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The Republican Jewish Coalition celebrated the primary election victory of Tony Gonzales (TX-23) this week. RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks said:

The Republican Jewish Coalition has been crystal clear: if you stand against the Jewish community, if you stand against America's strategic ally Israel, we will work to defeat you.

Republican primary voters in TX-23 backed Congressman Tony Gonzales and rejected goose-stepping extremist Brandon Herrera. We are proud and gratified to have played a significant role in helping Congressman Gonzales defeat his challenger and we look forward to continuing to work with him in Congress.

Taking a broader view, we are heartened by our record of success in recent primary elections. Our efforts ended anti-Israel former Rep. John Hostettler's comeback bid in IN-08. And the RJC has defeated non-mainstream candidates in three straight primary elections: WV-01, NE-02, and now TX-23. We are increasingly confident that next month, VA-5 voters will fire Rep. Bob Good - an incumbent who voted against Israel when it counted most - and instead, nominate reliably pro-Israel RJC-endorsed conservative John McGuire.

NBC News reported on the RJC Victory Fund ad that pointed out why Herrera was a bad choice for TX-23 voters:

Sam Markstein, the communications director for the RJC, told NBC News before the primary runoff that the group views Gonzales as a "workhorse" in Congress and called Herrera "crazy."

… Gonzales' allies hit Herrera on the airwaves with clips from his online videos, including one in which he mocked veteran suicides by saying, "I often think about putting a gun in my mouth. So I'm basically an honorary veteran."

…Officials at the RJC tied Herrera to the current "chaos" in Congress.

"A very slim [GOP] majority, as you know, would be even more compromised and even more difficult by adding someone who would just go there to cause chaos," Markstein said.

"We don't need chaos in the House," Markstein added, "We need strong leadership and effective leadership."

JNS reports on a Department of Defense announcement that the temporary pier off the Gazan coast will be removed for repairs, after the top of the T-shaped pier separated and drifted into the coast on Tuesday. Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, told reporters that the pier would be towed to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, where the US Central Command will conduct repairs.

JNS notes that the pier system, at a cost of some $320 million, has had problems since it left Norfolk, VA, in March. Weather delayed the initial installation off the Gazan coast. On May 17, three US soldiers working on the pier were injured, one critically.

The pier itself was a bad idea that seems designed only to shore up President Joe Biden's reputation among the pro-Palestinian wing of his party, but the ultimate fate of the aid brought in via the pier is even worse.

The JNS reports that the Pentagon claims that more than 1,000 metric tons of aid were delivered during the pier's 12 days of operation. However, the aid was promptly stolen, according to another JNS report this week:

Close to three-fourths of the humanitarian aid transported from the $320 million floating pier built by the US military was stolen the previous Saturday en route to a UN warehouse.

Eleven trucks "were cleaned out by Palestinians" on the journey to the World Food Program warehouse in Deir El Balah in the central Strip, with five truckloads making it to the destination.

… According to Israeli estimates, Hamas has been stealing up to 60% of the aid entering the Gaza Strip, and a Channel 12 report last week revealed that the terrorist organization has made at least $500 million in profit off humanitarian aid since the start of the war on Oct. 7.

Today, the Republican Jewish Coalition announced its endorsement of Craig Goldman in Texas' 12th Congressional District.

RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks said:

We are proud to endorse Craig Goldman, a 5th generation Texan and a proud Jewish Republican who is known as a conservative problem solver.

Craig was elected to the Texas State House in 2012 and has been a leading voice for a secure border, lower taxes, and religious freedom. He has been a vocal defender of Israel and a fighter of antisemitism in the state legislature. His colleagues chose him to serve as Chair of the Texas House Republican Caucus.

We look forward to working with Craig Goldman in the next Congress, where he will be the third Jewish Republican member of the House, along with Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Max Miller (R-OH).

You can support Craig Goldman (TX-23) for Congress here.

Francesca Block and Eli Lake report at The Free Press:

Over the weekend, while most Americans were barbecuing and honoring our fallen soldiers, US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was in Detroit, speaking at a conference alongside two people with links to a US designated terrorist organization.

Tlaib was a surprise speaker Saturday at the three-day "People's Conference for Palestine"… In her 15-minute talk, the Michigan congresswoman accused Israel of "war crimes" and called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "murderous war criminal." She also appeared to threaten Joe Biden's election prospects in her state. Referring to the campus protesters, Tlaib stated: "It is disgraceful that the Biden administration and my colleagues in Congress continue to smear them for protesting to save lives no matter faith or ethnicity. It is cowardly. But we're not gonna forget in November, are we?"

Wissam Rafidi, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist terrorist group founded in 1967, also addressed the conference. The PFLP, which the US has designated as a terrorist organization, is not as prominent as Hamas or other terrorist groups. But has, among other things, claimed responsibility in 2019 for exploding a device that killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl in Dolev, a settlement in the West Bank.

