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(JTA) Rep. Gregory Meeks, the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said he would not approve a U.S. sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel without assurances on what the jets would be used for.

Im waiting for assurances, Meeks, who represents a district in New York City, told CNN on Tuesday. It is enough of the indiscriminate bombing. I dont want the kinds of weapons that Israel has to be utilized to have more death.

Meeks is one of four lawmakers on Capitol Hill with the power to hold up weapons sales. He has previously supported Israels battle against Hamas and called in the CNN interview for Hamas to immediately release hostages.

His statement is the latest signal that support for Israels war effort is eroding among Democratic lawmakers, particularly following an Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers earlier this month and even as the Biden administration has signaled its support as Israel anticipates Iranian retaliation for its killing of a senior Iranian commander this month.

Days before Meeks interview, more than 50 Democratic members of Congress including leading progressives and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed a letter calling on President Joe Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel. Meeks was not one of the signatories.

If this strike is found to have violated U.S. or international law, we urge you to continue withholding these transfers until those responsible are held accountable, the letter says. We also urge you to withhold these transfers if Israel fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including aid workers, and if it fails to facilitate or arbitrarily denies or restricts the transport and delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

In another sign of tensions, last week Sen. Elizabeth Warren, commenting on Israels trial on the charge of genocide at the International Court of Justice, said, I believe they will find it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so. Israel vehemently rejects that accusation and says it takes measures to protect civilian life.

Following the strike on the aid convoy, the Biden administration expressed its outrage and called on Israel to do more to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel has since increased the flow of aid, stemming Bidens criticism. In recent days, his administration has rebuffed criticism of Israel and conveyed its support ahead of a possible Iranian attack. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that the United States has not seen any evidence that Israel is committing genocide.

As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israels security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad, Biden said at a press conference on Wednesday. Let me say it again, ironclad. Were going to do all we can to protect Israels security.

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Leading Democratic congressman says he wants 'assurances' before approving sale of fighter jets to Israel - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

1. Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey set to compete for California Senate seat  The Associated Press
2. California Senate primary winners: Adam Schiff, Steve Garvey advance to November ballot  NBC News
3. Election results: Democrats should be terrified about California in November.  Slate

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Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey set to compete for California Senate seat - The Associated Press

Mainstream Democrats, watching the politics around Israels war in Gaza shift against them, are pressing President Biden to become far more outspoken in his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing government and far more upfront in his demands for a long-term solution to the conflict that includes a Palestinian state.

At the outset of the war, with memories fresh from Hamass terrorist attack on Israel that took around 1,200 lives, Jewish Democrats who had grown restive more than a year ago over Mr. Netanyahus governance largely rallied around Mr. Biden as he sided firmly with Israel.

But as the death toll in Gaza rises inexorably, many are pleading with the president not so much to change policies but to become the voice of his administrations own demands for a Ramadan cease-fire, more humanitarian aid, more restraint of Jewish settler violence and a long-term peace that includes a Palestinian state.

We are hoping that a strategy for peace and an end to this nightmare will be laid out at the State of the Union, Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a prominent Jewish Democrat, said on Wednesday. Nobody can question Bidens commitment to the security of Israel, and nobody can question his commitment over the course of his career to human rights and international law. Now is the time when the world needs to see American leadership for peace.

Mr. Raskin, returning to earlier criticism of Mr. Netanyahus governing coalition, the most right-wing in Israels history, added, Democrats feel we dont take orders from right-wing politicians in America, and we shouldnt be taking orders from right-wing politicians in another country.

More than a dozen Jewish Democrats in the House spearheaded a critical letter late last month demanding Mr. Biden redouble his efforts to achieve a cease-fire that facilitates more humanitarian aid to starving Gazans. Many of the same lawmakers on Wednesday warned against an Israeli strike on the city of Rafah, along the Gaza-Egypt border, where hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians have sheltered.

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Nervous Democrats Press Biden on Gaza Ahead of State of the Union - The New York Times

Josh Stein, the North Carolina attorney general, handily won the states Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, setting the stage for a matchup with a fiery Republican rival in a race that will be tightly contested and closely watched.

The race will probably be the most expensive in the country this year outside of the presidential election, as Democrats try to retain a governors office that they have held for all but four of the last 31 years, a rare Southern stronghold for the party.

Mr. Stein, 57, who was endorsed by Gov. Roy Cooper, a term-limited Democrat, easily defeated his four primary opponents, including Michael Morgan, a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice.

Now Mr. Stein, who has presented himself as a stable and experienced leader, will turn his attention to his opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. The attorney general has cast Mr. Robinson as an extreme figure distracted by culture war issues.

Mr. Stein has highlighted a number of statements that Mr. Robinson has come under heavy criticism for making in recent years, including that Christians are called to be led by men, not women, and that theres no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth.

Some politicians spark division, ignite hate and fan the flames of bigotry, Mr. Stein said in a campaign ad that showed clips of Mr. Robinson.

Mr. Robinson has dismissed the criticism while doubling down on anti-L.G.B.T.Q. remarks and painting Mr. Stein as an extreme liberal.

Political science professors in North Carolina say that Mr. Stein will have an easy time portraying Mr. Robinson as a Trump-aligned Republican who would further roll back abortion rights. A big question is which candidate will benefit more from the huge influx of voters the state has seen over the last few years; many have settled in the suburbs and exurbs of Charlotte and Raleigh. President Biden won the counties that contain those cities in 2020 but lost many of the surrounding areas to Donald J. Trump.

