Jeffrey Alan Merkley

Merkley has voted every time to block U.S. arms sales to the government of Israel, and says he still supports aid for defensive systems like Iron Dome but cannot vote to send more bombs and shells. He also introduced a resolution calling for U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state.

Merkley is Oregon's incumbent Democratic senator, seeking re-election, and a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee. His recorded votes on this card all run one way, against sending U.S. offensive weapons to the government of Israel, and he has explained them in his own words rather than leaving them to be read.

He draws the line where the weapon is pointed. In February 2024 he set out the distinction he has held to since: "While I have supported military aid to Israel in the past, and continue to support aid for defensive systems like Iron Dome and David's Sling, I cannot vote to send more bombs and shells to Israel when they are using them in an indiscriminate manner against Palestinian civilians." The same statement gives his reason in American terms: the campaign is "at odds with our American values and American law, which requires recipients of American assistance to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid."

In November 2024 he voted on three resolutions that would have blocked scheduled sales, which he had co-sponsored, and explained the votes the same day: "It is time to end U.S. complicity in the Netanyahu government's military campaign, and so today I am voting against three scheduled offensive arms sales." He did it again in March 2026, co-sponsoring three further resolutions to block the sale of nearly $658.8 million in bombs; the release announcing them quotes him: "I do not support sending more offensive weapons to the Netanyahu government."

On the other half of the question he acted directly. In September 2025 he introduced a resolution calling on the president to recognize a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, the first of its kind in the Senate, with seven cosponsors: "Recognition of a Palestinian state is not only a practical step the United States can take to help build a future where Palestinians and Israelis can live in freedom, dignity, and security, but it is the right thing to do. America has a responsibility to lead, and the time to act is now".

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

Research

U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel

[Position, 2024-02-12] Statement, read and confirmed word for word, dated on the page. The two spans that matter: "I strongly oppose sending more offensive military aid to Israel at a time when they are using American weapons in what President Biden has called an 'indiscriminate' campaign of bombing," and "The campaign conducted by the Netanyahu government is at odds with our American values and American law, which requires recipients of American assistance to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. While I have supported military aid to Israel in the past, and continue to support aid for defensive systems like Iron Dome and David's Sling, I cannot vote to send more bombs and shells to Israel when they are using them in an indiscriminate manner against Palestinian civilians." This is the clearest statement of the distinction he draws, and it is what the card leads on.
[Position, 2024-11-20] Statement explaining his votes on three resolutions to block sales of offensive weapons, read and confirmed word for word: "Most of this military campaign has been conducted with American weapons, making the United States complicit in this carnage. The Netanyahu government has also obstructed the delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid, in violation of U.S. law. The result has been massive shortages of food and medicine, casting the specter of starvation across Gaza." And: "It is time to end U.S. complicity in the Netanyahu government's military campaign, and so today I am voting against three scheduled offensive arms sales." His office states the three resolutions were introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and cosponsored by Merkley.
[Position, 2026-03-19] Co-sponsored three further resolutions to block the sale of nearly $658.8 million in offensive weaponry to the government of Israel, alongside Senators Van Hollen and Welch. The filing senator's release, read and confirmed word for word, separates two spans of his with an attribution: "Donald Trump, working in lockstep with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launched a reckless and unconstitutional war," Merkley said. "I do not support sending more offensive weapons to the Netanyahu government." This is another member's release, not his own, so the two spans are kept apart and only the second is used as a quote.
[Position, 2024 to 2026] The recorded votes shown on this card, each cross-checked against the official Senate roll call, for example the first of the November 2024 motions and the first of the April 2026 motions. Every one runs the same way. The card renders them; the prose does not re-list them.
[Position, 2026-04-15] A fresh search records a floor speech supporting the April 2026 resolutions, in which he described the destruction across Gaza and Lebanon as an effort at "creating Greater Israel". Its only carriers are video pages with no readable transcript, so the words are not quoted here and the item is recorded rather than used.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

[Position, 2025-09-18] Introduced a Senate resolution calling on the president to recognize a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, described by his office as the first of its kind in the Senate and endorsed by J Street. Cosponsored by Senators Van Hollen, Kaine, Sanders, Welch, Tina Smith, Baldwin and Hirono. Confirmed word for word: "Recognition of a Palestinian state is not only a practical step the United States can take to help build a future where Palestinians and Israelis can live in freedom, dignity, and security, but it is the right thing to do. America has a responsibility to lead, and the time to act is now". A second passage on the same page sets out what the resolution calls for: an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, an influx of aid, and then two states for two peoples as the only viable path. It is summarized rather than quoted here because the source punctuates it with a dash this house style does not reproduce outside card quotations.
The same release records that he travelled to the Gaza border, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt with Senator Van Hollen in August 2025. He came back and told Oregon Public Broadcasting what he had seen; that page opens and is where a reader can follow it.
[Position, 2025-01-15] Statement on the ceasefire deal, confirmed word for word: "Much of Netanyahu's military campaign has been conducted with American bombs and offensive weapons, making the United States complicit in this humanitarian crisis. The Netanyahu government has also obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid, in violation of U.S. and international law. The result has been massive shortages of food and medicine, leaving Palestinian civilians on the brink of famine." He closed by calling for immediate delivery of aid and, in the longer term, a two-state solution.

Characterization of the conflict

[Reaction window, 2023-11-20] He was the first senator to call for a lasting ceasefire, in a statement on his own site which Oregon Public Broadcasting reported at the time. Off the card (C1): dated inside the reaction window, so no form of it appears there. The fresh research round supplied the date that the earlier pass had to leave blank.
The words he uses for the other government are "the Netanyahu government" throughout, and he separates that government from the Israeli people and from Israel's security in every statement above.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

[Prior, 2019-01-28] Statement on his vote against a Senate package, confirmed word for word, which sets out both halves of his view on boycott campaigns: "I unequivocally condemn any anti-Semitic language and sentiments that seek to delegitimize the right of Israel to exist. Such rhetoric is hateful and entirely unacceptable," and "At the same time peaceful protest has long been recognized as a protected form of free speech under the First Amendment, and any laws that limit individuals' or companies' ability to participate in peaceful dissent represent a dangerous path." He voted against the package over that provision, not over the rest of it.
[Context, 2025-04-09] After the April 2025 votes, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee ran television advertisements in eleven states against the fifteen senators who voted to block the sales, of whom he was one. Jewish Insider reports the campaign and quotes the group's spokesman. This is something done to him rather than by him, and it is recorded here for that reason.
No funding from any advocacy group this site tracks appears on this record.

Safety and antisemitism (context)

[Position, 2025-08-13] Joined the rest of Oregon's congressional delegation in a statement on antisemitism and hate after incidents in the state. A collective statement, so none of its wording is attributed to him personally.
[Context, 2024-04-01] A post of his at Easter 2024 linking the holiday to the bombing of Gaza drew public criticism from Israeli officials and Jewish organizations, reported by the Times of Israel and by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The criticism is other people's and is recorded as theirs; his own post is not quoted here because neither report reproduces it in full.
The 2019 statement above also carries his own words condemning antisemitism.

Race and status context

Incumbent Democratic senator seeking re-election, and a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee. His campaign site and his committee membership are this record's identity sources.
This record notes that his Oregon colleague voted the other way on the earlier resolutions before joining him in April 2026. That is another senator's record and it is not used on this card.