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The Iranian demand that the US remove the infamous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the State Department list of terrorist groups is reportedly an “obstacle” to the Biden administration’s efforts to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

There is concern in Israel and among Americans who oppose the Iran deal that the Biden administration will try to keep the Quds Forces on the terror list and remove the rest of the IRGC to get Iran to sign a deal. That would be a show of desperation that ignores the IRCG’s long history of funding and training terrorist groups across the Middle East, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Michael Doran writes that the Biden administration actually made a counter-offer to Iran:

Which brings us back to the face-saving gesture that the Biden administration requested from the Iranians. In return for delisting the IRGC, US negotiators asked Iran to promise not to kill Americans. This request resulted from the knowledge, based on solid US intelligence, that the IRGC is hatching plots to kill former US officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and former Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook. The IRGC is seeking to assassinate them as revenge for the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force whom the Trump administration eliminated in a drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020.

If this outrageous deal goes forward, the fight against it will continue. Gabriel Noronha explains that if Republicans win majorities in Congress in the midterm elections this November, they can nix Biden’s Iran deal in 2023:

While it would take a Republican in the White House again to officially cease participation in the new deal and fully return to a campaign of maximum economic and diplomatic pressure, it would only take Republican control of one chamber of Congress to dismantle a fledgling deal next year—which is precisely what top Republicans are planning to do….

Any new deal reached with Iran, in other words, would have the stability of a porcelain vase sitting on a one-legged table. Republicans are readying their slingshots, and if they manage to hit any of the following marks, the deal is likely to come crashing down… READ MORE

The Hill reports:

Two election handicappers are collectively moving more than a dozen House races in the GOP’s favor, in the latest sign that Democrats are facing an increasingly bleak outlook in their bid to maintain control of the lower chamber in November’s midterms.

The Cook Political Report shifted eight House races in districts stretching from New York to Nevada toward Republicans on Wednesday.

… Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics moved 11 House districts in favor of Republicans, including six currently held by Democrats.

The 2022 midterms are so important – we need Republicans to take back Congress and bring sanity back to DC!

In the last week, mainstream media outlets reported on “clashes” between Palestinians and Israeli police at al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Much attention was paid to the number of Palestinians injured and arrested and less space was given to explaining that the violence was planned, funded, and implemented intentionally to harm Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall and to create just such news stories.

Fortunately, there are more reliable news outlets available. The Times of Israel reported the facts last Friday:

Police said in a statement that at around 4 a.m., dozens of young people began marching in the area [of the Temple Mount]. Some bore the Palestinian flag, while others carried green banners associated with the Hamas terror group.

The marchers threw stones and set off fireworks, while stockpiling rocks and other objects to prepare for further clashes, according to police.

Police said they waited for morning prayers to end before entering the Temple Mount to disperse the rioters, and that some of them threw stones at the Western Wall below.

… A police source quoted by the Kan public broadcaster later confirmed some 400 arrests.

… It later added that the site was reopened to worshipers, after “all the violators of public order were dispersed and arrested.”

A Times of Israel report later that day stated:

Afternoon prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound concluded without incident Friday, in sharp contrast to widespread violence that erupted at the flashpoint holy site earlier in the day.

Some 50,000 Muslim worshipers took part in the afternoon prayers, but though some marched and waved nationalist flags while leaving, there were no outbreaks of fighting.

Let’s take note: some 400 violent rioters were arrested in the morning and some 50,000 people worshipped peacefully at the same location just hours later. Israel preserved the freedom of religion, not only of Arab Israeli citizens who came to worship there, but also for many thousands of West Bank Palestinians:

Tens of thousands were already expected to attend Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa. Most of the Ramadan worshipers will cross into Israel without permits, part of a policy to loosen normally tight Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement for the holiday.

Keep this in mind next time someone tries to tell you that Israel denies human rights to Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.

In every generation…

RJC Board of Directors member Phyllis Heideman, who is the president of International March of the Living, writes about memory and meaning: “We must see the Exodus as something we personally experienced so that we can educate our children about it and preserve its legacy. This personal commitment to memory is the Jewish people’s way of ensuring that the stories, the messages and the lessons of the Exodus live on long after anyone who personally experienced it is with us. The same is true of the Holocaust.”

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.