North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper, the state’s former governor, rejected efforts to withhold U.S. aid to Israel, days after the Senate voted on legislation to block certain U.S. arms sales to Israel, his campaign told Jewish Insider.

“The Governor believes it’s urgent for the United States to use other means of pressure on the Israeli government to step up now and find ways to get food to people who desperately need it and return the hostages,” a Cooper campaign aide said. “He would consider the specific text of any bills that came before the Senate, but generally does not believe we should withhold aid from a critical ally like Israel when they have to defend themselves against countries like Iran.”

Cooper, a moderate Democrat, has taken other steps in recent days to distance himself from anti-Israel elements of the Democratic Party, including rejecting a series of anti-Israel resolutions passed by state Democratic Party leadership. But it wasn’t until he entered the Senate race that he weighed in against the anti-Israel turn of the North Carolina Democratic party. 

The Senate’s Israel votes are proving to be a sensitive issue among Democratic Senate candidates across the country — and is emerging as a dividing line between the party’s moderates and progressives.