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Several news reports this week point to increasing pressure on Israel from the Biden administration.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order today that aims to punish Israeli settlers who have attacked Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The Republican Jewish Coalition condemned the executive order, saying: "This executive order is about cold, calculated politics - plain and simple. Joe Biden and his team are watching his poll numbers crater. Today he traveled to the key battleground state of Michigan, home of the largest Arab-American population in the United States, desperate for some sort of political “win” with his fervently anti-Israel base in the Democratic Party. It’s a disgrace." Read the full RJC statement here.

Also this week, NBC News reported that the Biden administration is discussing slowing down some of the weapon deliveries to Israel to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scale back his military assault in ... The sources told NBC the administration is determining what possible weaponry can be used as leverage against Netanyahu, but no final decision has been made. [emphasis added]

In addition, JNS reports that the Biden administration is bucking decades of US foreign policy by considering a plan to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, despite deep opposition to the move within Israel.

See also: Republicans slam Biden’s plan.

Thousands of RJC members have emailed their Senators and Congressman to urge them to stand firm against the Biden administration's pressure on Israel.

Please take a moment to remind your Congressman and Senators: It’s Israel that has proven over and over again its willingness to make peace and the Palestinians, including the Palestinian Authority, that have repeatedly rejected efforts to make peace. Help us send a powerful message that as long as the Palestinian Authority is still rewarding terrorist murderers through its massive "pay-for-slay" subsidies and refusing to condemn the October 7th atrocities, it remains unfit to administer a Palestinian state.

The RJC Victory Fund is engaged in a significant independent expenditure in support of Jewish congressional candidate Mazi Pilip. The IE consists of hyper-targeted direct mail, hard-hitting digital ads, and a robust grassroots field operation to turn out Jewish voters in the special election race for New York’s 3rd district.

See one of the RJC Victory Fund’s digital ads here.

In an interview with The Jewish Star newspaper, Mazi commented on the “big difference” between her and her Democratic opponent over Israel:

“I grew up there. I served in the Army. I know Israel from the bottom all the way up. I know it all,” she said…

Pilip questioned [Tom] Suozzi’s pro-Israel credentials, alleging that as a member of the House he failed to challenge its anti-Israel “Squad” and even — as her campaign extrapolated from a comment Suozzi made in a televised interview in 2019 — asked “to be one their honorary members.”

Contribute to the RJC Victory Fund and help us get out the vote for Mazi Pilip!

RJC NY has exciting news! With the NY-3 Special Election approaching on February 13, Republican Jewish Coalition members will be out in FULL FORCE in support of RJC-endorsed former IDF soldier MAZI PILIP.

Winning this battleground seat is critical to maintaining the GOP majority in the House of Representatives. As antisemitism continues to spike across the country, electing Jewish candidates like Mazi Pilip is more important than ever - AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!

RJC NY will have boots on the ground, connecting with Jewish voters throughout the district, through Election Day. We’ll also do phone banking and other remote outreach. Everyone is welcome! If you or anyone you know may be interested in joining us in our grassroots Jewish outreach efforts, please email RJC Field Representative Robert Boam at [email protected].

UNRWA is the UN agency tasked with taking care of Palestinian refugees. It is the only UN organization devoted to a single community and Palestinians are the only "refugee" population that has grown over the years, because UNRWA defines refugees to include all the descendants of the Arabs who were resident in Palestine in 1946-1948, no matter where they live now.

UNRWA is also, in the words of Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, "a front for Hamas." Early this week, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal ran stories based on Israeli intelligence materials that revealed that UNRWA staff participated in Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Those reports covered the involvement of 12 UNRWA employees in the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel and pointed to Israeli findings that as many as 10% of the UN agency’s 12,000-strong Gaza staff have ties to Islamist terrorist groups.

You can read a declassified version of the Israeli report here.

Hamas are the authoritarian Islamist rulers of Gaza and they tightly control access to jobs, such as in UNRWA schools, and the distribution of aid from UNRWA, so the deep connection between the terrorist group and the UN agency has long been understood in Israel, even as it has mostly gone unmentioned in the West.

Now the lid has been blown off that connection, and the US and other governments have responded by pausing their funding of UNRWA. UNRWA has an annual budget of roughly $1.2 billion dollars, about 75% of which comes from the US and EU countries.

