Dems grit their teeth to get through another awkward Israel dustup

“Our inability to actually be honest about this conversation prevents us from being an ally to advancing human rights and being a good ally as well,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said. She and other Squad members, having learned during the Trump era that U.S.-Israel policy is a political minefield, largely avoided internal blowback with her low-key decision to skip Herzog’s speech.

“There’s always this reaction, to call any leveled critique of Israel — to mischaracterize it as racist or antisemitic,” she added.

Despite the broad support for the GOP resolution, the fallout has still sparked awkward conversations that many Democrats had sought to avoid.

As Jayapal sought to avoid further blowback within her party over her comment, she made calls to several Democrats who planned to sign onto a sharply worded statement about the remark and encouraged them not to, according to two people familiar with the discussions who addressed them on condition of anonymity.

Party leaders didn’t discuss the coming vote during Tuesday’s closed-door caucus meeting, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and his leadership team don’t plan to whip their members either way on the GOP measure. The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Jayapal leads, also hasn’t publicly weighed in on the vote.

The drama has served as an early test for Jeffries, who’s otherwise seen little internal drama in the party. Multiple Democrats who were angered by Jayapal’s comments said they were impressed by the New Yorker’s swift response — he and his leadership team criticized her comments shortly after she released a lengthy statement to clarify her stance.

Jeffries and Jayapal spoke directly about the controversy, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity. Another person familiar added that senior Democrats were in touch with Jayapal throughout Sunday as she prepared her statement.

Democrats, while remaining in lockstep on domestic policy in recent months, have sometimes stumbled when it comes to projecting unity on foreign affairs. Jayapal and the Progressive Caucus sparked a round of hand-wringing last fall with a poorly timed letter calling for negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. The kerfuffle likely contributed to Jayapal’s decision to abandon a potential bid for House Democratic leadership a short time later.

And many in the caucus keenly recall past recriminations between its most left-leaning members and its foreign policy establishment over U.S.-Israel policy. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who steered House Democrats through many of their ugliest intraparty disputes, said that “using terms that are inflammatory, really, it doesn’t really help the situation.”

But Pelosi added that “I have great respect for Congresswoman Jayapal and respect her apology.”

Despite the frustrations, this latest round of controversy is unlikely to affect Jayapal’s standing much in the Progressive Caucus, where she’s serving her last term as chair and received public support from the group’s other leaders.

Some progressives, like Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said liberal leaders needed to keep speaking out about Israel and tough foreign policy questions.

“None of this was made to be easy,” said Bush. “I feel like when we are silent, then that’s how we keep the status quo. When we keep that harm, we don’t see change.”

At the same time, others in the Democratic caucus said they wished Jayapal had been more forceful in her clarification of her remarks.

“There’s nothing complex about the question of whether or not Israel is a racist state,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said. “And even though Congresswoman Jayapal attempted to walk back what she meant, in this case, I think she certainly could have been stronger about it.”