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Last week, The Cook Political Report [paywall] changed its ratings on 10 House races that are now more favorable for Republicans. One of them is PA-07, where Jewish Republican Lisa Scheller, a major supporter of the RJC, is challenging Democratic Rep. Susan Wild. That district lies in the Lehigh Valley and includes Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton.

The Cook Report notes that in 2020, Wild beat Scheller 52 percent to 48 percent, but redistricting has helped Scheller.

Josh Kraushaar at the National Journal, writes that the continuing shifts toward the GOP in key swing districts are an ominous sign for Democrats’ midterm prospects.

If Democrats are already facing tough odds to hold Wild’s district, it’s a sign of much larger problems for the party.

…The fact that a swing-district Democrat is already moving into that precarious [underdog] position, five months before the election, underscores just how weak the Democrats’ political standing is.

… "2022 is now shaping up to be the toughest environment Democrats have run in many years, at least going back to 2010," said Democratic strategist J.J. Balaban, who’s based in Pennsylvania.

…Scheller touts an inspiring story about her recovery from heroin and alcohol addiction to run one of the largest manufacturing companies in the region. She narrowly lost to Wild in 2020, running a closer-than-expected race against the incumbent… Scheller is the type of pragmatic recruit who, if elected, will be one of the more prominent faces of the freshman Republican class.

Jonathan Ingram, in an op-ed at the New York Post, writes that Biden's runaway regulations have added to the terrible inflation we’re experiencing today.

The highest inflation in 40 years isn’t driven just by record federal spending, a record government-driven labor shortage and record restrictions on US energy production. President Joe Biden’s record regulation spree is also pushing prices higher.

…The role of regulations in the inflation crisis is largely overlooked but shouldn’t be. When Washington wraps the economy in red tape, businesses must spend massive sums on compliance.

That cash doesn’t materialize from thin air. Every dollar that goes toward hiring lawyers, filling out paperwork and redesigning products and assembly lines gets passed to consumers through higher prices.

…All told, the cost of Biden’s regulations far outpaces that of his predecessors'. In his first 12 months, he saddled the economy with more than $200 billion in higher costs, per the American Action Forum. That’s three times more than Obama imposed and 40 times what Trump did.

…With Democrats in control of Congress, there is no check on the Biden administration's ability to roll out costly regulation after costly regulation. But if Republicans retake the House and Senate this November, they can push to limit the president’s ability to regulate the economy and bring much-needed relief to families struggling to put food on the table.

David Harsanyi at The Federalist adds:

…So, while it’s true that inflation is a complex, multifaceted problem that isn't entirely any person’s or administration’s or event’s fault, it is fair to say that the Biden administration, from top to bottom, was as wrong as an administration could be on the issue. They ignored it. They weren't prepared. They exacerbated it. At the very least, Biden deserves a lot more credit for inflation than he does economic growth. If you’re going to take credit for the latter, you deserve blame for the former.

The Times of Israel reports:

The Biden administration has settled on a series of steps aimed at boosting its diplomatic ties to the Palestinians in lieu of reopening the US Consulate in Jerusalem — a move it reluctantly shelved amid Israeli opposition.

According to two US and Palestinian officials who spoke to The Times of Israel, US President Joe Biden will elevate Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr to the role of special envoy to the Palestinians. Amr will remain in Washington but will make regular trips to the region and work closely with the Palestinian Affairs Unit, which currently is a branch within the US Embassy to Israel and is housed in the old Jerusalem consulate building.

…But in a move aimed at again setting apart the diplomats serving the Palestinians from those serving the Israelis, the PAU will officially begin reporting directly to Amr in Washington, rather than to the US ambassador in Israel, the US and Palestinian officials said.

Caroline Glick, writing in Newsweek, has this to say about special envoy Hady Amr:

Before his appointment, Amr had a long history of antagonism toward Israel and support for Hamas and US engagement with the terror group, more generally. Now, as the Biden policies to date have made clear, Amr is both the author and the primary implementer of US policy toward Israel and its terrorist enemies. That policy, as his 52-page Brookings paper from three years ago made clear, is to empower Hamas terrorists and weaken Israel.

The Times of Israel reports:

Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a comprehensive, "groundbreaking" free trade agreement on Tuesday in a bid to boost economic ties between the two countries, as trade hit about $2.5 billion in the less than two years since the US-brokered Abraham Accords were inked, according to recent estimates.

…The free trade agreement covers regulation, customs, services, government procurement, e-commerce, and protection of intellectual property rights.

Some 96% of products traded between the countries, including food, agriculture, cosmetics, medical equipment, and medication, will be exempt from customs duty, according to the deal. A number of products will be exempt immediately, while others will gradually be granted exemptions.

In January, Israel’s cabinet approved a joint Israel-UAE R&D fund to support tech projects involving Israeli and Emirati companies

The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran has accumulated enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb:

Experts said that the stockpile would provide roughly enough material for an atomic bomb if Iran took the additional step of enriching the uranium to 90 percent purity. Moving from 60 to 90 percent would not pose a technical challenge for Iran, according to arms control experts.

"Iran has now accumulated enough enriched uranium to be able to quickly produce more than a significant quantity of HEU (highly enriched uranium) for one bomb," said Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association think tank. "The time it would take them to do that can now be measured in days, not months or weeks."

Further reading:

Peter Vincent Pry: Nuclear Iran NOT an "Acceptable Risk"

Hamas as Tehran's Agent

Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, lays out the evidence on Iran’s long history of funding, training, and assisting Hamas in its terrorism against Israel and the West. He concludes: "As of March 2022, according to one senior Israeli intelligence official, Hamas received $80 million annually from Iran. Hamas engineers are also studying precision guided munition (PGM) technology in Iran to learn how to target Israel more accurately in future wars. And while Hamas has other patrons, including Turkey, Qatar, and Malaysia, none of them have influenced the organization’s military or financial capabilities like the Islamist regime in Tehran. This assistance and money will only grow if the Biden administration resuscitates the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and relaxes sanctions on Tehran."

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