Cory A. Booker

Booker spent years voting to let U.S. arms sales to the government of Israel proceed. In April 2026 he changed course, saying he does "not support more weapons to continue the combat". He has also said he will stop taking campaign money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Booker is New Jersey's senior senator, seeking re-election, and sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. His recorded votes are on this card and they are the story: for a long run of them he declined to block proposed U.S. arms sales to the government of Israel, and then he stopped declining.

He explained the first position while he held it. The two sales he let through that July were $675.7 million of 1,000-pound bombs with JDAM guidance kits and a sale of fully automatic rifles, and the Gaza health ministry had by then reported 60,138 people killed in Gaza. Announcing his vote against the disapproval resolutions in July 2025, he said the war should end and then gave his reason for voting no: "These Joint Resolutions of Disapproval would restrict our country's ability to provide future security guarantees without achieving the goal of ending this war now or increasing vital humanitarian aid." The same statement opens: "The suffering, starvation, and atrocities happening in Gaza are unacceptable. I will continue fighting for humanitarian aid now." His New Jersey colleague voted the other way that night, which is how sharp the split was inside one state's delegation.

In April 2026 he voted the other way himself, for the first time, on a $295 million sale of armoured bulldozers and a $151.8 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs, at a reported toll of 72,344 killed with 20,179 children among them. His statement puts the change inside an argument about a different war: "I am using every tool available to me to stop this war, and do not support more weapons to continue the combat, whether it is to our own government or to one of our closest allies." In the same breath he said he would "always steadfastly support Israel's defense and deterrence capabilities", and called on the Senate to pass a war powers resolution. Read the two statements together and the change is narrower than the headline: what moved was his willingness to let particular sales go through while this war continues.

Separately, and it is a different question, he told Politico in March 2026 that he would stop accepting money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other single-issue political action committees. That is a decision about who funds his campaign, not a position on what the United States ships, and the group kept its endorsement of him afterwards.

Tracked votes: backed sending U.S. weapons or funding to the government of Israel in 8 of 10 recorded votes.

Research

U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel

[Position, 2024 to 2026] His ten recorded Senate votes are rendered on this card with their own official roll-call sources and are not re-listed here. Their direction: he voted for the national security supplemental that carried U.S. military aid to the government of Israel; he voted against the motions to take up every arms-sale disapproval resolution through the summer of 2025; and in April 2026 he voted for both, the first time he had done so. Sampled against the official roll calls, for example the November 2024 vote and the April 2026 vote.
[Position, 2025-07-31] His own Senate statement on the joint resolutions of disapproval, read and verified verbatim: "The suffering, starvation, and atrocities happening in Gaza are unacceptable. I will continue fighting for humanitarian aid now." And: "It's time for the conflict in Gaza to end-- there must be an immediate ceasefire that stops the fighting, ends the suffering for innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, brings the hostages home, and dramatically increases humanitarian aid. These Joint Resolutions of Disapproval would restrict our country's ability to provide future security guarantees without achieving the goal of ending this war now or increasing vital humanitarian aid." And: "And we all must work to bring about a just and lasting peace, one that guarantees Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state and ensures the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and a state of their own." The double hyphen is the page's own. A New Jersey Globe report carried the same statement and recorded the split with his state colleague.
[Position, 2026-04-15] His own Senate statement the day he first voted to block sales, read and verified verbatim: "With no congressional approval or strategy for success, Trump has led America into a reckless, dangerous quagmire in Iran that continues to spiral out of control. I am using every tool available to me to stop this war, and do not support more weapons to continue the combat, whether it is to our own government or to one of our closest allies. I will always support America having the globe's preeminent military and defense capabilities, and I will always steadfastly support Israel's defense and deterrence capabilities. I will not, however, support Trump's war, and I will continue to take every action to bring it to a swift conclusion." The page's own address contains a spelling error, which is his office's and not ours. A New Jersey Globe report covered the vote as a first.
[Earlier record, 2019-11] He is recorded saying that U.S. security assistance ensured the damage from rocket fire was not worse and that the support must continue. The carrier is a political guide's compilation page, and the line is described here rather than quoted.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

[Position, 2025-07-31] From the statement above: "I will continue fighting for humanitarian aid now", and the call for aid to be dramatically increased. His stated reason for voting against the disapproval resolutions is partly that they would not increase humanitarian aid.
[Position, 2025-07-25 and 2025-10-09] The gather round records further statements on catastrophic hunger in Gaza and on the announced peace agreement. Their carriers are his press office's index rather than individual pages we could open, so they are named here and quoted nowhere.

Characterization of the conflict

[Position, 2025-07-31] From the statement above, verified verbatim: a just and lasting peace "that guarantees Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state and ensures the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and a state of their own."
[Position, 2026-04-15] From the April statement: the American involvement in Iran is "a reckless, dangerous quagmire". That is a characterization of U.S. policy rather than of the conflict in Gaza.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

[Position, 2026-03] He told Politico he would stop accepting contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other single-issue political action committees. A money-refusal decision is about campaign fundraising and is not a position on weapons or funding, and the deep dive says so. The committee's endorsement of him stood afterwards.
[Earlier record, 2019] He co-sponsored anti-boycott legislation and said repeatedly that he does not support the boycott movement. These are recorded on a political guide's compilation page and on secondary reports; described here, quoted nowhere, and prior band.
American Israel Public Affairs Committee support and Democratic Majority for Israel lifetime support are badges on this card and the numbers are not restated. See the data note below.
An advocacy compilation site, boughtbyzionism.org, carries a page about him. It is campaigning material rather than a record of his words, and nothing on this card rests on it.

Safety and antisemitism (context)

[Earlier record, 2018 to 2024] The gather round records a long series of items: his statement after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018, remarks in 2019 that antisemitism is un-American, a 2020 address on security grants for houses of worship after attacks in Jersey City and Monsey, a bipartisan Black and Jewish senators' coalition in 2021, a statement after an attempted arson at a New Jersey temple in 2023, and co-sponsorship of the Countering Antisemitism Act in 2024. All are attributed to his press office's index rather than to individual pages we could open, so they are listed here without quotation.

Race and status context

New Jersey's senior senator, seeking re-election, and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
NOTE (DATA): the funding badge on this record shows American Israel Public Affairs Committee support of $4,993.24 this cycle and $4,993.24 lifetime, while the record's own narrative reports bundled donations of roughly $481,000 and $227,000 to him in 2025 from the same group. One of those two numbers is wrong by two orders of magnitude, and the badge is the one a voter sees.
NOTE (DATA): the identical figure $4,993.24 appears as both cycle and lifetime support on this record and on ri-sen-reed, and a near neighbour on ar-sen-cotton. Three records sharing the same odd cents looks like a defaulted or duplicated value rather than three real totals.