WASHINGTON — For 17 years, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the minority leader, has been taking polite meetings with J Street, a center-left lobbying group that promotes a two-state solution in the Middle East.

But in all those years of relationship building, Jeffries never sought the group’s endorsement. He was more closely associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a hard-line pro-Israel lobbying organization that has long supported him financially and has in the past discouraged lawmakers it backs from aligning themselves formally with a group that holds a different stance on Israel.

That changed last month, when Jeffries for the first time was open to and accepted J Street’s official support. It was a coup for J Street, which is highly critical of the current Israeli

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