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July 02, 2020 |
Your
weekly look at the latest news, analysis, and RJC activities around
the country. |
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While RJC offices are closed and our staff are teleworking, you
can reach us by email or by phone (please leave a voicemail message
and your call will be returned). Contact
information for our offices can be found on our web site. Please
visit us online for the latest RJC
news, to volunteer
for our 2020 outreach efforts, to see details of upcoming events,
and to donate
to the RJC.
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Featured —
Georgia Senate Race -
Perdue vs. Ossoff
Georgia is the only state hosting two Senate races this
year. While the special election to fill the remainder of now-retired
Senator Johnny Isakson's term has attracted more
attention, insiders are pointing to Senator David
Perdue's reelection race as a growing concern for the GOP.
Those of you who were fortunate enough to attend RJC's 2019
Las Vegas Leadership meeting will remember Senator Perdue's stirring
introduction of Vice President Mike Pence. During
those remarks he emphasized his strong, personal pro-Israel
commitment, noting that he chose Israel as the destination for his
first overseas trip as a Senator because "I wanted to send a message
that there are friends in the US Senate who will stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with the state of Israel."
In his bid for a second term, Perdue faces Jon
Ossoff, a 33-year-old filmmaker and one-time Capitol Hill
staffer. Ossoff is best known for narrowly losing a special election
for a suburban Atlanta House seat in 2017 in a race that attracted
national attention and record campaign spending. In that race and in
his current one against Senator Perdue, Ossoff proudly aligned himself
with J Street and embraced the Obama Iran deal.
The contrast between Ossoff's thin resume and very liberal
ideology on the one hand, and David Perdue's mainstream conservatism
and record of accomplishment on the other, could not be more striking.
Before entering politics, David had a 40-year business career during
which he created thousands of jobs and saved thousands more. In that
respect, he has frequently been compared to President Donald
Trump, and it's important to note that Senator Perdue is
known as one
of the President's closest allies in the Senate.
How close is the race at this point? A Fox News poll conducted
late last month found Perdue leading just 45-42 - too close for
comfort. And other polls have shown similar results. "Here's the
reality," the Senator has
warned, "the state of Georgia is in play. The Democrats have made
it that way."
The hard-fought 2018 gubernatorial election in which
Brian Kemp narrowly defeated Stacey
Abrams left Democrats convinced that they are close to a
breakthrough in the Peach State. In the face of the left's frenzied
efforts to beat the GOP in one of its traditional strongholds, it is
imperative that conservative and pro-Israel voters mobilize to keep
proven champion David Perdue fighting for us in the
Senate.
The RJC PAC has endorsed
David Perdue. You can help him win by clicking here
to support his campaign.
Please watch this space for more in-depth
analysis on individual races in the critical 2020 elections. If you’d
like to share your thoughts with me on any of these races, please
email me at [email protected]. Click here
to see previous "Notes from
Norm."
• In a debate hosted by i24NEWS on Israel’s anticipated
sovereignty initiative, Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director
Matthew Brooks took on J Street President
Jeremy Ben-Ami. They discussed at length the
consequences that extending Israeli sovereignty in parts of Judea and
Samaria could have on Israel’s relations with its close allies,
including the United States. Watch
the debate here.
• The Jewish Insider reports on a key Senate race in
Michigan, where John James, an African American
Republican, is taking on first-term Democratic Sen. Gary
Peters. The RJC PAC has endorsed James and is raising money
for him. Matthew Kassel writes:
GOP strategists believe the Republican upstart has a decent
shot of pulling off an upset in November. A victory for James would be
a crucial win for the Republican Party as Democrats look to flip the
Senate this cycle. Norm Coleman, who chairs the
Republican Jewish Coalition, said that James’s Senate bid represents
one of his party’s best chances to pick up a seat in the general
election and fend off a Democratic majority.
John James is
a veteran, a businessman, and a political outsider running a
competitive race. Learn
more about him at the RJC PAC web site.
