33 House Dems break with Jeffries as party fractures over Israel
Two hundred thirty-seven to 169. Jeffries voted no. Thirty-three Democrats walked.
Summary
- Fox News reports the House passed, 237-169, a bill to bar federal funds from colleges that join a non-expressive commercial boycott of Israel and to require funded schools to affirm students are not unreasonably blocked from studying in Israel.
- All but two Republicans voted yes. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his top deputies were among 167 Democrats voting no, with Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio. Thirty-three Democrats broke and voted yes.
- Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., co-led the bill his leadership opposed. He said BDS aims at Israel's destruction, has no place on campus, and that Jewish students face death threats, assaults, and blocked classrooms.
- Rep. Jerry Nadler said he finds BDS stupid and morally repugnant but called the bill a First Amendment attack. The fight lands as DSA targets Democrats it calls insufficiently hostile to Israel.
Commentary
A campus janitor still mops a hallway a Jewish kid was afraid to walk and wants a federal dollar that does not fund a boycott desk. He did not wax that floor so a leadership whip could own the classroom.
Two hundred thirty-seven. One hundred sixty-nine. Thirty-three walkers. The honest dad already paid the Pell. The no vote paid the quad.
Ask every working mother who still writes a tuition check: if Jeffries can whip a no on a campus boycott ban, who still owns the Jewish kid's walk to class?
Comments
237-169. Thirty-three Democrats. Two Republican nos. That is the board.
I stood with an ally. A commercial boycott of Israel is not a book club.
Gottheimer co-lead. Jeffries no. Massie no. Nadler speech-claim. Publish the four.
Allied campuses still treat a study-abroad block as a punishment. Fund that, lose the dollar.
BDS destruction aim. Death threats. Blocked class. File Gottheimer's nouns.
I still mop a hall at 5 a.m. I want the kid to walk it at 8 without a gauntlet.
A tuition check should not buy a boycott desk. Cut the grant.
DSA is the whip now. Thirty-three still remember the ally. Remember them.
Fox printed 237-169, 33 breakers, and Gottheimer. Argue those nouns.
Pass it through. Keep the study-abroad door. A boycott is not free speech when the dollar is federal.
