Get The Gavel

A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.

In the aftermath of the Platner debacle, Auchincloss sees two lessons for Democrats. “One is the hazards of group think. Politics is a tribal sport and it’s hard to be the odd man out. I think people sometimes bury their instincts or better judgment and that can lead you to mob mentality,” he told me in an interview. “The second lesson for us is that character should matter in politics.”

He’s right about that. But with Troy Jackson replacing Platner as the Democrat designated to take on Collins, the issue now roiling Democrats is more complicated than the meaning of a tattoo or the importance of character. It’s the relationship between Democrats and the state of Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and on that matter, Auchincloss has been much more cautious when it comes to making a break.

Earlier this month, Auchincloss was one of 103 Democrats who voted in favor of an amendment from Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky to end $3.3 billion in annual military aid to Israel. His vote surprised pro-Israel advocates, and not in a good way. “Rep from most Jewish district in New England defends vote to cut off Israel aid,” declared the Jerusalem News Syndicate. As a result of the vote, AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, also moved to withhold online donations from Auchincloss and 14 other House lawmakers who had previously earned its endorsement.

Auchincloss, who is Jewish and has been a long and strong supporter of Israel, has explained the vote as a protest of the war with Iran and not as an anti-Israel vote.

“I don’t view that vote as a vote distancing myself from the US-Israel alliance,” he told me. “I think the United States and Israel have a long history and common values. I view that vote as a rejection of the illegal failed war in Iran.” Foreign military financing is “a grant of trust” from Congress to President Trump and Netanyahu “and those two don’t deserve that trust right now after that disastrous war.”

Pro-Israel advocates, however, are casting the Auchincloss vote as a concession to left-wing Democrats, who are pushing the party to an anti-Israel stance over the war in Gaza that was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“This is the statement a Dem lawmaker releases when they’re trying to appease the rising anti-Israel forces within the party,” Josh Kraushaar, editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider, wrote in response to Auchincloss’s explanation for his vote.

Auchincloss told me that he understands why his vote “is being viewed through the lens of Democratic politics.”

“I represent 100,000 Jews who increasingly are distrustful of the Democratic Party,” he said. “The Democratic Party has earned some of that distrust, candidly, because with someone like Graham Platner, it would have been a bigger problem for him … to have had a Star of David tattoo than to have had an SS tattoo. I think the Jewish community is really wrestling with their home in the Democratic party and I’m deeply sympathetic to that.”

With Platner, Auchincloss called it like he saw it. He was willing to cut Platner loose and take the opprobrium and backlash that went with it. When it came to deeming Platner unfit as a candidate, his instincts also turned out to be correct.

With Israel, Auchincloss is searching for more of a middle ground. It took him a long time to get to even this much of an anti-Israel position, and he still doesn’t want to call it that.

With Platner, he took the heat from the progressive left.

Now, can he take the heat from the pro-Israel factions?

As Auchincloss said, people sometimes bury their instincts or better judgment. This is another test of his own.

Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi.