Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Mark Pocan and Pramila Jayapal encouraged House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to drop a resolution that would denounce movements to boycott Israel. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images congress Progressives press Dem leaders to avoid divisive fight over Israel

Senior progressive Democrats are urging House leaders to abandon plans to vote on a contentious measure in support of Israel next week, just as tensions within the caucus had temporarily faded into the background.

A small group of Democrats, including leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, have cautioned House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer against bringing up a resolution to condemn the global boycott movement against Israel. That vote, they say, would resurface an ugly political fight that has already roiled the caucus more than once this year and opened up a painful line of attacks by Republicans.


“I think the timing would not be very wise to take up additional measures around the Middle East,” CPC Co-Chair Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said in an interview, adding that the House has more “substantive” work to complete before leaving town for its six-week August recess.

“Donald Trump just brought us all together, so let’s take advantage of that,” he added.

Pocan and fellow CPC co-chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have raised the issue with Hoyer, a longtime advocate for Israel and a supporter of the anti-boycott bill. The two lawmakers had planned to meet with Hoyer to discuss the resolution later Tuesday, but it was postponed after the House was thrown into chaos amid consideration of the Democrats' resolution to condemn Trump.

Other Democrats, nervous that the resolution could expose ideological fissures in the caucus that are still raw, have also approached Hoyer on the floor asking him to reconsider. That includes rank-and-file Democrats like Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), who has stayed out of the debate publicly but has privately raised concerns for months, including in a tense meeting with Hoyer and other top Democrats earlier this year, according to multiple sources.

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But another group of more moderate, pro-Israel Democrats, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), has been just as vocal about demanding a vote on the resolution. Gottheimer and his allies say they’ve been promised the vote for months.

A majority of the House, including a majority of the Democratic caucus, already support the measure.

Democratic leaders had committed to a vote condemning the Israeli boycott in May as part of an agreement to keep a group of moderates from siding with Republicans on a key procedural vote on the issue.

The debate over the resolution threatens to reignite tensions between the caucus’ moderates and liberals that exploded into a messy public feud surrounding last month’s border spending package. Only after Trump attacked some of the caucus’ most high-profile freshmen — telling them in a Twitter tirade to “go back” from where they came — did the caucus put aside its quarrel to focus on rebuking the president.

Some opponents of the anti-boycott resolution suggested that Democrats in favor of it are eager to adopt it before the August recess, when dozens of members from both parties will participate in Hoyer’s annual trip to Israel.

The bipartisan resolution, led by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), would specifically condemn Palestinian-led efforts behind the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as the BDS movement. The Foreign Affairs Committee will vote on the resolution Wednesday, teeing it up for a potential House vote next week.

“It’s important for us to have this come to the floor so this Congress can very clearly state its position,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), co-chair of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition that has endorsed the resolution. "BDS is not helpful in us reaching a two-state solution in the Middle East."

Supporters of the measure argue that its outspoken opponents — including freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who was rebuked by her colleagues in March over remarks some saw as anti-Semitic — would oppose the resolution regardless of when it’s considered. Trump is also sure to seize on any Democratic delay of the resolution to paint Democrats as anti-Israel.

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Some of the caucus’ most outspoken Israel advocates have also privately threatened to sign onto a GOP discharge petition that subverts Democratic leadership and brings it to the floor if they don’t get their vote. The discharge petition, if successful, would force a vote on a more stringent version of the anti-BDS resolution, legislation that overwhelmingly passed the Senate earlier this year.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who is Jewish and a supporter of the resolution, argued that a discussion about the Israeli boycott movement was “not unhealthy” for the caucus.

“What’s unhealthy is to keep things simmering below the surface. It is not unhealthy, even in a public fashion, to air grievances as long as it’s polite and principled. And I think we’re seeing some of that happen right now,” Phillips said.

The resolution would easily pass the House, with nearly 340 cosponsors. And some senior Democrats are so confident in its support that they will attempt to pass it under a suspension of the rules, a floor procedure used to quickly pass noncontroversial bills that requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

But some liberal Democrats argue that the symbolic gesture isn’t worth tearing apart the caucus, recalling the painful debate this spring when Omar inflamed her own colleagues with criticisms of the influence of pro- Israel groups in U.S. politics.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said he would prefer Democrats to couple the anti-BDS bill with another resolution calling for a two-state solution to resolve the decades-long standoff between Israelis and Palestinians.

That resolution will also be considered in the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, and senior Democrats are weighing whether to bring it to the floor next week.

“If leadership will bring them both on the floor, it’s much easier for most of us to say, ‘We don’t like BDS, we don’t think it’s an effective tool, it could even be seen as anti-Semitic by many,” Beyer said. “But we also don’t approve of much of what the Israeli government is doing.’ They’re not moving in the right direction.”