View in Browser

New data just released by Gallup demonstrates that the Democratic Party continues to drift in an anti-Israel direction. After a decade in which Democrats have shown increasing affinity toward the Palestinians, their sympathies in the Middle East now lie more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, 49% versus 38%.

Today’s attitudes reflect an 11-percentage-point increase over the past year in Democrats’ sympathy with the Palestinians. At the same time, the percentages sympathizing more with the Israelis (38%) and those not favoring a side (13%) have dipped to new lows.

As a result of this year’s partisan shifts, sympathy toward the Palestinians among U.S. adults is at a new high of 31%, while the proportion not favoring a side is at a new low of 15%. The 54% of Americans sympathizing more with the Israelis is similar to last year’s 55% but is the lowest since 2005.

Republicans’ views are unchanged, with nearly eight in 10 (78%) continuing to sympathize more with the Israelis while 11% side with the Palestinians.

Related: Mark Levin calls out the Democratic Party for ‘tolerating’ antisemitism

Late last week came the surprise announcement that Saudi Arabia and Iran had agreed to reopen diplomatic relations - an agreement brokered by the Chinese government. The Biden administration has tried to portray this as a positive development, but the Washington Post reports that the deal:

Dealt a symbolic blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the threat posed by Tehran a public diplomacy priority and personal crusade.

Gabriel Noronha is unimpressed with the White House spin, writing for the Washington Examiner:

While the precise details of the new agreement have yet to be unsealed, we can be sure that Iran can now devote more of its resources, time, and focus of its terror apparatus against the United States' presence and interests in the region. That means new plots to kidnap and kill more Europeans and Americans and to plot the destruction of Israel.

The White House said they had long encouraged direct dialogue and diplomacy between Iran and Saudi Arabia to "help reduce tension." President Joe Biden for his part appeared confused about which country made the deal, saying, "The better the relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the better for everybody." Assuming he meant Iran instead of Israel, this statement is even more absurd. The White House confuses diplomacy for peace.

Last week - more than a month after the statutory deadline - President Biden released his budget for the fiscal year that begins on October 1st. The document demonstrates the disconnect between Biden’s priorities and the nation’s needs.

The Heritage Foundation’s overview calls the administration out for reckless spending and debt accumulation:

• Over a decade, the budget envisions a combined $1.85 trillion in additional spending above the status quo. This reaches an unprecedented $10 trillion of spending in 2033 alone.
• Despite $4.7 trillion in net tax increases, the budget still allows debt to grow faster than the economy, which is ultimately the most important measure of fiscal health.
• The budget’s annual deficits range between 4.6% and 6.8% of the economy, far above the pre-pandemic historical average of 2.9%. With the national debt already dangerously high, not even trying to bring deficits down to earth is a budgetary dereliction of duty.
• While Biden enjoys grandstanding about Social Security, the budget shows that he’s willing to sit idly by and watch it go bankrupt in 2033. That would automatically trigger benefit cuts of 23% for retirees.

The Cato Institute’s Adam Michel breaks down The 8 Biggest Tax increases in Biden’s budget.

And on Capitol Hill, Republican national security leaders warned that the defense budget request falls short given soaring inflation and unprecedented challenges from foreign adversaries:

A budget that proposes to increase non-defense spending at more than twice the rate of defense is absurd,” House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said in a statement on Thursday. “The President’s incredibly misplaced priorities send all the wrong messages to our adversaries.”

“The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, called the budget request “woefully inadequate.” And the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, Ken Calvert, R-Calif., accused President Joe Biden of “prioritizing misguided domestic spending and partisan priorities over our warfighting needs” amid “rising global threats.””

Rashida Tlaib and Biden Official Were Featured Speakers at Conference So Controversial It Lost Its Corporate Sponsor

The Washington Free Beacon reports: Democratic representative Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Biden State Department appointee Sara Minkara spoke at a Harvard University conference, even after the conference lost its top corporate sponsor due to the participation of anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour. McKinsey & Company, the white-shoe consulting firm, pulled its sponsorship of the conference after discovering Sarsour "had a history of anti-Semitic comments," it said in a statement.

Jewish Groups Criticize Second Gentleman’s Comparison of Anger at School Board Meetings to Holocaust Hatred

Jewish organizations have condemned Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff for comparing anger at school board meetings to hatred surrounding the Holocaust. The Republican Jewish Coalition slammed Emhoff for the parallel and said this exemplified a bigger issue. “Jews do not feel safe on the streets of Joe Biden’s America, and rightfully so. Antisemitic hate crimes in the United States are at the highest on record—with a 20 percent increase from 2020 to 2021, according to the FBI,” said the group’s national political director, Sam Markstein.

RJC offices are open! Contact information for our offices can be found on our website. 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.