The Shape of Support

This insight breaks down how Israel/Palestine positions cluster across party lines, chambers, and states, revealing where support for Israel and for Palestinian rights is strongest, where it is contested, and how it has shifted across recent Congresses. Built from every tracked sponsorship, cosponsorship, and roll-call vote on Gaza, ceasefire, and military-aid legislation.

Published May 11, 2026 · Updated July 24, 2026

The data

Roll-call votes on Israel/Palestine bills by party

Top 15 pro-Israel scores

  1. Brad Sherman (D-California): 166 pro-Israel points
  2. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina): 165 pro-Israel points
  3. Randy K. Sr. Weber (R-Texas): 162 pro-Israel points
  4. Christopher H. Smith (R-New Jersey): 160 pro-Israel points
  5. Claudia Tenney (R-New York): 133 pro-Israel points
  6. Michael Lawler (R-New York): 132 pro-Israel points
  7. Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey): 128 pro-Israel points
  8. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine): 127 pro-Israel points
  9. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Florida): 124 pro-Israel points
  10. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida): 116 pro-Israel points
  11. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee): 115 pro-Israel points
  12. Brian K. Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania): 114 pro-Israel points
  13. Michael T. McCaul (R-Texas): 111 pro-Israel points
  14. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): 110 pro-Israel points
  15. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey): 108 pro-Israel points

Top 15 pro-Palestine scores

  1. Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont): 64 pro-Palestine points
  2. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan): 59 pro-Palestine points
  3. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Illinois): 49 pro-Palestine points
  4. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York): 42 pro-Palestine points
  5. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota): 41 pro-Palestine points
  6. Summer L. Lee (D-Pennsylvania): 39 pro-Palestine points
  7. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts): 37 pro-Palestine points
  8. Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-Illinois): 31 pro-Palestine points
  9. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon): 27 pro-Palestine points
  10. Peter Welch (D-Vermont): 25 pro-Palestine points
  11. André Carson (D-Indiana): 24 pro-Palestine points
  12. Greg Casar (D-Texas): 23 pro-Palestine points
  13. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington): 21 pro-Palestine points
  14. Jonathan L. Jackson (D-Illinois): 19 pro-Palestine points
  15. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky): 17 pro-Palestine points

Pro-Israel support is broad and gradual. Pro-Palestine support is a cliff.

The two lines run for very different lengths because the underlying populations are very different sizes. Hundreds of members of Congress have at least one pro-Israel action on record; only a few dozen have a net pro-Palestine record at all. The visual gap in line length is itself part of the finding.

Choose a numbered Congress above to compare that two-year period with the default current-member, career-record view. In a historical view, the chart includes only people with a directional tracked action in that Congress; it does not project today’s roster backward.

The instinct on a steep curve is to rally harder around the names at the top. The chart suggests the opposite move is more durable: pressure mid-tier members — the ones at ranks 8 through 30 on the pro-Palestine side — to commit further, so the curve flattens. A flatter curve means the side can withstand losing any individual member without losing the side.

The corresponding move on the pro-Israel side is the inverse: the flat curve hides which long-serving members have committed slowly, and those are the persuadable ones. That’s a separate analysis — see the

Each member earns points on each side from a weighted blend of three kinds of action on bills classified as related to Israel or Palestine.

The "net score" plotted here is each member’s absolute difference between the two sides’ point totals. A member with +50 on the pro-Israel side and +3 on the pro-Palestine side has a net of +47 (red side, rank near the top). A member with +12 on each side has a net of 0 and does not appear on either curve.

A 2007 vote weighs the same as a 2025 vote; the score is cumulative over a member’s career. For movement over time, see the per-member profile’s vote history.

A 1-year freshman with +13 looks identical to a 15-year veteran with +13 on this chart. The persuadability page corrects for that with the velocity metric.

A member who introduced a major aid bill and a member who voted Yes on a routine ceremonial resolution can land at the same score; the action mix matters and is visible only on the per-member profile.

The curve is votes and bills only. The PAC money trail is tracked separately on each member’s profile.

Congress-level comparisons begin with the 107th Congress (2001–2002). They use official House and Senate roll calls where an official roll call exists; voice votes and other actions without an official member-by-member roll call are not fabricated. This is a Congress-level comparison, not a daily historical timeline or a claim of comparable coverage before the 107th Congress.