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In Israel with fellow Democrats, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries says judicial legislation won’t affect US aid

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli government’s effort to weaken the country’s judiciary will not affect American military aid to Israel, Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on a visit to Jerusalem on Monday.

Jeffries, the Brooklyn congressman and House minority leader, was leading a delegation to Israel of 24 Democratic members of Congress. He spoke to reporters following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he also seeks broad agreement but has pledged to press ahead with the judicial overhaul, despite ongoing mass street protests.

Jeffries echoed President Joe Biden’s stance that any laws changing Israel’s court system should pass only with broad consensus. The first piece of the legislative package, which was enacted in late July, passed along party lines, with the right-wing governing coalition voting in favor and Israel’s parliamentary opposition boycotting the vote.

“It’s my hope that whatever continued efforts occur related to judicial reform, that there’s a broad consensus across the ideological spectrum before additional changes are undertaken,” Jeffries said in the small press conference at the King David Hotel here. The trip is run by an organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

“It’s not my job to articulate the precise contours of what judicial reform should look like here in Israel,” he added, saying that Netanyahu had also pledged to him that Israel would remain a liberal democracy. “That’s for the Israeli people to decide, through their elected representatives and through their actions to petition the government to perhaps go in a different direction.”

But even if Israel’s government did end up sapping the power of its judiciary, Jeffries said the United States would not reduce its military aid to Israel. That idea, once taboo, has been gaining steam lately, with voices on both sides of the aisle floating it. A number of Democratic members of Congress have called on the United States to establish conditions restricting the use of the nearly $4 billion in annual funding, and last month, New York Times columnist Nick Kristof floated ending aid to Israel entirely.

Jeffries rejected that idea, drawing a distinction between the democratic values Israel shares with the United States and the two countries’ shared strategic interests in the Middle East. Jeffries made clear that an independent and credible judiciary was a component of the United States’ and Israel’s shared values, but said the shared interests would remain in any event.

“At the end of the day, the two things that bind our countries together relate both to our shared democratic values and our shared strategic interests — shared strategic interests related to the very tough neighborhood that Israel lives in,” he said. “The need to make sure that we maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge will still be with us regardless of where Israel lands in terms of the judicial reform.”

In recent months, dozens of Democratic congresspeople have signaled their support for the mass street protests in Israel and abroad against the judicial overhaul. Late last month, a dozen Democratic representatives introduced a resolution in solidarity with the protests and one of them, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, from the Chicago-area, spoke at an anti-overhaul rally in her district. Jeffries indicated support for the protests as well, likening them to the exercise of First Amendment rights in the United States.

“The protesters have a right to express themselves, and their very presence is a sign of strength for Israeli democracy,” he said. “Freedom of assembly and the right to petition your government to demand change — that is exactly what is happening in Israel in a very vociferous way in connection with the demonstrations protesting the judicial overhaul. That’s a sign of a vibrant democracy.”

He denied that Israel’s harshest critics in the Democratic Party had made significant inroads. In July, six Democrats boycotted Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s speech to a joint session of Congress, shortly after Rep. Pramila Jayapal, an influential progressive, called Israel a “racist state” — a remark she walked back. A Gallup poll in March found that Democrats were more likely to sympathize with the Palestinians than with Israel.

Jeffries pointed to a pro-Israel resolution in response to Jayapal’s remarks that passed Congress 412-9.

“The Democratic Party in the House of Representatives will continue to stand with Israel and lift up the special relationship between our two countries and in support of Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people, and as a Jewish democratic state, period, full stop,” he said.

Jeffries did not comment on some of the hot-button topics surrounding Israel and its relationship with the United States — including when Biden might invite Netanyahu to the White House. He also did not comment on the possibility that Netanyahu might not respect a potential court ruling striking down the judicial reform legislation. Israel’s Supreme Court is due to hear arguments about the law next month, and Netanyahu has thus far dodged the question of whether he would abide by a court decision invalidating the law.

In addition to Netanyahu, Jeffries met with Palestinian leadership and will meet with Yair Lapid, the centrist leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition.

