House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) avoided agreeing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s statement earlier this year that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace.
In an appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press, Jeffries repeatedly avoided criticizing Netanyahu, saying instead there will be “ample room” to assess the war in Gaza. Instead, he blamed war casualties on Hamas, and called on the Israeli government to follow President Joe Biden’s peace plan.
“It’s my hope that the Prime Minister, upon his arrival in the United States Congress, will address the Biden peace plan that has been put forth that I think comprehensively provides a way forward to bring the hostages home, to end the conflict in Gaza,” Jeffries answered, when asked if he agreed with Schumer’s assessment that Netanyahu is a “major obstacle to peace.” “To allow for a just and lasting peace to be put into place, which is what every reasonable person would want to see.”
Host Peter Alexander then reminded Jeffries of his question, to which Jeffries largely repeated his previous answer, while adding a condemnation of Hamas.
“It’s my hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu, consistent with what has been done by the Israeli war Cabinet, which is to unanimously adopt the Biden peace plan, will conduct himself in a manner consistent with that Israeli war Cabinet,” Jeffries said. “It’s on Hamas, as far as I can tell, as President Biden indicated, to accept the peace plan so we can end this conflict.”
Alexander interrupted Jeffries at the end and once again pushed him for an answer, asking if he had any criticism of Netanyahu’s handling of the war.
“I think that there will be ample room to be able to assess what was done right, what may have been done wrong,” he answered. “I certainly criticized the Israeli air strike from earlier this week. It was a tragedy, should not have happened and we mourn for the loss of people.”
After coming under heavy scrutiny early during his leadership tenure over an incident when Jeffries defended his uncle over antisemitic remarks, the New York Democrat has positioned himself as a close ally with Israel. He made his first foreign trip as House Minority Leader to Israel in April 2023.
Jeffries has struggled to keep his party together over the War in Gaza, with many of Israel’s most vocal critics and defenders being House Democrats.
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In April, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jared Moskowitz (R-FL) got into a visible public spat over their competing attitudes toward Israel.
Netanyahu was invited last week to speak in front of the U.S. Congress for the first time since the war in Gaza began. The invitation was bipartisan and included Jeffries’s signature.