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Commentary: The Right Side on the Republican Jewish Coalition
RJC Leader Bob Gardner of Sonoma, California, wrote about his experiences at the RJC Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas in October and offers his impressions of the GOP presidential candidates who spoke.

Bringing American Jews To The Right Side Of Politics
RJC Political Director Sam Markstein was interviewed by Jimmy Barrett of KTRH talk radio in Houston, Texas, about the outlook for the Jewish vote in 2024. Listen here.

Jewish Policy Center Senior Director Shoshana Bryen criticizes President Joe Biden for trying to stay on Iran’s good side while Iran’s proxies attack Israel and the US:

…[I]t is Iran that has collapsed governments in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. It is Iran that funds Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It is Iran that is working to undermine Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Abraham Accords countries. It is Iran-sponsored militias that have attacked American troops in Syria and Iraq.

And it is the United States that is a) unwilling to call out Iran, and b) unwilling to make the mullahs in Tehran pay a price for their monstrous behavior… Rewarding Iran while its proxies attack our ally Israel as well as our own troops is the definition of playing both sides.

Shoshana Bryen will be in Atlanta on December 17 for a community event, to discuss Iran and other issues of concern to the American Jewish community. See our event listings, below, for details.

President Joe Biden’s softness toward Iran has very real consequences because Iran is a serious adversary intent on implementing its fanatical religious and military program for hegemony.

The Real Reason Iran Hates Israel

Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh write at the Wall Street Journal that antisemitism is at the very core of Iran’s world-view and policies:

Iranian expansionism—its support to radical militias throughout the Middle East—is impossible to understand properly without seeing the world as Iranian leaders do. They believe they are fighting a Jewish conspiracy that controls the West and intends to humble Muslims everywhere. Hamas’s war against Israel is part of that struggle.

Iran’s 'Controlled Insurgency' Against the US in Syria and Iraq

Jonathan Spyer analyzes the actions of Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria since October 7. In both places, attacks against US forces have increased. He states:

Evidence suggests that a concerted and centrally planned Iranian campaign is under way.

…These various assets in Iraq and Syria have begun a campaign of harassment of and low-level insurgency against US forces in both countries. This decision appears to have been taken following Oct. 7, and to form part of the Iran-led regional axis’s more general effort at a limited, controlled mobilization against Israel, in line with its stated goal of a “unification of the fronts”—while stopping short of the kind of activities which would be sure to provoke a large-scale response from Israel or the United States.

…At present, this controlled, partial mobilization consists of three components: Yemeni Houthi drone and missile attacks against Israel, Lebanese Hezbollah’s ongoing and escalating attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border, and the mobilization of militias in Syria and Iraq against US targets and to a lesser extent against Israeli targets. So far, both the Israeli and US responses to these activities have been restrained, intended to avoid deterioration to war.

The Hamas-Iran Relationship

Counterterrorism expert Dr. Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy analyzes the connections between Hamas and Iran. He finds:

Iran has funded, armed, trained, and provided intelligence to Hamas for decades. Though Hamas has multiple income streams, funding from Iran has been especially important for the group’s military and terrorist structures. As US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan concluded when asked about Iran’s role in the Hamas attack, "We have said since the beginning: Iran is complicit in [the October 7] attack in a broad sense because they provided the lion’s share of the funding for the military arm of Hamas."

…Since its formation in late 1987, Hamas has received and continues to receive significant financial and other support from Iran… Iran’s provision of support to Hamas has continued to grow over time, especially after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force from fellow Palestinians in 2007. According to a 2010 US Department of Defense report on Iran’s military power, Iran provided Hezbollah and several Palestinian terrorist groups—including Hamas—"with funding, weapons, and training to oppose Israel and disrupt the Middle East Peace Process," noting that such assistance was at that time smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor (which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border). The State Department parsed no words in 2012 explaining Hamas used smuggling tunnels from Egypt and maritime smuggling routes to import weapons from Iran into Gaza. Since 2007, State noted, Hamas "dedicated the majority of its activity in Gaza to solidifying its control, hardening its defenses, building its weapons caches, tightening security, and conducting limited operations against Israeli military forces."

…Today, US and Israeli officials estimate that Iran provides Hamas at least $70m-$100m a year. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh claimed in a 2022 interview with Al Jazeera that his group receives $70 million a year from Iran.

Only strong leaders will preserve future Jewish generations

RJC Board of Directors member Irit Tratt writes: "Creating conditions under which progressive antisemitism was able to slip under the institutional radar helped advance antisemitic activity across our nation's universities. The ideological synergy among left-wing politicians, professors and several prominent Jewish groups helped foster an unsettling academic landscape. Preserving future Jewish generations requires leaders who uphold political discipline and embrace their duty to protect Jewish security."

‘Antizionism’ is the most lethal form of antisemitism out there

Ben Cohen writes: "The anti-Zionists of the 21st century are not simply rejecting the idea of a Jewish state; they are depicting the Jewish state as the root of the world’s evil, dedicated to the murder of children and the carpet-bombing of civilian areas as it pursues its nefarious goal of colonizing Palestine and permanently displacing its indigenous Arab inhabitants. What we are dealing with here is not 'criticism' of Israel’s policies, but outrage that Jews are even in a position where they can make policy! To illustrate this without any ambiguity requires the removal of the hyphen from the term 'anti-Zionism,' so as to show that what is being pushed is not merely an objection to the program of the World Zionist Organization, but a full-blown conspiracy theory that transfers traditional antisemitic tropes about Jews to the Jewish state. Like antisemitism, 'antizionism' is genocidal in intent. And in the wake of the atrocities of Oct. 7, one can argue that it is the most lethal form of antisemitism in existence today."

Russian court extends detention of WSJ reporter

We should not forget that another Jewish hostage is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison: "A Russian court ruled to extend the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for a third time since he was taken into custody in March on an allegation of espionage that he, the Journal and the US government vehemently deny… 'Evan has now been unjustly imprisoned for nearly 250 days, and every day is a day too long,' the Journal said in a statement. 'The accusations against him are categorically false and his continued imprisonment is a brazen and outrageous attack on a free press, which is critical for a free society.'"

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