Ed Markey

Deep Dive

Markey is Massachusetts's senior senator, seeking re-election. He has drawn the same line in every statement on this record: block the offensive weapons, keep paying for the defensive ones.

He explained it most fully in November 2024, in a statement issued the day of the first set of those votes. He wrote that the strategy of giving the Israeli government "a blank check for offensive weapons cannot continue", that he continues to support "providing Israel with defensive weapons, the types of weapons such as the Iron Dome that allow it to defend itself", and that he had voted to oppose the transfer of "mortars, tank rounds, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs)" so that the Israeli government would understand that its prosecution of the war could not continue.

He gave the same reason each time it came round again. In July 2025 he said the munitions and thousand-pound bombs at issue "go beyond what is needed for Israel’s current defense and would only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe devastating Gaza", and that they did not bring closer the cease-fire needed to get humanitarian aid in and the hostages out. By April 2026 his floor remarks tied the sales to the war with Iran: a vote to approve them, he said, would read as approval for that war, and "I will not send that message."

The one large package he supported is the April 2024 national security supplemental, and he set out conditions on it the next day: all security assistance to the government of Israel, he wrote, must adhere to "international human rights law, U.S. law, and the law of armed conflict", and Congress should see that every condition on U.S. aid is "monitored, implemented, and enforced" so that humanitarian aid could reach civilians. Massachusetts Peace Action endorsed him in May 2026, citing those weapons votes directly. His line is not new: in 2021 he wrote that "Israel wields a disproportionate military power, and it has a responsibility to take steps to de-escalate this crisis".

The record

Supported sending weapons or funding in 1 of 10 tracked votes

• Voted Yea on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 815, the April 2024 national-security supplemental that increased U.S. weapons and aid (118th Congress, 2nd session, roll call 154, April 23, 2024; agreed to 79-18). He described it the next day as including $9 billion in humanitarian aid and called for the conditions on Israel aid to be 'monitored, implemented, and enforced.' This is the one supporting (pro-sending) vote in his tracked record.

• Voted Yea on all three joint resolutions of disapproval of proposed arms transfers to Israel on November 20, 2024: S.J.Res. 111 (rejected 18-79), S.J.Res. 113 (19-78) and S.J.Res. 115 (17-80), and issued a same-day statement saying the 'blank check for offensive weapons cannot continue' while reaffirming his support for defensive systems such as Iron Dome.

• Voted Yea on the motions to discharge S.J.Res. 33 and S.J.Res. 26 on April 3, 2025 (rejected 15-82 and 15-83), objecting in a same-day statement that the JDAMs and large-scale bomb at issue 'go beyond what is needed for Israel's current defense and could be used to further decimate Gaza.'

• Voted Yea on the motions to discharge S.J.Res. 41 and S.J.Res. 34 on July 30, 2025 (rejected 27-70 and 24-73), saying in a same-day statement that 'We cannot stand idly by. The United States must not be complicit.' and that the 1,000-pound bombs at issue 'would only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe devastating Gaza.'

• Voted Yea on the motions to discharge S.J.Res. 32 and S.J.Res. 138 on April 15, 2026 (rejected 40-59 and 36-63) and delivered floor remarks calling for the sales to be stopped outright: 'We must stop these arms sales and end this war now.'

• Received $0 for the 2026 cycle from each of the five tracked pro-Israel committees (AIPAC PAC, United Democracy Project, ZOA PAC, DMFI PAC, RJC PAC), per the project's FEC-derived data as of July 13, 2026.

The money

Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found

In their words

Massachusetts Peace Action · Peace Action (2026 endorsement)