Graffiti was spray-painted on the walls of
Congregation Beth Israel in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles, May
30, 2020. (Photo by Lisa Daftari/Twitter)
In an essay at National Review, Rep. Dan
Crenshaw (R-TX-2) makes the case for standing firm against
the “outrage mob.” He writes:
You see, this isn’t about taking down offensive messages or
symbols. These mobs didn’t suddenly stumble upon some forgotten and
offensive historical anecdote or reach their wits’ end after seeing
Aunt Jemima on the grocery-store shelf just one too many times. No,
this was a deliberate hijacking of a tragedy. The touchy sympathies of
“political correctness” were always just a base from which to launch a
cultural revolution, a purge of traditional American narratives and
icons.
It’s about time we all woke up to it.
… The good news is that it’s not too late. It’s never too
late, not so long as good and decent people remain standing and
willing to do something. There are a lot of us who love this great
country, believe in the promise of its Founding, and aren’t keen on
letting a mob rip it apart. All we have to do is speak out. We must
hold the line and demand that our elected leaders stop allowing their
cities to burn, that corporate America stop caving to Twitter hordes
and becoming complicit in the cultural destruction, and that our
educators stop teaching our kids that America is evil.
Caroline Glick brings the
issue home with a piece on the antisemitism that is baked into the
Black Lives Matter movement. She writes:
Over the Shavuot festival on May 30, members of Black Lives
Matter (BLM) carried out a pogrom in Fairfax, the oldest Jewish
community in Los Angeles, largely populated today by ultra-Orthodox
Jews. They vandalized five synagogues and three Jewish schools. Most
of the Jewish businesses on Fairfax Avenue were looted.
As Daniel Greenfield reported at Frontpage,
Allyson Rowen Taylor, a co-founder
of StandWithUs, shared an account of the riots in which they chanted,
“F**k the police and kill the Jews.”
… Greenfield revealed that the Jews were not incidental
victims in a larger night of “anti-racist” rioting by BLM. BLM in Los
Angeles is led by outspoken anti-Semites with intimate ties to the
virulently anti-Semitic Nation of Islam… So for BLM, anti-Semitism
isn’t a bug. It is a feature. Hatred of Israel and the Jews is part of
its DNA.
Yesterday,
Nicholas Rowan of the Washington Examiner tweeted
out a video of protesters in Washington, DC chanting, “Israel, we
know you; you murder children too.” As Rowan reported
later, the protest was held in tandem with a series of "Day of Rage"
demonstrations against Israel and was specifically “intended
to tie the cause of Black Lives Matter to the Boycott, Sanctions, and
Divestment movement against Israel.”
"Israel, we know you, you murder children, too," the crowd
chanted at one point.
The crowd immediately followed that chant with alternating
rallying cries of "Black lives matter!" and "Palestinian lives
matter!" Many more shouted criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. A woman waved a sign that on one
side bore the Palestinian flag and, on the other, the phrase "Black
Lives Matter."
The RJC
released
a statement last night about the anti-Israel chant:
We are horrified by this vicious hatemongering by Black Lives
Matter protesters. The Black Lives Matter charter is filled with
anti-Israel and antisemitic lies. It is deeply disturbing, but not
surprising, to hear those sentiments chanted in the streets of
Washington, DC. We call on former Vice President Joe
Biden, as the standard bearer of the Democrat Party, to
condemn these antisemitic chants by BLM protesters.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
circulated a House letter threatening US assistance to
Israel.
Democrats Lining Up Against
Israel
We’re seeing more evidence of the “progressive” (read: extreme
left-wing) pressure on Democrats to abandon the historically
bipartisan support of Israel in the US Congress. JNS reports:
Four Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives
have been circulating a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo, threatening the conditioning or even cutting off of
US assistance to Israel if the Jewish state goes ahead with its plans
to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank in what many have said
would be an annexation of the area, also known as Judea and Samaria.
The letter has been issued by Reps. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI),
Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Betty
McCollum (D-MN).
