Eleven freshmen Democrats visit Israel on AIPAC trip
The delegation, which makes up a third of freshman Democratic House members, demonstrates the organization’s continued pull even amid heightened tensions between Dems and Israel
President Isaac Herzog on X
Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets a delegation of House Democrats in Jerusalem on August 11, 2025.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleA group of 14 House Democrats, including 11 first-term lawmakers, are currently visiting Israel with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation.
The group includes Reps. Tim Kennedy (D-NY), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Josh Riley (D-NY), Nellie Pou (D-NJ), Wesley Bell (D-MO), Laura Gillen (D-NY), Johnny Olszewski (D-MD), Eugene Vindman (D-VA), Luz Rivas (D-CA), Herb Conaway (D-NJ) and George Latimer (D-NY).
They make up a third of the 33 freshman Democratic members of the House — a sign of AIPAC’s continued pull among more centrist pro-Israel Democrats even as progressives have sought to make the group politically toxic. An AIEF-sponsored Republican trip which visited Israel last week included around the same number of freshmen lawmakers.
The trip comes at a time when tensions, even among Israel’s most vocal Democratic supporters, and the Israeli government are at a high point, amid concern with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s newly finalized plans to expand the war and conduct a military takeover of Gaza City.
The Democratic delegation also includes Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Pete Aguilar (D-CA) and Brad Schneider (D-IL). Aguilar is the No. 3 Democrat in the House.
The Democratic group met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday, who said that the “visits show the bi-partisan, steadfast alliance between the United State[s] and Israel, and of the true shared values between our peoples.”
“I told them that Israel continues to operate in accordance with international law, that it was dramatically increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and that Israel continues to strive with all its might and in every way possible to bring our hostages home,” Herzog said in a statement. “I also made clear that Hamas continues to hold, starve, torture and abuse the hostages, holding 50 still in captivity, in a deliberate and flagrant crime against humanity. I told them it was Hamas which was looting and stealing the aid, preventing the distribution to the civilians in Gaza. And that Hamas was blocking and rejecting a deal that would bring an end to the suffering.”
The Democratic group also appears to have visited the City of David.