The increasingly anti-Israel sentiment of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is creating headaches for her Senate colleagues. And based on media reports, the problem will continue to plague her party for the foreseeable future.
The Shaheen problem is so serious Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called an emergency meeting last week to address it.
Shaheen, who turns 78 on Tuesday, has finally achieved the position of ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee — the first woman to hold that post. Also on Tuesday, that committee will take up a Republican bill to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to its targeting of Israeli leaders like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Democrats’ problem is many in their caucus agree with the GOP argument that the ICC — a notoriously anti-Israel body that many Jewish leaders believe is motivated by antisemitism — deserves to be sanctioned for its treatment of the key U.S. ally. The bill coming to Shaheen’s committee passed the House with the support of 45 Democrats, including Rep. Chris Pappas. (Rep. Maggie Goodlander, wife of President Joe Biden’s chief foreign policy advisor Jake Sullivan, voted no.)
“The ICC’s treatment towards Israel and equivocating to Hamas was unacceptable,” said Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) “We should absolutely sanction the ICC. I plan to vote for the bill and respectfully urge my colleagues to join me.”
Shaheen, on the other hand, has already come out against the sanctions bill. Democrats are divided.
“Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) used a rare emergency meeting on Friday to make a plea for unity, but Democrats have a tactical problem he can’t avoid,” Axios reported. “After the meeting, senators were extremely reluctant to discuss the open rift in their party. They emerged stone-faced and weren’t in the mood to talk.”
Shaheen is at the center of that rift.
According to Jewish Insider’s coverage, “Democrats are continuing to deliberate the issue and didn’t come to any conclusions on their strategy or path forward during Friday’s meeting.”
Democrats already have a messaging issue when it comes to Israel. Opposing the ICC bill won’t help.
“In targeting Israel as it turns a blind eye to the world’s real human rights violators, the ICC—to which the U.S. and Israel are not signatories—has shown that Jews and the Jewish state are held to a different standard than the rest of the world,” the Jewish Federations of North America said in a statement praising House passage of the bill.
Shaheen hasn’t budged.
Her opposition to ICC sanctions is just Shaheen’s latest anti-Israel vote. In November, she threw her support behind three resolutions to block the sale of some U.S. military weapons to Israel as the Jewish nation fought both Hamas and Hezbollah. And she followed up by claiming Israel was intentionally starving civilians in Gaza.
It’s a claim that appears to be at odds with the available data.
Interestingly, Shaheen has been willing to reverse her stance on other issues, like immigration. After voting against the Laken Riley Act last year, she repeatedly voted for it this year. And she’s also been one of the Democrats willing to break with her party to approve Trump nominees like Gov. Kristi Noem for Homeland Security Secretary.
The Senate is expected to take up the ICC sanctions bill on Tuesday. Republicans like former Ambassador Scott Brown, a strong supporter of Israel and a potential 2026 candidate for U.S. Senate, will be watching Shaheen’s vote.
