pollsters, the vast majority of Jews say that Israel is important to them, but there is no evidence it’s a top priority while voting.

Some Jewish lawmakers have expressed frustration with the outsized focus on Israel.

Micah Lasher, a Jewish Democrat who won a primary in New York City last month, said at a candidate forum ahead of the election, “I am not obsessed with Israel, and I worry, sometimes, that our political dialogue and the political dialogue in this race is obsessed with Israel.”

Taken as a whole, the research indicates non-Jewish Americans are increasingly hostile to Israel, but aren’t actually focused on Israel or foreign policy while voting.

So what’s going on here?

The power of primaries

There are some exceptions to data showing a lack of focus on Israel. A 2025 survey found that, for the 2024 presidential election, the war in Gaza was the priority for 35% of Muslims, behind only the economy and jobs.

Israel is an animating factor for the far left, and anti-Israel discourse has been most prominent in Democratic Party primaries featuring far-left candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).


Democratic congressional candidates, Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, and Darializa Avila Chevalier gesture on stage with Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a Get Out The Vote rally ahead of New York’s primary election in New York City, June 18, 2026. (AP/Ryan Murphy)

Data show that hostility to Israel is most prevalent among young progressives. After far-left candidates won primaries in New York last month, their supporters chanted, “Free Palestine,” and, “Fuck AIPAC.”

“In deeply blue districts in Democratic primaries, DSA candidates have used the issue of Israel to divide voters. They have tried to capitalize on it to win over the left,” said Halie Soifer, the head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

Three far-left candidates defeated their more moderate opponents in New York City Democratic Party primaries last month. The leftists were not much different from their progressive opponents on domestic issues, but were more anti-Israel.

They used Israel as a wedge issue on the campaign trail, hammering their opponents over ties to the Jewish state, even though all three of the more moderate candidates were firm critics of the Israeli government.

US Rep. Dan Goldman, who lost his primary, said after the race that Israel was “a focus of my opponent. It was a focus of the media. It was not as much of a focus of certainly the families who are struggling day to day.”


Rep. Dan Goldman listens during a news conference at the US Capitol, July 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP/Mariam Zuhaib)

Soifer said the strategy “doesn’t work in every district” and that Israel was not a central topic in many races, arguing that the DSA was using the primaries to turn reliably blue districts into a deeper shade of blue.

Most voters are focused on other issues, and the DSA’s anti-Israel focus would not flip competitive districts from Republicans to Democrats, she said, adding that Democratic candidates in mixed areas, like Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Josh Turek in Iowa, have not prioritized Israel.

Primaries typically have a low turnout, so galvanizing a small, committed base with anti-Israel rhetoric can make a difference. Only about 7% of active Democrats in New York’s 13th District voted for the far-left primary winner Darializa Avila Chevalier, for example.

A matter of identity

Shibley Telmani, a political scientist at the University of Maryland who has surveyed American and Arab attitudes toward Israel for decades, said the Israeli-Palestinian issue has become more than a foreign policy concern, but has “become in some ways a domestic American issue,” either consciously or subconsciously, that is difficult to capture in polls.

For example, many voters identify the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Republicans, and Israel is seen as dragging the US into war with Iran, said Telhami, who was born in Israel to an Arab family.


An anti-Zionist protester in New York City, May 5, 2026. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

“Israel has come to be kind of a symbolic identity issue in a way that wouldn’t show up in polls when you’re asking people what their priorities are,” he said. “When they say, ‘the economy,’ Israel is built into it. When they say, ‘I don’t want to be dragged into another war,’ Israel is built into it. It’s built into this basket of issues that are a priority to Americans.”

That could explain why Americans don’t voluntarily prioritize Israel, but say that Israel is important when asked.

Democrats who prioritize Israel see that voters have made that connection and capitalize on it, making anti-Israel sentiment part of a “new Democratic identity,” Shibley said.

“There is a paradigm shift in America where among a large segment of people, Israel is seen as a villain, tied to some of the ailments in areas that have less to do with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, but to their condition in America,” he said.