At the conference on Friday, Rafidi said, "These Zionists lie like they breathe. I want to assure everyone that there is no longer a place for a two-state solution for any Palestinian. The only solution is one democratic Palestinian land which will end the Zionist project in Palestine." He also said: "Hamas is part of the resistance of the Palestinian people."

Video of her speech can be found on Twitter here.

Tlaib is not the only member of the "Squad" hanging out with antisemitic, anti-American folks from Michigan, as the Washington Free Beacon reports:

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) attended an awards gala this month with a Michigan cleric who called for pro-Israel members of Congress to be charged with "treason" and an activist who has repeatedly praised the terrorist group Hamas.

Khanna, a top surrogate for the Biden campaign, was in Dearborn on May 16 to accept a "Courage in Public Service Leadership" award from the Arab-American Civil Rights League. During his acceptance speech, Khanna called for an end to Israel's "occupation" of Gaza and the West Bank and reiterated his calls for a "permanent ceasefire."

Also this week, Marc Rod at the Jewish Insider reported:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) agreed with a popular far-left Twitch streamer last week that the Abraham Accords, and other US policies, were significantly responsible for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

The political streamer, Hasan Piker, said the attack was, "a direct consequence of the Abraham Accords and many of Jared Kushner's and Donald Trump's administration's actions, like moving the embassy to Jerusalem." Ocasio-Cortez, appearing on Piker's show, responded, "10,000%."

… During the stream, Ocasio-Cortez also described the Israeli operations in Gaza as a genocide.

Marc A. Thiessen, writing at the Washington Post notes that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, thinks he can also prosecute American officials who disagree with his lawless actions:

If you want to see just how out of control the International Criminal Court's prosecutor is, consider this: Not only is Karim Khan seeking charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his conduct of the war in Gaza, he is threatening to prosecute members of Congress who push back on the ICC's unlawful efforts to indict the Israeli leader.

On April 24, a group of senators led by Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter warning Khan that any attempt to prosecute Israeli officials would be "illegitimate and lack legal basis" because "neither Israel nor the United States are members of the ICC and are therefore outside of your organization's supposed jurisdiction." Cotton added that Congress would interpret an arrest warrant for Netanyahu "not only as a threat to Israel's sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States" that would result in "severe sanctions against you and your institution."

Khan's office responded in a statement saying that when "individuals threaten to retaliate against the Court or against Court personnel … such threats, even when not acted upon, may also constitute an offence against the administration of justice under Art. 70 of the Rome Statute"…

See commentary on this from former deputy assistant to the President and deputy national security advisor to President George W. Bush, Elliott Abrams, as well as the Senators' letter here. To learn more background on the ICC arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, read here.

Many eyes on Arizona Jewish voters ahead of US presidential election

Adam Kwasman, co-chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition's Arizona chapter and a former state representative, told JNS that there are 85,000 Jewish voters in the Grand Canyon State and predicted that Arizona Jews will decide whether [Joe] Biden or [Donald] Trump will win the state in November.

"In 2020, the margin of victory was 0.3% or fewer than 11,000 votes statewide," he said. "With over 85,000 Arizona voters, the Jewish community will make the decisive difference in this key battleground state."

The RJC is investing "significant" manpower and resources to attempt to do just that.

"We can shift Arizona back to the red column through Jewish mobilization alone," Kwasman told JNS. "A mere 10% shift in Jewish voting behavior wins the state."

Democrats panic over Jewish voters

After tossing Jewish voters overboard to accommodate the Hamas supporters of Dearborn, Michigan, the Democrats are starting to get nervous about the choice they made… The Jewish Democratic Council of America, which usually complacently assumes that Republicans are not actual competition, has been sending out a series of panicked emails the latest of which is headlined, "How to Persuade Your Friends that Trump is Not the Answer".

It concludes with, "Our work to ensure the Jewish electorate supports Joe Biden and Democrats has never been more important."

It doesn't take much to read between the lines and smell the fear.

… The common theme among [Joe] Biden loyalists is that American Jews should ignore their eyes and ears, and stop being so picky, that they need to trust the party and ignore all the red flags.

And yet after months of going on the offense against [Donald] Trump, Dems are playing defense.

IAEA: Iran expanding stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium

Iran's stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium has increased by 20.6 kilograms (45.5 pounds) since February, AFP reported on Monday, citing a new confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The document, which was also seen by the Associated Press, revealed that Tehran has accumulated 142.1 kilograms (313.2 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%. This level of enrichment is just a technical step from 90% enrichment, considered weapons grade.

According to the IAEA definition, it is technically possible to create an atomic bomb with roughly 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% if the material is enriched to 90%.

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