The letter,
which was sent to Pompeo on Monday, had signatures from more than a
dozen congressional Democrats. Adam Kredo at the
Washington Free Beacon writes that several organizations that
promote BDS (the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions effort to
delegitimize Israel) had endorsed
the letter:
In an internal email circulated to House Democrats and
obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Ocasio-Cortez lists
10 organizations that support her letter to Pompeo. Most of these
groups are prominent leaders of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
movement (BDS), which seeks to wage economic warfare on Israel. One
such organization—Defense for Children International – Palestine—has
been linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a
U.S.- and European Union-designated terrorist organization.
…Almost all the "supporting organizations" listed on
Ocasio-Cortez’s letter are vocal supporters of the BDS movement,
including the American Friends Service Committee, American Muslims for
Palestine, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Churches for
Middle East Peace. Each of these advocacy groups has a lengthy history
of Israel criticism.
The RJC
is committed to reelecting President Donald Trump,
keeping the Senate, and winning back the House. We encourage
our members to participate in our outreach phonebank project to help
Republicans win in November. It's easy, and you can do it from
home! Here's how YOU can help:
- Sign up to
call Jewish voters from home by clicking HERE. -
Fill out all of the fields. - Listen to the instructions and write
down your username and password when a member of the RJC Victory Team
contacts you. - Make as many phone calls as you can. Everyone you
speak to is a potential vote for President Trump and the
GOP!
Sign up now and you could be the next RJC
Volunteer of the Week!
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The
Republican Jewish Coalition is hiring field staff for our advocacy
efforts in support of President Donald
Trump’s reelection in various battleground
states. CLICK
HERE for details and application
information.
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The RJC PAC
has endorsed a terrific slate of House and Senate candidates, and we
need them to continue their work on Capitol Hill!
CLICK
HERE to donate through the RJC PAC portal and show your support for
our great candidates!
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And
don't forget your RJC/Trump kippah! Our extremely popular
red Trump kippah is now for sale for just $18. This includes shipping
and handling. Supplies are limited.
BUY YOUR KIPPAH HERE.
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Pompeo
urges UN arms embargo on Iran's `terrorist
regime'
Calling Iran "the world’s most heinous terrorist regime,"
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the U.N. Security Council on
Tuesday to extend the U.N. arms embargo against Tehran, which expires
in October, and reject "extortion diplomacy."
Economy
adds 4.8 million jobs in June, surpassing expectations as coronavirus
lingers
The U.S. economy added 4.8 million jobs in June,
according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department, as the
gradual easing of coronavirus-related restrictions helped more
businesses reopen and bring back workers… Economists expected the U.S.
to add anywhere between 1 million and 3 million jobs for the month
after the U.S. added 2.7 million in May, according to revised figures,
despite widespread predictions of another
decline.
Things look grim for freedom in Hong
Kong
This week Beijing’s top legislative body passed
a national security law for Hong Kong that prohibits acts of
secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces to
endanger national security. Predictably, pro-liberty protesters in
Hong Kong are the target of this law. Hong
Kong police immediately arrested more than 300 people under the new
law. The UK has confirmed
its intention to extend a path to British citizenship to almost
three million citizens of Hong Kong who are eligible for British
National Overseas (BNO) passports. For background on the legal status
of Hong Kong and its citizens see here.
— Events —
RJC Victory Team National Days of
Action
Please join us for the upcoming RJC Victory Team
Virtual Days of Action scheduled next week for Tuesday,
July 7 and Thursday, July 9 and the following week for
Tuesday, July 14 and Thursday, July 16. We'll be calling
potential Jewish voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Florida, Arizona, and Georgia, key battleground states of the 2020
election cycle. Click
here to sign up and help!
We look forward to scheduling in-person grassroots events and
resuming our chapter activities around the country as soon as
possible. Don't forget to check our
web site for updates.
We also encourage you to check out the terrific content and
virtual events offered by our sister organization, the Jewish
Policy Center.
Celebrating Our Freedom
On July 4th, we celebrate the founding of this amazing country
and all that America has accomplished in its 244 years. The officers
and staff of the RJC wish you a very happy Independence
Day!
If you like the work we’re doing, consider joining us on
Facebook and Twitter, and renew or upgrade your RJC
membership. Ensure that your voice is heard in our party
and our community!
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