Lahav Harkov at the Jerusalem Post reports:

US Senator Bill Hagerty [R-TN] introduced a bill on Tuesday meant to block the Biden administration from opening a consulate serving Palestinians in Jerusalem.

The Upholding the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Law Act of 2021 is meant to ensure the full implementation of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act and stop what Hagerty views as the Biden administration’s attempted subversion of that law.

… [President Joe] Biden promised in his election campaign that he would reopen the consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, which was merged into the US Embassy to Israel in 2018, when [President Donald] Trump implemented the 1995 law and moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The bill, which had 35 original cosponsors (see a list here), has been referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The RJC supports the Upholding the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Law Act of 2021 and will launch an advocacy campaign next week to encourage all Senators to sponsor and vote for the bill. RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks explains why this bill is so important:

If the Biden administration re-opens this diplomatic facility, it will be understood as a signal that the US expects that part of Jerusalem will be the capital of a future Palestinian state - and that Israel’s capital city will be divided. Congress should stand behind the commitment to an undivided Jerusalem that it made in 1995 and has reaffirmed repeatedly since then.

Israeli leaders in both the government and the opposition have made it clear that they strongly oppose the Biden administration's plan to re-open the consulate in Jerusalem. But left-wing members of Congress are encouraging President Biden to ignore those concerns, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted that plans to re-open the consulate must "move forward."

We urge President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Democrats in Congress not to make yet another disastrous foreign policy decision and instead follow the lead of Senator Hagerty and others - Jerusalem should remain Israel’s undivided capital, full stop.

Watch your email for further developments.

RJC Board of Directors member Michael David Epstein is fighting acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and needs a life-saving bone marrow transplant. He has teamed up with the Gift of Life, a non-profit bone marrow donor registry, to find a match.

Someone of Eastern European ancestry aged 18-35 years old could be the match that saves Michael’s life, or that saves another patient’s life one day. Please visit Michael’s page on the Gift of Life web site, https://www.giftoflife.org/dc/michaelepstein, to join the donor registry and learn more. And please share this information with friends and family who might be potential donors, especially college students and young adults. You can help save lives!

Our prayers are with Michael for a complete and speedy recovery.

The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reports that Israel has named six Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as terror organizations, because of their close ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP):

"Those organizations were active under the cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel," [Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz] announced.

… The six groups are Addameer, al-Haq, Defense for Children Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.

The PFLP, a Marxist revolutionary group founded in 1967 by George Habash, is one of the oldest and largest Palestinian terrorist organizations. It is responsible for numerous hijackings and suicide bombings and for the October 2001 assassination of Israeli Minister for Tourism Rehavam Zeevi. Israel, the United States, and European Union all list the PFLP as a terror organization.

The Israeli announcement about the six NGOs caused a furious backlash from Israel’s detractors. One example of the outraged response is this tweet from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI):

The apartheid regime’s labeling of award-winning human rights groups as terrorist organizations—just because they speak truths about Israel’s violence & its human impact—is grossly antidemocratic and dangerous. The US must end funding for human rights abuses. Enough.

The Biden administration claimed that it was blind-sided by the Israeli announcement. On Friday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told journalists that Jerusalem "didn’t give us prior warning about this designation." Israel strongly disputed this claim. An Israeli defense official said on Saturday: "Officials in the American administration were updated in advance of the intention to make this declaration and they received intelligence information about the matter."

Further reading:

• NGO Monitor: PFLP Ties of Six Newly Designated Terror NGOs
• Tobin: The ‘human rights’ scam at the heart of the NGO controversy

Omri Nahmias quotes the RJC in a report for Mishpacha magazine on the tight race for Virginia governor:

"Joe Biden won Virginia by more than 10 percent only one year ago — so if this race is as close as the public polls and those on the ground in Virginia say it is, Democrats should get their life jackets ready, because a red wave is likely in the November 2022 midterms," says Republican Jewish Coalition national political director Sam Markstein.

… "This is anybody’s game right now," Markstein insists. "The issues motivating voters in Virginia right now are education, where Glenn Youngkin stands strongly with parents and families, while Terry McAuliffe stands with union bosses; the economy, where Glenn Youngkin is a successful businessman who’s supported the creation of hundreds of thousands of American jobs, while Terry McAuliffe is a political insider who wants to raise taxes and increase spending; and support for law enforcement, where Glenn Youngkin proudly has law enforcement’s back, while Terry McAuliffe campaigns with'‘defund the police' activists."

The Israel test of the Democratic Party

Adam Milstein and James Jay Carafano write at the Washington Times: "The Democratic Party now faces an important test. Where will it stand when it comes to continuing America’s longstanding, bipartisan support for Israel? Will it banish the far left voices spewing hatred of the Jewish state? Or will these voices eventually become the party‘s mainstream? The answer will determine not only the party‘s cohesiveness but its viability in American politics."

The real culprit in our supply-chain crisis

Mario Loyola writes:"“[W]hat has made supply chains inflexible and brittle is stifling government regulations… As Americans are starting to find out, the supply-chain crisis is a devastating blow to the economy, and it could last through 2023. And if you’re hoping for the government to step in and help, you’re in for more bad news: Government policies are about to make the problem much worse."

Don't let Democrats turn the US into Europe

David Harsanyi writes that the European-style welfare state Democrats are pushing to establish here will foster dependency and the loss of our personal freedoms.

Watch Now: Replay of Past Virtual Events

You can see recordings of many past RJC virtual events. Go to the RJC homepage and scroll down to the "RJC Live" section. There's a drop-down menu there to select the video you want to see.

RJC staff have returned to their offices for in-person work. Contact information for our offices can be found on our web site. Please visit us online for the latest RJC news, to see details of upcoming events, and to donate to the RJC. Read past editions of this newsletter here.