For decades, American politicians — from the president on down — have largely sought to buttress America’s longstanding alliance with Israel. It’s been seen as good national security policy and good politics. But in 2026, there is evidence that’s changing, particularly for Democrats.

One New Hampshire politician working to navigate that is U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas. The Manchester Democrat been a reliable supporter of Israel in Congress, and his backing by pro-Israel political donors has become a significant issue in his Senate primary.

To get a sense of Pappas’s stance on U.S.-Israel relations, the YouTube page of the American Israel Public Affair Committee, or AIPAC, is one place to start.

“I’m Congressman Chris Pappas from New Hampshire, and I’m a strong supporter of the bipartisan U.S.-Israel relationship, which is a cornerstone of our national security policy,” Pappas said in a February video shot at AIPAC’s 2026 Congressional Summit.

The summit included political donors, as well as pro-Israel lawmakers like House Speaker Mike Johnson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens. There was even a live-streamed cameo from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

That Pappas would attend such a conference is no surprise. Since winning election to Congress in 2018, Pappas has been a steady backer of U.S. aid to Israel. He’s also received a steady flow of campaign donations from pro-Israel interests: $30,000 directly from AIPAC, and hundreds of thousands of dollars more from individual donors that AIPAC helped facilitate. But despite that relationship, AIPAC is a touchy subject for Pappas these days.

When asked recently about the video posted on AIPACs YouTube page, he didn’t want to talk about the group’s congressional summit, and suggested that the video was the result of a meeting he’d had with local constituents.

“There are people from New Hampshire who are part of different organizations, whether they be advocating for Alzheimer’s research or whether they are supporting a U.S.-Israel relationship that’s important for our national security,” Pappas said in an interview this week.

Pappas went on to say he now believes U.S.-Israeli relations are at a turning point.

“This is a moment for a reset in that relationship.”

Rep. Chris Pappas

One indication that Pappas’ approach to Israel may be changing came last month, when he joined nine other House Democrats to vote “present” — rather than take a clear stance for or against a proposal that aimed to strip $3 billion in U.S. aid for Israel. Pappas acknowledged that voting present was a rare move for him. But he said that the funding cut would have affected humanitarian aid, while an outright vote to block it would have sent the wrong message to the Netanyahu government.

Pappas said the present vote was of a piece with his view that change is needed, in Israel and here.

“I do hope that Netanyahu is on his way out the door, and that Israel will select new leadership,” Pappas said. “And I hope that we will be able to restore some basic checks and balances in Washington by flipping the majority in the U.S. Senate.”

But while Pappas focuses on winning in November, his rival in the Democratic Senate primary, progressive Karishma Manzur, is hammering Pappas’ record on Israel — she says Israel committed “genocide” in Gaza — and Pappas’ AIPAC ties.

Congressman Chris Pappas, a four-term Democrat representing New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, is seeking his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in 2026. Here he is shown after filing his candidacy on June 8, 2026.

“Do not allow anyone to justify why they take that money, because they are taking that money because they are going to answer to their donors,” Manzur told supporters who gathered on the State House lawn last week. “If anyone takes even a dollar from a foreign lobby, should that be considered treason?”

Pappas’s campaign notes that AIPAC is operated and funded by American citizens, and stressed that Pappas is a sponsor of the Disclose Act, a bill that aims to tighten political prohibitions on foreign actors. The Pappas campaign says Manzur regularly overstates the extent of his AIPAC-support, including on the large billboard her campaign has rented in Pappas’s home city of Manchester.

But Pappas’s stance on Israel is regularly cited by Democrats who oppose him, including Betsy Kelly of Gilford, a longstanding critic of U.S.-Israel policy, who backs Manzur.

“I expected more out of Chris Pappas. He says the right words but he doesn’t always act on his words, Kelly said. “But Karishma will never vote for support for Israel as long as they are violating human rights — that’s really important for me.”

For Manzur and Pappas, what’s most important these days is winning the Democratic primary. All existing polling suggests Pappas, who is running in his 13th election and has yet to lose a primary, will again make the November ballot. But U.S.-Israel policy and AIPAC are dividing Democrats in party primaries almost everywhere these days.

“People in primary elections are the most ideologically motivated voters, and in this case the most ideologically-motivated voters are going to be more opposed to Israel than general election voters. This is not something that’s going to help Pappas,” said Andy Smith, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire, adding that he does expect the political pressure Pappas is facing over Israel and AIPAC to fade if he makes it to the November ballot.

“It’s going to be quite different then,” Smith said.