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This Week:

• RJC in the News
• Israel Joins Board of Peace
• Palestinians Want a "Back Door" Upgrade at UN
• When Society's Good Intentions for Jews Replace Equal Citizenship
• Sharansky: The Doublethinkers
• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets
• Upcoming Events

RJC in the News

JNS: Texas Republican faces another close primary challenge from YouTuber who has used Nazi imagery

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is a Navy veteran, a dedicated representative of his district, and a strong friend of Israel and the Jewish community. He faces a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber who has been criticized for using neo-Nazi imagery and references in his videos.

The RJC has previously referred to Herrera as "a goose-stepping extremist." Sam Markstein, the coalition's national political director, told JNS that the group "takes on these tough fights."

"Congressman Gonzales is a proven winner in an important district," Markstein said. "The majority is very, very thin right now, so every single one of these races absolutely matters."

"Congressman Gonzales is a very strong pro-America, pro-Israel Republican" and is "very, very strong on US national security" and "strong on the border," he said.

Gonzales has also "been an indispensable ally to the Jewish community and a strong supporter of strengthening the US-Israel alliance," Markstein told JNS. "We're going to continue to support him in 2026, and what exactly the contours of that support look like are to be announced."

"Herrera has no credibility on any of these issues," Markstein said. "He mocked veterans. He really is someone who should not be in Congress."

'Shades of gray' for pro-Israel voters between LA mayor, primary challenger

Sam Markstein, national political director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS that "Democratic primary voters in Los Angeles now have the misfortune of having to choose between total incompetence in Mayor [Karen] Bass and radicalism in Ms. [Nithya] Raman."

"Either way, the people of California's biggest city will continue to suffer," he said.

Israel Joins Board of Peace

Fox News reports:

Israel formally joined the Board of Peace on Wednesday ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.

Netanyahu signed the document in the presence of Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly before his scheduled talk with Trump, marking a diplomatic step as the two leaders prepare to discuss regional security and ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The prime minister said on X that while the talks would cover several issues, including Gaza, they would "first and foremost" center on negotiations with Iran.

Prime Minister Netanyahu was not present at the Davos meeting where 17 countries participated in the initial Gaza Board of Peace charter signing in January. A handful of other invited countries have not yet signed on.

Palestinians Want a "Back door" Upgrade at UN

JNS reports on the attempt by the Palestinian Authority to upgrade its status at the United Nations by applying for the presidency of the General Assembly:

[Riyad] Mansour is seeking to serve as president of the UN General Assembly for its 2026–2027 session, which opens on Sept. 8, after being formally nominated by the 22-member Arab Group caucus in late March.

...In May 2024, the UN General Assembly approved an unprecedented measure to give the Palestinian Authority novel rights beyond those reserved for a non-state member, including to speak on any matter before the General Assembly and to offer amendments to resolutions.

The United States on April 18, 2024, vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have afforded the Palestinians full member state recognition, claiming that Ramallah didn't have the required elements of statehood.

Mansour's nomination is expected to set up a confrontation with the Trump administration, with a US State Department spokesperson telling JNS last year that Washington "opposes the Palestinian Authority's candidacy for UN General Assembly president."

When Society's Good Intentions for Jews Replace Equal Citizenship

Samuel J. Abrams writes at The Algemeiner on the key distinction between society "recognizing" the rights of a minority community versus establishing equality in the structure of society. He cites George Washington's letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport as the model. In that 1790 letter, Washington wrote:

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

Samuel emphasizes that in American tradition, "belonging is presumed, not conferred. The government does not identify groups, affirm them, or protect them through recognition. It simply refuses to make identity the basis of civic standing."

This is different from the "affirmation" model found in today's institutions: "DEI replaces equal citizenship with managed identity. It reduces civic standing to recognition, safety to visibility, equality to representation. It grants institutions precisely the authority that liberal pluralism once denied them."

Samuels writes:

...American Jews did not flourish because institutions learned to include them. They flourished because the regime limited the authority of institutions to decide who belonged at all. Jews attended public schools, served in the military, and entered professions — not because administrators welcomed them, but because the law made no provision for excluding them. That is pluralism as structure, not performance.

DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion — inverts this. It treats belonging as something institutions must actively produce. Once belonging is conferred, it becomes conditional and, therefore, unstable.

... If Jewish security comes to depend on institutional affirmation rather than civic equality, Jews will be less secure, not more. And if this model becomes dominant, it will erode pluralism for everyone. No minority should want its standing to depend on recognition. No society should delegate belonging to administrators. No liberal order survives when citizenship is replaced by curation.

