Richard Neal

Democrat · U.S. House, Massachusetts District 1

Neal said in February 2024, pressing for one bill with aid to the government of Israel, Ukraine and Gaza, “My support for Israel remains steadfast”. Of a July 2026 amendment cutting military aid to the government of Israel, he said recipients must “meet the standard our values and laws require.”

Neal has represented western Massachusetts in the House since his first election in 1988 and is the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. He is seeking re-election in the 1st District, where no Republican is on the November ballot.

On February 6, 2024, when House Republicans brought a bill funding the government of Israel on its own, he said Democrats had spent months negotiating to “provide aid to Ukraine and Israel, and support humanitarian efforts in Gaza” together, and that “My support for Israel remains steadfast, but my colleagues must drop the political stunts and allow the House to get back to the difficult work of legislating.” On April 2, 2024, asked by WWLP about a pending $18 billion weapons sale to the government of Israel that included F-15 jets, he spoke about the aid bill instead: “The president has been pretty clear on these issues, I think I’ve been clear. We all would like to see a negotiated ceasefire that would be bilateral and at the result of certainly more humanitarian aid to Gaza. It’s going to continue to be a very difficult time and I think the president has taken a very measured approach”. Later that month, as the House prepared to vote on the aid package, he wrote on X that “with Israel under attack, the United States must stand with our ally and its people,” MassLive reported.

On July 15, 2026 the House voted on an amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie to strike $3.3 billion in military financing for the government of Israel from the State Department funding bill. Neal’s statement that day said the United States “remains committed to our strong, strategic alliance with Israel and will continue to defend its sovereignty and right to exist as a secure Jewish state.” It said support for Israel’s defense systems such as the Iron Dome “remains an important priority” and that “This amendment does not change that commitment or our resolve to eradicate Hamas’s reign of terror.” It went on: “We also have a responsibility to ensure that governments receiving our aid meet the standard our values and laws require. What we are seeing in the Middle East is not sustainable and demands a new path grounded in peace, security, and the right to self-determination for all. That means delivering urgently needed humanitarian aid to the innocent children and families caught in the violence, pursuing a two-state solution, and confronting both terrorism and the cancer of antisemitism.” The day before, as he left the caucus meeting where Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he would vote against the amendment, Neal told his staff “He was courageous this morning,” Axios reported.

On aid reaching Palestinians, his office wrote to the White House in September 2025 asking the Trump administration to help ensure that food aid is allowed to reach Gaza without obstruction, The Republican reported in a story about a Gaza-bound aid flotilla; the letter itself has not been published. When a ceasefire took hold in October 2025 he told New England Public Media that “let's be frank and candid, it's going to be very difficult going forward unless some of the parties in Hamas are disarmed and I think the Israeli government commits to a lasting peace”. In August 2026 he signed a letter led by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen urging the administration to end settler violence and settlement expansion in the West Bank, restore sanctions on violent settlers and investigate the deaths of nine Americans there; the signers wrote that the administration’s “deference to the Netanyahu government has contributed to a climate of impunity and unbridled violence towards civilian populations and religious minorities”. Those are the letter’s collective words.

AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest pro-Israel lobbying group, and Democratic Majority for Israel, a political group that backs pro-Israel Democrats, have both been active around his campaigns; what each did, and when, is on the research page. On antisemitism, after the Hanukkah attacks in Sydney in December 2025 he praised the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism and said: “Antisemitism is a profound and enduring evil, which is why we cannot allow it to persist unchecked.” His statements from October and November 2023, and his earlier record back to his 2012 co-sponsorship of the U.S.-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, are dated on the research page.

Tracked votes: opposed sending U.S. weapons or funding to the government of Israel in 4 of 6 recorded votes.

Research

One search (run 2026-09-04) was read as a lead list for this card, and every page cited below was opened and read on 2026-09-04 unless marked otherwise. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. His recorded votes on the bills this site tracks are not described here; they are on the card’s record, filled from the House Clerk.

U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel

U.S. aid to Palestinians

Characterization of the conflict

Related rhetoric and lobbying

Safety and antisemitism (context, not a position on what America sends)

Not on the card, and why

Sources read for this card (address; opened or could not open; date read)

All Massachusetts candidates.

See the full record →

But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps. Open the interactive card for votes, funding and contact details.