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This Week:

• Matt Brooks: The House Just Showed America Which Party Still Stands with Israel: The Republican Party
• RJC Creates Lindsey Graham Statesman Award as Jewish Leaders Pay Tribute

• Remembering Shoshana Bryen, "The Intellectual Heart" of the Jewish Policy Center

• RJC in the News

• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets
• Upcoming Events

The RJC's Annual Leadership Summit is just weeks away and we're excited to announce these CONFIRMED guests!

Join us August 30 - September 1 in Las Vegas!
Click HERE to register today!

RJC to Award First "Lindsey Graham Statesman Award" at Leadership Summit in Las Vegas

RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman announced on Tuesday that the RJC would award the inaugural Lindsey Graham Statesman Award at the RJC's annual leadership summit at the end of August, which will be dedicated to the late South Carolina.

Jewish Insider reports on Senator Coleman's remarks at a virtual community tribute event organized by the Israeli-American Council:

"To our Jewish community, Lindsey was more than an ally. He was family and he said so himself. Reflecting once on how our community had rallied around him, he put it simply, 'We are family,' and he meant it," Coleman said. "At the RJC leadership summit taking place next month in Las Vegas, we will be dedicating the event in his memory and awarding the first annual Lindsey Graham Statesman Award."

Coleman said that Graham's sudden death was a loss for the Jewish community and for the US as a whole, telling attendees, "Our hearts break because Lindsey had so much left to give. He was not finished. There were more fights he wanted to win, more people he wanted to lift up, more good he wanted to do. We were not ready to lose him."

"Our community is diminished tonight. The United States is diminished tonight, but every one of us who knew Lindsey Graham is richer for it and better for it," he said.

Remembering Shoshana Bryen, "The Intellectual Heart" of the Jewish Policy Center

The Jewish Policy Center is a prominent conservative think tank that provides timely perspectives and analysis of foreign and domestic policies by leading scholars, academics, and commentators.

​Shoshana Bryen, who served as the Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center for fourteen years, passed away last week after a long struggle with cancer.

In a tribute to Shoshana Bryen, the Jewish Policy Center stated:

Shoshana was the intellectual heart of the JPC. She served as Senior Director and edited inFOCUS Quarterly into a serious and widely read journal of ideas and policy. She brought clarity, conviction, and a lifetime of expertise in American defense policy and Middle East affairs to everything she touched. Her voice was fearless and unmistakable, and her insight shaped the thinking of countless colleagues, readers, and leaders

A leading specialist in US defense policy and Middle East affairs, she worked with the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College and the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, lectured at the National Defense University, and reached a broad public through decades of columns and commentary.

… Shoshana devoted herself to the security of the United States and Israel and to the strength of the Jewish people. She mentored many and made this world better than she found it. May her memory be a blessing.

In a letter of condolence to the Bryen family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote of Mrs. Bryen's "singular contribution to building the alliance between Israel and the United States… Her work has brought our nations closer to the benefit of both our countries and the entire world."

Read more here:

• JNS: Shoshana Bryen, pro-Israel foreign-policy expert, dies in her early 70s

• Washington Examiner: Shoshana Bryen, 1953-2026

• JPC: Shoshana Bryen's articles on the Jewish Policy Center web site

RJC in the News

Politico: Republican Jewish Coalition endorses Darline Graham

The Republican Jewish Coalition will back Sen. Darline Graham in the South Carolina special election, the clearest sign yet that the pro-Israel movement is confident Graham will follow in her late brother's footsteps on foreign policy.

"Senator Lindsey Graham dedicated his life in service to our country and was the best friend of the Jewish people and for the cause of liberty in the US Senate," said RJC national chair Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks in a statement. "We trust his beloved sister to carry the fight forward."

… Still, the RJC's endorsement suggests the country's leading Jewish Republican organization is confident that she will be a fierce defender of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Coleman, who served with Lindsey Graham in Congress, referenced his old colleague's words in the RJC's joint statement to praise his sister.

"As Senator Lindsey Graham said of his sister in a 2015 interview, 'If she took a role on, she would be a great representative of our country. I can't think of a better person,'" Coleman and Brooks said. "He trusted her and her judgment more than anyone else's."

Newsmax: RJC National Chairman Norm Coleman on Sen. Lindsey Graham

RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman spoke about his friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, about his clear principles and his passion for getting things done. Sen. Graham was filled with life and joy, and had a phenomenal sense of humor. He was irrepressible, but also focused on making a difference in people's lives.

Senator Coleman concluded: "May his memory be a blessing to all who care about peace, care about democracy, who care about the US-Israel relationship, and care about America."

Watch the interview here.

Short Takes

Rogovin: Iran’s vastly understated nuclear potential

In a sharply worded op-ed at JNS, Jarrow Rogovin looks at the vast stores of highly enriched uranium IHEU) that Iran possesses. While these nuclear materials are at different levels of enrichment, all of them could, fairly quickly, be made weapons-grade. Rogovin writes:

“It should be asked why Iran has so much HEU and no bomb. It is because Iran was finalizing the work on 'weaponization.' This weaponization was obviously delayed for Iran to slowly, step by step, one violation of the 2015 nuclear deal after another, build up its inventory so when it weaponized, it would not merely test its 'first nuke.'

"Instead, it would demonstrate its achievement backed up by another three dozen bombs or more. The plan was the nuclear version of Iran’s conventional ballistic-missile shield policy: Make it so massive that Iran is immune from attack."

Altman: I Was in the DSA. Here’s What They Really Believe.

I was a member of the DSA from the 2010s until 2022. During that time, I witnessed a rise in extremism, ranging from an eagerness to collaborate with Leninist groups to a growing animosity toward the US and the West.

… So what does the DSA stand for? An answer to that question arrived last week in the form of a new platform. Among the DSA’s core aims are ending the presidency and Supreme Court. Abolishing prisons. Universal free housing. The elimination of all debt. Closing all US military bases overseas. Lifting all sanctions from Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran. And so much more.

“Workers Deserve More!”—the title of the new platform—is meant to present a friendlier face to the world and overcome the radical reputation the organization has developed in many corners of the public. That makes it even more remarkable that the document is still so radical on its face.

… Do not be fooled by defenders who claim the utopianism of DSA’s platform is merely a far-flung aspiration—a vision planned for some ersatz new Jerusalem far over the horizon. It takes concrete shape in policy today. When DSA demanded that Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who they endorsed, not increase the number of police in New York, the mayor caved. The DSA’s utopianism, its flawed belief in human perfectibility, will have real-world consequences now.

Geraghty: Mamdani Finally Admits He Can't Arrest Bibi

In his campaign for mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

​Jim Geraghty at National Review lists the many legal and other reasons why the idea of arresting Netanyahu in New York is what we might call in Yiddish narishkeit (foolishness). Geraghty notes that Tuesday night, in a short video statement, Mamdani acknowledged that he has no authority, and never had any authority, to carry out his campaign promise.

Geraghty wrote: "In the end, Mamdani is like the kid who runs for middle-school student council promising to replace the school lunches with McDonalds and Chick-fil-A and ban homework. He either didn’t know, or more likely, didn’t care that he didn’t have the authority to keep this promise; he just wanted the applause and to look like a tough guy."

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