Foreign policy has been traditionally considered an issue with low constituency impact on Senators’ actions in Congress. Yet the interest of the general public in Israel has increased over the last few decades, especially with the growing tide of Christian Zionism being preached among wide parts of the evangelical population in the U.S. which constitutes 26 percent of the population. This paper attempts to measure the influence of constituencies’ over Senatorial sponsorship of pro-Israel bills, using econometric tools. By taking into consideration both the Senators’ ideology and their constituencies’ preference, I will show that the Israel issue matters to constituencies enough to influence the Senators actions in Congress. In addition I will show that Israel should be considered a domestic policy issue rather than a foreign policy issue, due to its influence on the Senators’ budget constraints.