UN Watch has the list of countries that have suspended UNRWA funding, which currently includes: United States, Germany, European Union, Sweden, Japan, France, Switzerland, Canada, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Austria, Finland, New Zealand, Iceland, Romania, and Estonia.

Republicans in Congress have responded strongly to the news:

• Last weekend, Jewish Insider reported that congressional Republicans blasted the Biden administration for resuming US aid to UNRWA after President Donald Trump had terminated it in 2021.

• This week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing to investigate UNRWA. While conducting the hearing, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) said that it appears the Biden administration may have waited to announce the pause in funding until after tens of millions of dollars were disbursed on or before January 24.

• Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has introduced legislation to permanently block the US from providing funds for UNRWA.

• A group of 18 Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging him to rescind US funds already provided to UNRWA.

No one is surprised to learn that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders called the aid pause "unacceptable" and demanded that the US immediately resume funding to UNRWA.

Douglas Murray writes at the New York Post:

Over the weekend, I sat down with the Israeli prime minister at the country’s security HQ in Tel Aviv for an exclusive interview. During it, he issued an urgent warning to the US.

"I’ve told President Biden, I’ve told all the leaders who came here, this is your war as well because this is not merely a minor skirmish. This is part of a major confrontation between the moderate axis of Israel and the moderate Arab states against Iran. Its proxies are killing Americans as we speak."

I asked the prime minister if he meant the dozens of attacks on US bases in Iraq since Oct. 7. "Not just Iraq," he said.

Hours later, news emerged of the drone strike on American soldiers in Jordan.

The Biden administration has already blamed Iran for the attack that left three US servicemen dead and at least 34 injured.

GOP Jews Ask Senate to Nix Anti-Israel Judicial Nominee

David Israel reports at The Jewish Press:

The Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday asked the US Senate to reject President Biden’s nomination of NJ lawyer Adeel Mangi, 46, for the Third Circuit of the US Court of Appeals.

…“Mangi’s radical affiliations should have disqualified him from being nominated for a lifetime judicial appointment,” the RJC wrote.

… The RJC contended that “Desperate to avoid addressing the actual concerns Republican Senators and Jewish organizations have raised, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and other Mangi defenders have baselessly alleged that those opposed to the nomination are motivated by religious bigotry. But deflection tactics won’t protect Senate Democrats from accountability for this vote.”

Read the full statement here.

Sam Markstein on Talkline With Zev Brenner

RJC Political Director Sam Markstein was featured on Talkline with Zev Brenner, the leading Jewish radio program, for a conversation on the Jewish vote, the RJC’s efforts in the upcoming special election in NY-3, and our Jewish voter outreach in 2024.

Georgia Governor Kemp signs bill using IHRA to define Jew-hatred

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill that uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism to define Jew-hatred in state law… The legislation, which Kemp signed on Wednesday, had passed the state Senate 44-6 and the state House 129-5.

Tratt: Border security and Jewish Americans

While current levels of illegal immigration threaten to unsettle America’s Western traditional ethos, Jewish Americans, who for decades have been integrated and accepted by our nation’s cultural fabric, stand to suffer the most should the influx of foreigners continue under the present immigration calculus. Contained among the unscreened individuals entering the US are rising cohorts who reject the values tied to American exceptionalism, religious liberty and tolerance.

…The safety of American Jews is tied to nurturing our nation and protecting its borders, whose safeguarding has proved pivotal in shaping the Jewish American experience. Navigating new truths requires disassociating from progressive dogma and ensuring that tightening immigration laws is first on the 2024 Jewish policy priority list.

Spencer: Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history

No military fighting an entrenched enemy in dense urban terrain in an area barely twice the size of Washington DC can avoid all civilian casualties. Reports of over 25,000 Palestinians killed, be they civilians or Hamas, have made headlines. But Israel has taken more measures to avoid needless civilian harm than virtually any other nation that's fought an urban war.

Democrats brace for anti-Israel protests at Chicago convention

Gabby Deutsch reports at Jewish Insider on the phenomenon of President Joe Biden’s campaign events being interrupted by pro-Hamas protesters. She writes: "Some Democrats are beginning to think about how to handle similar disruptions at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August, where such protests are viewed as an inevitability." One Democratic operative expressed concern that some of the protesters could be high-ranking Democratic Party officials, who would be hard to exclude from convention events.

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.