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This Week:

• What Conservatism Should Stand For ... And Against
• RJC Legislative Priorities Move Forward in Congress
• RJC in the News
• Internal Hamas Documents Reveal Terror Group's Infiltration of UN-Affiliated Aid Groups in Gaza
• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets
• Upcoming Events

What Conservatism Should Stand For ... And Against

Robert P. George is a professor of law at Princeton University and a highly respected conservative intellectual. He resigned his position on the Heritage Foundation board of trustees after the organization's president, Kevin Roberts, posted a video defending Tucker Carlson's interview with Nick Fuentes.

In an op-ed in the Washington Post today, Prof. George lays out the clear moral case for conservatives to "draw the bright line" that excludes bigots and antisemites from the conservative movement.

He writes:

Extremism and bigotry have no place in the conservative movement. They are contrary to the central things conservatives should be dedicating themselves to conserving, namely, the biblical principle of the inherent dignity of every member of the human family, and the civic principle that human beings are "created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."

A plea to my fellow conservatives to draw a bright line against bigotry is not a call to "cancellation." Individuals who hold extremist or bigoted views possess the same right to express their opinions as everyone else has. I would fight — indeed, I have fought — to protect their free speech rights despite my profound rejection of their beliefs.

What I am doing is reminding conservatives that we stand for certain things. Therefore, not everything is up for grabs or negotiable. Nor is everyone, irrespective of their beliefs, welcome in the conservative movement. Unless you share conservatism's core values, then you are not with us in standing for what our movement exists to conserve.

This article is worthy of your time and attention.

RJC Legislative Priorities Move Forward in Congress

• Senate passes bill to identify Jewish US soldiers buried under incorrect religious markers

The Fallen Servicemembers Religious Heritage Restoration Act, S. 1318, passed the Senate unanimously on November 20. The companion bill in the House, H.R. 2701, passed unanimously on September 15.

There are an estimated 900 Jewish American servicemembers killed in action during World War I and World War II mistakenly buried overseas under Latin Crosses, rather than the Jewish Star of David. The bill directs the American Battle Monuments Commission to develop a program to identify and research these servicemembers, contact surviving descendants and facilitate changes to grave markers.

• Senate panel advances Trump nominee on Jew-hatred

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations advanced the nomination of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to be the Trump administration's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism in a bipartisan vote. The US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism is a position within the State Department and has a mandate to fight antisemitism overseas.

• House committee advances Muslim Brotherhood terrorism bill in bipartisan vote

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on a bipartisan basis on Wednesday to advance a bill designating the entire Muslim Brotherhood globally as a terrorist organization, weeks after the Trump administration took action to target certain branches of the group.

The legislation is more expansive than the Trump administration’s executive order, which authorizes designating individual branches of the Muslim Brotherhood. The bill would mandate the administration conduct assessments of all Muslim Brotherhood branches to determine if they meet the standard for designation as terrorist groups, and ultimately designate the entire Muslim Brotherhood network based on those findings.

• House unanimously approves barring anyone tied to Hamas' Oct 7 attack from entering US

The House unanimously passed a bill on Monday barring anyone who participated in or facilitated Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel from being admitted into the United States. The Republican-led legislation is called the "No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act of 2025". It also prevents members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, or the PLO from entering the United States.

RJC in the News

Politico: Top Jewish donors take stock of GOP infighting over Israel and antisemitism

Top Republican Jewish donors are beginning to confront a growing antisemitism problem in their party, but have yet to find consensus on how to respond.

…Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said his organization will focus on targeting any Fuentes-backed candidates. "We just have to ensure that none of those people get through the wire and get elected, because that's how, as we saw on the Democratic side, they're able to infiltrate and take over the party," Brooks said.

Brooks, along with other Republicans, suggested that antisemitism is still relegated to the outskirts of the GOP. In interviews at the RJC's annual leadership summit last month, Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN), the longest serving Republican Jew in Congress, and Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), a staunchly pro-Israel freshman who calls himself the "Hebrew Hammer," said antisemitism is only on the "fringes" of the Republican Party.

…As the Republican Party begins to reckon with a post-Trump future, that battle will likely play a central role in the 2028 presidential race, when potential heirs will seek the support of pro-Israel voters and donors. Ari Fleischer told reporters at the RJC summit last month that candidates' response to antisemitism will "be one of these issues that's going to define" the Republican presidential primary.

RJC CEO Matt Brook's remarks at the Rescuing the American Dream Policy Summit

Sen. Rick Scott's "Rescuing the American Dream" conference in Washington, DC today featured remarks from RJC CEO Matt Brooks. Video here.

Internal Hamas Documents Reveal Terror Group's Infiltration of UN-Affiliated Aid Groups in Gaza

Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon reports:

Hamas operatives infiltrated dozens of UN-affiliated aid groups in Gaza between 2018 and 2022, embedding personnel into senior positions to direct humanitarian operations on the ground and ensure the groups served Hamas's interests, internal security documents uncovered by Israeli forces and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

The documents, authored by Hamas's internal security apparatus, detail for the first time how the terror group systematically co-opted nonprofits affiliated with the United Nations and the governments of multiple Western countries, including the United States.

Read NGO Monitor's full report here.

Join the Celebration! RJC at 40

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Please consider making a gift to the RJC today in honor of our 40 years of growth and success.

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Short Takes

Michaels: I Want a Democratic Party That Believes Jewish Lives Matter

For decades I championed women's rights, reproductive choice, civil rights and equality. As a Jew, I was especially drawn to the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., for whom Zionism—the Jewish longing for self-determination—was inseparable from the universal struggle for human rights.

…Then came Oct. 7, 2023. The massacre of Israelis and Jewish Americans was a moral earthquake. It forced me to confront the reality that members of my own party responded not with grief or solidarity with the victims but with protests that framed the attack as "resistance." It horrified me.

…The Democratic Party has allowed and lately encouraged the normalization of rhetoric that dehumanizes Jews and distorts history. There is a major shift in the party. It has become acceptable to be an antisemite who hates Israel. I cannot be affiliated with a party that espouses that message.

…I may feel politically alone in this moment, but I am not alone. Countless Jews and Americans want this party to succeed yet feel unspoken for and unrepresented…

For the first time in my life, I am politically homeless. I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.

JNS: Iron Beam laser defense system set for IDF launch

Israel's Iron Beam ("Magen Or" in Hebrew) laser defense system will begin defending against aerial threats at the end of the month, the country's Defense Ministry announced on Monday…

The system uses a 100-kilowatt laser to intercept rockets, mortars and UAVs at a range of more than 6 miles (10 kilometers), at a fraction of the cost of traditional interceptors. The estimated cost per firing is about $2 to $5, compared to $40,000 to $80,000 for a single Iron Dome interceptor.

The Iron Beam—to be renamed "Ohr Eitan" ("Eitan's Light") after Eitan Oster, who fell in battle in Lebanon and whose father was one of its developers—will be integrated into the Israel Defense Forces' air defense array.

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