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{"id":25390,"date":"2026-07-06T12:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-jeffries-takes-hands-off-approach-to-israel\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T12:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:02:16","slug":"capitol-agenda-jeffries-takes-hands-off-approach-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-jeffries-takes-hands-off-approach-to-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Jeffries takes hands-off approach to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Hakeem Jeffries is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/06\/hakeem-jeffries-israel-aid-democrats-00986438\" target=\"_blank\">signaling how he\u2019ll handle the<\/a> issue most deeply dividing his party.<\/p>\n<p>In short: very carefully.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. support for Israel has emerged as a major internal Democratic fault line and portends to be a stinging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/24\/squad-house-democrats-jeffries-nyc-00975224\" target=\"_blank\"><u>headache for Jeffries<\/u><\/a> next year as Israel skeptic after skeptic wins the party\u2019s primaries.<\/p>\n<p>Jeffries\u2019 unenviable position came into starker contrast last week. The minority leader barely dodged a Democratic reckoning as his party debated whether to support a Republican-led measure to cut off aid to Israel.<\/p>\n<p>As Democrats wrestled with how to approach that politically thorny vote, Jeffries offered little guidance, preferring to let his members hash out their differences in a pair of hour-plus caucus meetings that several House Democrats repeatedly described as \u201cintense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last week\u2019s meetings, four of those present said, were not intended to galvanize the caucus behind a leadership-driven position, but rather present an opportunity for members to air their perspectives. Lawmakers across the ideological spectrum said they appreciated having forums to deliberate, and many suggested it could offer a model for how the potential speaker could manage his caucus in a majority.<\/p>\n<p>But some Democrats warned an agree-to-disagree posture might not always fly on sensitive issues, especially if the party takes back the House next year. If elected speaker, Jeffries could stave off some of the most politically divisive votes, but a Republican minority could still force Democrats to confront their own internal disagreements.<\/p>\n<p>One progressive House Democrat who has been critical of party leaders, Rep. Delia Ramirez, said the meetings were the first caucus-wide opportunity to discuss Israel during her two terms in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s been an easy process for him as a leader,\u201d Ramirez said about Jeffries. \u201cBut I do appreciate that he\u2019s open for us to have a real dialogue, and that he hasn\u2019t in any way suppressed the voices of the people there. He\u2019s been really intentional about listening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jeffries told members he plans to give more specific guidance once the House returns and a vote on the appropriations amendment is confirmed, but that might not be for a while. The measure, from Rep. Thomas Massie, was poised for a vote last week until <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/30\/house-gop-frozen-save-america-00982083\" target=\"_blank\"><u>unrelated Republican dysfunction<\/u><\/a> delayed consideration indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Jeffries declined to state his position on the measure, which is unlikely to garner enough Republican support to be adopted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that needs to happen differently to get to a place where there\u2019s a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and we all need to focus on actually achieving a two-state solution once and for all,\u201d Jeffries said in response to a question from Blue Light News last week.<\/p>\n<p>But Jeffries has hinted a bit more to his caucus where he would ultimately land on the amendment. In one of the meetings, Jeffries read a statement opposing the amendment from the left-leaning pro-Israel group J Street, according to a person in the room granted anonymity to discuss the private remarks.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 JOHNSON WANTS TO MAKE SAVE AMERICA &#8216;IRRESISTABLE&#8217; TO GOP: <\/b>Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/05\/mike-johnson-anna-paulina-luna-house-agenda-00987269\" target=\"_blank\"><u>reset his strategy<\/u><\/a> to enact the SAVE America Act after an intraparty feud over the bill shut down his chamber last week. In a \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d interview, Johnson pushed back on hard-liners\u2019 protest of his proposal to meet their demands on the measure. He reiterated his desire to include the legislation in a party-line reconciliation bill. And he stated President Donald Trump will accept a version of the election security bill that doesn\u2019t crack down on mail-in voting \u2014 an issue that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/02\/save-america-act-mail-voting-00985315\" target=\"_blank\"><u>threatens to cost the measure Republican support<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 WHO WANTS TO BE A TOP HILL TAX WRITER? \u2014\u00a0<\/b>Lawmakers are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/06\/congress-committees-tax-cuts-00986101\" target=\"_blank\"><u>jockeying for open seats<\/u><\/a> on Congress\u2019 powerful tax writing committees, as exits by several members in both parties next year deplete ranks. At least three Democrats and four Republicans on House Ways and Means are leaving at the end of the year. Across the Capitol, five Republicans and one Democrat plan to depart Senate Finance. Members on both panels hold sway over major party priorities, like last year\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n<p><i>Emilio Perez Ibarguen<\/i> <i>and Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hakeem Jeffries is signaling how he\u2019ll handle the issue most deeply dividing his party. In short: very carefully. U.S. support for Israel has emerged as a major internal Democratic fault line and portends to be a stinging headache for Jeffries next year as Israel skeptic after skeptic wins the party\u2019s primaries. Jeffries\u2019 unenviable position came [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}