The Democratic delegation’s visit to Israel also came amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence, and Jeffries said his delegation discussed Palestinian terror attacks with Netanyahu, in addition to discussing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians. Over the weekend, an Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank, and a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli security guard in Tel Aviv.

Jeffries advocated for a renewed effort toward Israeli-Palestinian peace and also said Congress would look favorably on a U.S.-brokered normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, something the three countries have reportedly been discussing. But he seemed to acknowledge that a deal with the Palestinian leadership was remote.

“At the end of the day, [there’s a] strong interest in our congressional delegation of getting to a place where we can proceed toward a viable path to a two-state solution, recognizing that we are not at that place right now,” he said. “That is a goal that we should not give up on.”


The post In Israel with fellow Democrats, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries says judicial legislation won’t affect US aid appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Germany’s Halt to Arms Exports to Israel Is Response to Gaza Expansion Plans, Chancellor Says

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen

Germany’s decision to curb arms exports to Israel comes in response to Israel’s plan to expand its operations in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

“We cannot deliver weapons into a conflict that is now being pursued exclusively by military means,” Merz said. “We want to help diplomatically, and we are doing so.”

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to take this historically fraught step.

The chancellor said in the interview that the expansion of Israel’s operations in Gaza could claim hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and would require the evacuation of the entire city of Gaza.

“Where are these people supposed to go?” Merz said. “We can’t do that, we won’t do that, and I will not do that.”

Nevertheless, the principles of Germany’s Israel policy remain unchanged, the chancellor said.

“Germany has stood firmly by Israel’s side for 80 years. That will not change,” Merz said.

Germany is Israel’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the US and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, principally because of its historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”

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Newsom Calls Trump’s $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Offer Extortion, Says California Won’t Bow

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference, accompanied by members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, U.S., August 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Saturday that a $1 billion settlement offer by President Donald Trump’s administration for UCLA amounted to political extortion to which the state will not bow.

The University of California says it is reviewing a $1 billion settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA after the government froze hundreds of millions of dollars in funding over pro-Palestinian protests.

UCLA, which is part of the University of California system, said this week the government froze $584 million in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over anti-Israel student protests.

“Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ (Department of Justice) to kneecap America’s #1 public university system — freezing medical & science funding until @UCLA pays his $1 billion ransom,” the office of Newsom, a Democrat, said in a post.

“California won’t bow to Trump’s disgusting political extortion,” it added.

“This isn’t about protecting Jewish students – it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president.”

The government alleges universities, including UCLA, allowed antisemitism during the protests and in doing so violated Jewish and Israeli students’ civil rights. The White House had no immediate comment beyond the offer.

Experts have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president’s threats. The University of California says paying such a large settlement would “completely devastate” the institution.

Large demonstrations took place at UCLA last year. Last week, UCLA agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit by some students and a professor who alleged antisemitism. It was also sued this year over a 2024 violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters.

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Trump Nominates State Dept Spokeswoman Bruce as US Deputy Representative to UN

FILE PHOTO: U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce speaks during her first press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.

Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Trump took office in January.

In a post on social media in which Trump announced her nomination, the president said she did a “fantastic job” as State Department spokesperson. Bruce will need to be confirmed for the role by the US Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party holds a majority.

During press briefings, she has defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions ranging from an immigration crackdown and visa revocations to US responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, including a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian territory.

Bruce was previously a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.

She has also authored books like “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda” that criticized liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.

In a post after Trump’s announcement, Bruce thanked him and suggested that the role was a “few weeks” away. Neither Trump nor Bruce mentioned an exact timeline in their online posts.

“Now I’m blessed that in the next few weeks my commitment to advancing America First leadership and values continues on the global stage in this new post,” Bruce wrote on X.

Trump has picked former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz to be his U.N. envoy. Waltz’s Senate confirmation for that role, wherein he will be Bruce’s boss, is still due.

Waltz was Trump’s national security adviser until he was ousted on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides on military strikes in Yemen. Trump then nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador.

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