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel

• [Position, 2024-04-24] Statement the day after he voted for the national security supplemental, read and verified verbatim: he wrote that all security assistance to Israel must be ensured to be assistance that "adheres to international human rights law, U.S. law, and the law of armed conflict", and he called on Congress and the government "to ensure that all conditions for U.S. aid are monitored, implemented, and enforced in order to protect innocent civilian lives, facilitate the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, and preserve American principles and values." The full quotation on the page opens with a clause about the reaction window and is therefore not used on the card in that form.
• [Position, 2024-11-20] Statement issued the day of the first three disapproval votes, read and verified verbatim: "the U.S. strategy of giving the Netanyahu government a blank check for offensive weapons cannot continue"; "In April, I voted for a $14 billion defense aid package for Israel, assistance that it needs in the face of enemies committed to its destruction. And I continue to support providing Israel with defensive weapons, the types of weapons such as the Iron Dome that allow it to defend itself from attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and others. But today I voted to oppose the transfer of certain deadly offensive weapons -- mortars, tank rounds, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) -- so that the Netanyahu government will understand that its reckless and indiscriminate prosecution of the war cannot continue."
• [Position, 2025-04-03] Statement on the second pair: the munitions and the large bomb at issue "go beyond what is needed for Israel’s current defense and could be used to further decimate Gaza." DATA NOTE: the body dateline on this page misprints the year as April 3, 2024. The page header, its own address and its page metadata all read 2025-04-03, and the text refers to the January 2025 cease-fire, so the item is banded to 2025.
• [Position, 2025-07-30] Statement, read and verified verbatim: "I voted to support the two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval because the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) and large-scale bombs go beyond what is needed for Israel’s current defense and would only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe devastating Gaza. These 1,000-pound bombs have caused untold civilian harm and destruction and do not bring us closer to the ceasefire we need to get humanitarian aid in and to get the hostages out." Also on the page: "We cannot stand idly by. The United States must not be complicit."
• [Position, 2026-04-15] Floor remarks as prepared, released by his office, read and verified verbatim: "A vote to approve arms sales to Israel at this time would be seen as a message of approval for Trump and Netanyahu’s disastrous war against Iran. I will not send that message."; "Why would we send American military weapons that could prolong, escalate, or worsen this horrible situation in the Middle East? I say no more."; "There is no military solution to this crisis. We must solve this at the negotiating table. We must stop these arms sales and end this war now." His campaign also posted video of the remarks under a caption naming the thousand-pound bombs and armored bulldozers.
• His recorded votes are rendered on this card with their own official roll-call sources and are not re-listed in the prose. Their direction is uniform: for every measure that would have blocked a proposed arms sale or export licence to the government of Israel, and for the April 2024 supplemental.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• [Position, 2024-04-24] In the supplemental statement above he set the humanitarian funding in the package against the conditions he wanted enforced, and named the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid as the purpose of enforcing them.
• [Position, 2025-07-30] In the July 2025 statement he ties the vote to getting humanitarian aid into Gaza. Nothing located in which he takes a position on funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in its own right.
• [Position, 2025-10-09] Statement welcoming progress toward a cease-fire, calling for the hostages to come home and for humanitarian assistance to be rushed to civilians in Gaza.

Characterization of the conflict

• [Earlier record, 2021-05-14] Statement on the escalating crisis, read and verified verbatim: "Israel wields a disproportionate military power, and it has a responsibility to take steps to de-escalate this crisis." Predates the period this site tracks, and it shows the same distinction he has drawn since.
• [Reaction window, 2023-10-09] He spoke at a rally on Boston Common, condemning the Hamas attack and calling for de-escalation to protect civilian lives, per a Washington Post report on divisions among Democrats. Not on the card summary.
• Otherwise carried inside the statements above. He describes the Israeli government's prosecution of the war as reckless and indiscriminate and speaks of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza; nothing located uses the words genocide or apartheid.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

• [Earlier record, 2019-02-04] On legislation about organized boycotts of Israel, his own statement is verified verbatim: "The Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement fundamentally challenges Israel's right to exist and prosper, and that is wrong. I stand firm with our ally Israel. I voted to proceed with a vigorous debate on the underlying legislation that I originally co-sponsored, but Republican Senate leadership manipulated the bill text without warning by inserting unconstitutional language in order to divide Senate Democrats for political purposes." He opposed the bill on free-speech grounds while opposing the movement itself. Prior band, and useful because it shows both halves of a position that is often reported as one.
• [Position, 2024-12-05] Massachusetts Jewish organizations published an open letter criticizing him and the state's other senator over their votes against offensive-weapons transfers. The only carrier located, a Jewish Journal report, refuses every route we tried, so the letter is named here without a link and nothing from it is quoted.
• [Position, 2026-05-15] Massachusetts Peace Action endorsed him, writing that he "voted for three rounds of Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to cut off weapons shipments to Israel and assert Congress's authority over decisions of war." That is the organisation's characterisation of his record, not his own words.
• [Position, 2025-10] Commentary pieces and advocacy compilations record that he has attended American Israel Public Affairs Committee conferences in the past and that J Street endorsed him. These are other people's accounts of his associations, not statements of his, and nothing on the card rests on them.
• His tracked-committee funding figures are badges on this card and are not restated.

Safety and antisemitism (context)

• [Prior, 2022-06-10] Joint statement with the state's other senator on a project mapping Jewish institutions in Massachusetts, published on her Senate site and verified verbatim: "At this moment of rising anti-Semitism, racist attacks, and political violence, this 'mapping' of the Jewish community is dangerous and irresponsible. We strongly condemn anti-Semitism and will continue working for the safety of all vulnerable people at home and abroad." A two-senator statement, so the wording is joint and nothing in it is attributed to him alone.
• [Position, 2025-05-08] He offered an amendment to S. 558 stating that antisemitism is rising in the United States and that suppressing dissent or revoking visas is not the way to fight it. The committee's published copy of the amendment is a scanned document whose text we could not extract, so it is described here from our search notes rather than quoted.

Race and status context

• Democratic incumbent seeking re-election, per Ballotpedia's race page and the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Democratic primary list.
• DATA NOTE: two addresses in this record are Congress.gov application endpoints that return 403 to a reader without a key. They were used only for the identity and cosponsor checks and are not linked here.