... As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Jews should be clear-eyed about this distinction. A pluralistic society is strongest when belonging is presumed rather than curated, and when citizenship is treated as a baseline rather than a reward.

Sharansky: The Doublethinkers

Natan Sharansky, with Gil Troy, writes at Tablet magazine:

As the Party Line you follow publicly becomes increasingly disconnected from what you believe or see or experience privately, your cynicism grows along with your mental agility—your skill in living and writing in two contradictory scripts at once. That's how you become a doublethinker.

... When my father came home from work, he could leave the suffocating grey false universe he helped to create behind, and welcome his beloved family into a full-color world. From the time we were very young, he would tell us stories on three levels—explaining to us what the author said, what the author wished to say, and what the author could not say.

... I would never escape from this life of doublethink with all my Ivory Tower half-measures, I realized. Eventually, I became a Soviet Jewish Refusenik and a Soviet dissident, fighting for my identity, which included insisting on my right to live as a free Jew in our homeland, Israel, while fighting for freedom, which included championing human rights for all people, whether they lived in the Soviet Union or Israel, or anyplace else on earth.

... To preserve our integrity and our souls, the quality of our political debate and the creativity so essential to our cultural life, we need a Twitter Test challenging bottom-up cultural totalitarianism that is spreading throughout free societies. That test asks: In the democratic society in which you live, can you express your individual views loudly, in public and in private, on social media and at rallies, without fear of being shamed, excommunicated, or cancelled? Ultimately, whether you will live as a democratic doublethinker doesn't depend on the authorities or on the corporations that run social media platforms: it depends on you. Each of us individually decides whether we want to submit to the crippling indignity of doublethink, or break the chains that keep us from expressing our own thoughts, and becoming whole.

Short Takes

JNS: Trump invited to receive Israel Prize in Jerusalem

Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Kisch on Tuesday invited US President Donald Trump to attend the Israel Prize Award Ceremony in Jerusalem on April 22 at which he will be awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Special Contribution to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

...Kisch's ministry oversees the prizes, which are awarded annually on Israel's Independence Day.

Free Beacon: Hamas works to re-arm, not disarm

Hamas is working to replenish its military arsenal even as the second phase of President Donald Trump's peace plan requires the terror group to disarm, according to photos released by the Israel Defense Forces and statements from Hamas leaders. Hamas has conducted an increasing number of attacks against Israeli soldiers in recent days, while the IDF has discovered explosives hidden in United Nations provisions close to the ceasefire line where Israeli forces are operating.

... Hamas has also continued to rely on civilian infrastructure to hide its movements from Israel and from international observers in the territory. Israeli drones last Wednesday captured footage of Hamas terrorists using ambulances to transfer "terrorists and weapons from a hospital to a school" in northern Gaza's Jabalia neighborhood.

Free Beacon: Mamdani hires slew of anti-Israel activists

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) has stocked a variety of operational roles in his administration with a cadre of anti-Israel extremists, including a man who called people who ripped down flyers of Israeli hostages "heroes" and a woman who led a college divestment movement, among other radicals.

... News of lower-level staffers bearing extremist views, particularly on Israel, comes after a wave of stories about how anti-Israel radicalism has permeated Mamdani's administration. On Tuesday, a newly created "Global Oppression Working Group" within the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that accuses Israel of genocide met for the first time. The meeting included a presentation calling for a boycott of companies that do business in Israel but made no mention of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack. On Wednesday, Mamdani replaced the executive director of the Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism with a left-wing activist who has bashed Israel. Rabbi Moshe Davis, the ousted former leader of the office, told the Free Beacon that he believed his dismissal came because he is a "proud Jew" who supports Israel.

Waller: I infiltrated radical groups 40 years ago. Leftists are desperate for martyrs

It appears that agitators are trying to spark confrontations with federal law enforcement that could lead to protesters being harmed, even killed, to spark outrage and support for their cause.

It's a sick story. It sounds outrageous. But it's true, and everything old is new again.

I saw it 40 years ago and testified about it to Congress. Today we are seeing again: Inserting American citizens into flash points as part of a political strategy to get people shot for the purpose of inflaming the public against a president and his policies.

The recent deaths of two Minneapolis protesters reminded me of what I had learned as a 24-year-old in the mid-1980s while infiltrating radical groups – much as people in their 20s are doing today.

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