A native of Chapel Hill who has degrees from Dartmouth and Harvard, Mr. Stein became the first Jewish person elected to statewide office in North Carolina in 2016 when he defeated Buck Newton, a Republican, to become attorney general. He previously served as a state senator.

His re-election victory in 2020, however, showed how slim his margins could be: He won by fewer than 14,000 votes that year, with 50.1 percent of the vote. Mr. Trump won the state in 2020 by 1.3 percentage points, and Mr. Cooper by more than 4 percentage points.

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Josh Stein Wins Democratic Primary for North Carolina Governor - The New York Times

In summary

The Republican Party in California once embraced progressive electoral reforms, and championed taxes, gun control and abortion rights. As two races showed this week, it has a new role as a foil for Democrats. Thats not good for California not even for Democrats.

For election results and analysis of the 2024 primary in California,sign upfor CalMatters free daily newsletter WhatMatters.

The Republican Party established the citizens initiative, referendum and recall in California. It championed tax increases, gun control and expanded abortion rights. Earl Warren, a governor and chief justice of the United States, looked forward to welcoming 10,000 new immigrants every Monday as Californias chief executive.

The GOP now has a new role in the nations biggest state: a foil for Democrats.

Thats not good news for California. Its not even good news for Democrats, whose one-party rule grows ever more calcified and arrogant in the absence of meaningful debate. But its where we are.

Two races underscored that reality on Tuesday. In the campaigns for district attorney of Los Angeles and that to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate, early returns show that conservative candidates may have nosed their way into run-offs. If the results hold, they will have provided paths to victory for Democrats and in one case, a Democrat who is supremely vulnerable.

At the state level, Rep. Adam Schiff created the contest he wanted. He was more concerned about facing a challenger from his left in November, so he artfully advertised for Republican Steve Garvey, boosting the former baseball star without any political experience, message or ideas into the run-off.

Garvey has declined to state who he is supporting for president and responds to almost every question by insisting he will bring common sense and compassion to Washington. He was a better-than-average player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, but if Garvey belongs in the Senate, Willie Mays should be president.

All of which made him bait for Schiff.

Garvey now faces off against the man who brought him to the party. It cost Schiff millions to get Garvey this far, but the ballplayers free ride is over, and with it, any realistic chance of actually winning.

In Los Angeles, meanwhile, incumbent District Attorney George Gascn did not engineer his run-off as Schiff did, but he also got the one he wanted. For Gascn, the real political danger was posed by Democratic candidates just to his right. They threatened to isolate him on the left and sweep the broad center of a liberal electorate, leaving Gascn with a narrow band of progressives and an abysmal approval rating somewhere around 20%.

Instead, Gascn may luck into the opponent he most hoped for: former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, whose sizable war chest and slightly hysterical characterizations of Los Angeles as a city and county at the edge of chaos were enough to draw him close to 18% of the vote as of Wednesday morning, with about half of ballots counted.

Hochman, who ran two years ago as a Republican for attorney general, now faces the same problem that Garvey does: His electorate has enough Republicans to elbow him into a run-off but not nearly enough to secure him a victory unless he attracts Democratic support.

He has a better lane than Garvey. Hochman is an experienced prosecutor with a message, and he will temper some of his dystopian rhetoric now that he no longer has to worry about competition from the law-and-order right. And Gascn is vulnerable to any opponent with a pulse.

Still, Hochman must contend with the fact that hes a recently converted Republican in a part of the world that doesnt have much use for Republicans.

This is music for Democrats, of course, but not great for California. One-party rule narrows debate and alternatives. Whatever you think of Garvey, its discouraging that the ideas California Republicans once espoused now can be easily ignored by ruling Democrats.

This is the state that gave us Warren, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Republicans who once connected with California priorities. They saw the value of environmental protection as president, Nixon created the EPA and celebrated the contributions of immigrants.

Those with long memories or access to history books will recall that conservatives in California once welcomed migrant labor, while Csar Chvez was among those advocating for tighter border controls, since those immigrants competed for jobs with members of his union.

Warren built roads and universities and was willing to raise taxes to invest in the states future. He championed universal health care and liked to say that his job required him to provide for 10,000 new Californians every week. He was elected three times once, in 1946, as the nominee of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

As for Reagan, the icon of modern conservatism, he raised taxes, supported gun control and expanded abortion rights as Californias governor.

But the Republican Party has slipped away from that history and positioned itself increasingly out of step with most Californians. This is a state that prizes its environment a state office building bears the slogan Bring me men to match my mountains values individual autonomy and hence abortion rights, and has a long history and relationship with Latin America.

As the party, particularly under the captive ownership of Donald Trump, has moved away from those positions, it has moved away from California.

No wonder that Trump loathes the state. Complaining in the wake of his 2016 victory against Hillary Clinton, the sore-winner alleged that millions and millions of peoplevoted illegally in California, denying him a victory here (thats a lie, of course). And he has since criticized the state for its efforts to safeguard illegal immigrants and combat climate change, among other things. His solution to wildfires was to argue that California should do a better job raking the forest.

Caught in the familiar tug between support for those policies and support for their partys de facto leader, state Republicans have mostly tried to bite their tongues, a la Garvey.

That keeps Trump off their backs, but it also makes them seem cowardly indeed, its evidence of actual cowardice. Today, there are almost twice as many Democrats and nearly as many independents in California as there are Republicans.

The party could find its way back. It could welcome immigrants, support abortion rights and join the effort to combat climate change (the states last Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a leader on climate policies). That would be good for the party, of course, and good for the state, too.

Until then, it will put up candidates like Steve Garvey and lose.

David & Dawn, Glendale

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California Republicans have been reduced to a foil for Democrats. That's not good for anyone - CalMatters