View in Browser

Analyses of the Biden administration’s ongoing "quiet diplomacy" with Iran point to two issues of particular concern: the attempt to hide the developing agreement from congressional scrutiny, and what these negotiations say about the administration’s relationship with – and intentions toward – the state of Israel.

Matthew Continetti writes at the Washington Free Beacon:

According to news reports, Biden is prepared to authorize billions of dollars in payments to Iran in exchange for the release of US prisoners, a halt to militia attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, a moratorium on ballistic-missile sales to Russia, and a freeze on uranium enrichment at 60 percent (90 percent enriched uranium is considered weapons-grade). Biden will say this perverse arrangement is necessary to free innocents and prevent the outbreak of war. What he won’t be able to do is call it a deal.

Biden can’t call the agreement a deal because he wants to avoid congressional review. The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 forbids the president from relieving nuclear-related sanctions on the Islamic Republic without congressional approval. The administration’s end run around the law is clever. It is also pathetic.

This deal that dare not speak its name will have no force. It will rely entirely on the goodwill of the 84-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a grizzled trickster and ally of Vladimir Putin. The New York Times reports that Khamenei has authorized the deal because it leaves Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in place. The second Biden begins to doubt the wisdom of paying further ransom money, Khamenei will start spinning his centrifuges once more. And if paramilitaries controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fire mortars on Americans — well, he could say the bloodshed came from militants over whom he exercises no control.

Republicans in Congress are warning the White House that any agreement with Iran must be submitted to Congress.

Michael Doran looks at the Biden administration’s negotiations with Iran and offers a provocative analysis of the current US-Israel relationship at Tablet: "The Biden administration says it is protecting Israel and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. It is doing the exact opposite." Doran writes:

Among the American national security elite, there exists an entrenched school of thought supporting the Iran realignment, but which does not advertise its existence too loudly, for fear of running afoul of the pro-Israel community. That school of thought rests on five core convictions. First, the Middle East no longer matters as much to the United States as it once did. Second, America’s allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, have forced the United States, historically, to take a tougher stance on Iran than is strictly necessary on the basis of a cold calculation of the American interest. Third, a major Israeli-Iranian conflict risks sucking the United States into a costly and unnecessary war with Iran. Fourth, offensive countermeasures, in the form of punitive military strikes or aggressive economic sanctions such as those imposed by the Trump administration, are also a slippery slope to war. Fifth, and most importantly, a war to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is a worse outcome than simply containing a nuclear-armed Iran, just as North Korea, Pakistan, and other nuclear-armed states have been more or less successfully contained.

These convictions lead inexorably to the conclusion, always unstated, that Israel’s hostility to Iran is a threat to the national security of the United States. They turn managing Israel, suppressing its supposed bellicosity, into a strategic priority of American foreign policy.

... Formulating a policy that looks, tastes, and feels like a pro-Israel orientation but that delivers Iran appeasement is no mean feat. To accomplish this illusion, Biden and his team are proceeding along four tracks simultaneously...

The entire piece is worth your time.

RJC Board of Directors member Sander Gerber writes in an op-ed at the New York Post:

[The Taylor Force Act] urges our UN representative to "use the voice, vote and influence of the United States at the United Nations" and the State Department "to use its bilateral and multilateral engagements" to highlight the issue of pay-for-slay and push for governments to stop funding the PA.

The Biden administration is violating these requirements.

It has renewed aid to Palestinian and Palestinian-funding entities, like the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, potentially subsidizing the pay-to-slay program...

A senior US government official starting a speech condemning antisemitism and ending it calling for support of the perpetrator’s organization shows a shocking lack of awareness (if not administration hypocrisy).

More troubling, Team Biden’s policies and statements undercut efforts to rein in Palestinian terror.

This week, the House Armed Services Committee has been working on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024. The bill, spearheaded by committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), includes many important provisions to bolster the US-Israel alliance.

One notable provision was added by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the front-runner for an open US Senate seat in Indiana. It would require CENTCOM, the joint combatant command responsible for the Middle East, to conduct biannual exercises with Israel, including simulating large-scale and long-range strike missions and aerial refueling of Israeli aircraft. Congressman Banks said of his amendment:

The Biden administration’s desperate pursuit of an Iran Deal 2.0, which would be even more disastrous than the failed Obama-era version, enriched the IRGC and has endangered our close ally Israel by bringing Iran closer to its dream of obtaining a nuclear weapon.

It is more important than ever for Congress and the Armed Services Committee to stand with Israel, and I am proud to help defend the only democracy in the Middle East from the hostile and murderous Iranian regime. My amendment ensures that America works with Israel so that we both are ready to protect ourselves and the world from the scourge of a nuclear Iran.

Doubts have been raised about whether this week’s visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing was a worthwhile exercise. The editors of National Review write:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken just spent two days in Beijing, meeting Xi Jinping’s underlings before securing an audience with the Chinese leader himself. The picture released from that final discussion showed Xi seated at the head of a table, with Blinken humiliatingly placed just to his side.

That Blinken went to China is not a problem. Indeed, there’s always an important role for high-level diplomatic contact, even with such an adversary as the Chinese Communist Party. The State Department, however, has reverted to persistent, old US habits prioritizing engagement with China for its own sake and at the expense of America’s interests...

[W]hat Team Biden has given up just to get Blinken in the room for a 35-minute meeting with Xi is far more significant.

Reports say that the State Department is slow-walking several key measures responding to Beijing’s misbehavior.

The US has historically used diplomacy and development to build economic growth and stability around the world, one example being the Marshall Plan after the Second World War. Joseph L. Votel and Liz Schrayer warn at The Hill that China is positioning itself to take that leadership role from us:

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using every element of its power to compete and win in a world they believe is up for grabs more than at any time since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Beijing’s investments in the Belt and Road Initiative already far surpass the entire Marshall Plan...

...If we don’t show up around the world, we cede the playing field to autocracies. America has the tools to engage, but we’re not using them at the scale required to compete in this century. Now chair of the newly created House China Committee, [Congressman Mike] Gallagher (R-WI) warns, "Our policy over the next 10 years will set the stage for the next hundred." He’s right.

How to combat antisemitism

In National Affairs, presidential historian and former White House staffer Tevi Troy examines the historical background of government responses to antisemitism and lays out principles for a conservative policy approach to tackling antisemitism in the US.

US ambassador slammed for ‘misguided’ equivalence between terrorists and victims

A tweet from US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides drawing an equivalence between terrorists and victims of the terrorist attack near Eli on Tuesday drew rare criticism from Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog.

RNC Talking Point Papers Released

The Republican National Committee recently released two useful talking point papers on issues of great concern to GOP voters:

• Biden Backs Down To China

• A Breakdown at the Border

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.