Hakeem Jeffries Keeps Doubling Down On Israel

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries finds himself back in the fire after the selection of three pro-Israel Democratic lawmakers picked for top roles on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives. 

This comes after news of Jeffries meeting with White House BFF and the family’s consigliere, Jared Kushner, who, by all accounts, is a private citizen who moves with the full weight of the presidency and often meets with foreign dignitaries on behalf of the White House. 

Jeffries defended his meeting in several news appearances in which he declared that he’s still going after the “Trump Crime Family” and claimed that the meeting was about housing affordability.

And then, as if all that wasn’t enough, Jeffries didn’t help his chances of quieting doubters who claim that he’s thoroughly in Israel’s breast pocket, by ignoring America’s growing intolerance of the Deebo of countries, by appointing Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida as the top Democrat on the panel’s Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee (MENA). Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Wesley Bell of Missouri were also selected. All three politicians have been pro-Israel in the past.

One pro-Palestinian lawmaker, Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, was named to the Africa Subcommittee, Al-Jazeera reports.

The move appeared tone deaf to many in the Democratic Party who saw the appointments as ignoring a push by the American people away from the genocide in Gaza.

“Polls have consistently suggested a decline in support for Israel among voters in the US, particularly since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. In February, the US also partnered with Israel to attack Iran, launching an ongoing war,” Al-Jazeera reports. 

Sixty percent of adults in the U.S. have an unfavorable view of Israel, which is up from 42% in 2022, according to a March poll from the Pew Research Center. 

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan pointed to those numbers as evidence that the Foreign Affairs Committee appointments were misguided.

“A supermajority of Democratic voters have made it clear they want to end U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Trump’s assault on Iran,” Tlaib, the first Palestinian American elected to the U.S. Congress, said in a statement to Al Jazeera.

She also noted Moskowitz’s support of Trump’s war effort against Iran.

“By elevating a genocide denier who has said he is ‘to the right’ of JD Vance on the war on Iran, Democratic leadership is once again ignoring the base of our party who want the funding of the genocide to end,” Tlaib said.

Whether Jeffries sees these appointments as a show of experience, ideological balance or simply business as usual, the optics are impossible to ignore. At a moment when Democratic voters are increasingly questioning America’s unconditional support for Israel and demanding a more forceful response to the devastation in Gaza, House Democratic leadership appears to have doubled down on elevating some of its most reliably pro-Israel voices. 

See how social media is reacting to Jeffries’ latest move below.