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JAC met with Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) to discuss Israel and the scheduled
UN vote regarding moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
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Former JAC President Betsy Sheerr with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).
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Week In Review Commentary
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Let's make history together in 2018 and elect candidates across the country who will fight to keep the U.S.-Israel relationship bipartisan and strong, protect women's reproductive freedom and guarantee that the separation between religion and state remains solid.
There will only be 309 days until the November election once we usher in 2018. JAC will be working hard to support and help elect candidates that will fight for the values we care about.
We can't do this without you. Here's your
2018 JAC To-Do-List:
Come to JAC's 2018 Annual Meeting in Washington (Tuesday, March 13 - Wednesday, March 14)
Click here for details.
Encourage friends and family to join JAC.
Follow JAC's Action Alerts and make your calls to Congress.
Support JAC candidates, like Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) who is running for the Senate.
Make sure everyone you know is registered to vote.
Follow JAC on
Facebook and share our information.
Attend a JAC candidate event in your area.
Keep informed.
Do one thing or everything. Change will not happen without you.
We saw this year what happens when Trump's agenda goes unchecked in Congress.
The Senate confirmed a record number of Trump's lifetime circuit court judges who are mostly
anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ, and mostly white men; a historic tax bill will strip health care from millions of people; easing restrictions on dangerous
people carrying guns throughout the country; revoking net neutrality.
Elections have consequences.
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Join JAC in Washington, D.C.
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Join JAC's Annual Meeting in
Washington, DC
March 13-14
Join fellow JAC members from around the country, hear from policy experts, meet with Representatives and Senators on Capitol Hill.
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UN Defies Trump, Rejects U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli Capital by 128-9
The United Nations General Assembly defied warnings from the United States and overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the Trump administration's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and calling on countries not to move their diplomatic missions to the city. A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the text, defying the threats - that were forcefully reiterated by US envoy Nikki Haley - to cut aid to countries who oppose the motion.
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Trump's Bullying and Bluster on Jerusalem Is Bad News for the UN
The danger is that Trump's row could spiral out of control, causing long-term damage to the UN and to the reform programme of the secretary general, António Guterres. The US has already pulled out of Unesco, and this week the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, announced he was not seeking a second term, saying he would not bend the knee to the US.
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Hamas Is Arresting and Torturing Jihadis to Prevent War With Israel
Palestinian militant group Hamas has arrested and tortured jihadis in the Gaza Strip in a bid to prevent rocket fire into Israel and new conflict. Hamas blames hardline Salafists for the launches. The rocket fire, which has gone on for the past 2 weeks, could be a result of Hamas's unwillingness to stop the launches quickly, due to vehement opposition of Trump's embassy decision.
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Top American, French Jewish Groups Voice Concern Over Entry of Far-Right Party into New Austrian Government
Ronald Lauder, President of World Jewish Congress, voiced criticism of the coalition deal reached between Austrian Chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz's conservative People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party. "FPÖ members have expressed anti-Semitic sentiments, yet they oversee the interior, defense, and foreign ministries, three of the most important powerful fields of government."
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Israeli Minister Erdan in Brussels: 'BDS Is on the Defensive'
"For the first time, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement is on the defensive but we must not underestimate the challenge," Israel's Minister for Public Security and Strategic Affaris, Gilad Erdan, told representatives of Jewish organizations last week in Brussels. Erdan, who is the minster responsible for coordinating the Israeli government's response to the BDS campaign. He also acknowledged that 'today we need a new approach to this fight' from a defensive approach to a more proactive, offensive one.
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Abortion Fight Threatens Collins Deal, Risks Shutdown
A new fight over abortion has thrown a late obstacle into negotiations on the year-end stopgap spending deal days before a possible government shutdown. House Republicans say two ObamaCare measures that Senate GOP leaders are expected to attach to the stopgap as part of a deal with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) must include Hyde Amendment language prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion. Many House Republicans won't vote for stopgap that does not includes the ObamaCare measures without the abortion restrictions.
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Extra Obamacare Subsidies Renew Battle over Taxpayer Funding of Abortion
Take the drama playing out in Congress over a year-end spending bill. Pour on some Obamacare controversy. Then spread some abortion politics on top of that. As if Republicans weren't divided enough over whether to prop up the Obamacare marketplaces with extra insurer payments for reinsurance and cost-sharing discounts, now abortion opponents are injecting more division into the fraught situation, insisting the payments must include long-standing protections to keep taxpayer dollars separate from abortion services.
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Supreme Court Abortion Showdown Is Defused
A looming Supreme Court showdown over abortion rights for immigrant children in federal custody appeared to be defused after the U.S. government released one of the pregnant teens at the center of the fight is an adult. Birth certificate for Jane Roe shows her to be 19, not 17 as previously thought. The age difference is significant because Immigration and Customs Enforcement tends to have fewer restrictions on pregnant women seeking to obtain abortions while in custody.
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Court Blocks Trump's Plan to Gut Birth Control Access
A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Trump administration's latest attempts to gut the birth control benefit in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ruling came in one of two lawsuits filed by states' attorneys general challenging the administration's efforts to end the benefit. In October, the administration released a final interim rule that allows most business to launch either a religious or moral objection to complying with the Obamacare mandate that obligates employers to provide no-cost insurance coverage of contraception.
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Twitter Bans and Removes Verified Status of White Supremacists
Twitter started enforcing anti-hate speech measures, banning some white supremacists. Richard Spencer and Charlottesville rally organizer Jason Kessler had their verification status revoked. Users can now lose their blue checkmarks for "inciting or engaging in harassment of others," "promoting hate and/or violence against, or directly attacking or threatening other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease," supporting people who promote those ideas, and a slew of other reasons.
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President Trump Just Had Another Praise and Prayer-filled Cabinet Meeting
Ben Carson praised Trump as a "courageous" leader while Mike Pence thanked him for "historic tax cuts". Carson's prayer expressed hope that "unity will spread beyond party lines, so people recognize we have a nation worth saving, and recognize nations divided against themselves do not stand."
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Trump Decides Climate Change Is No Longer a National Security Threat
In a break with two decades of military planning, President Trump has eliminated climate change from his administration's list of threats to national security. The report comes amid a barrage of extreme weather events. Scientists announced this year global fossil fuel emissions will hit an all-time high.
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Gun Owners and Republicans Don't Really Want Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed a piece of gun legislation that is at odds with the preferences of 83 percent of gun owners and 83 percent of Republicans. The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, which passed the House by a vote of 231 to 198, is the National Rifle Association's highest legislative priority and will next be considered by the Senate.
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Group Behind Independent Redistricting Ballot Petition Submits Signatures to State
The group behind an effort to start an independent redistricting commission in Michigan says it has turned in the signatures required to get the issue on the ballot. More than 100 volunteers and organizers for Voters Not Politicians gathered outside Michigan's Bureau of Elections building, standing in the rain and passing off box after box of petition sheets in a line from the road to the door.
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Why Republicans Are Ignoring Public Attitudes on the Tax Plan
Common sense suggests that politicians wouldn't rush to vote for a dramatic and highly consequential proposal that the American mainstream hates. Literally every Senate Republican backs the plan and the number of GOP dissenters is expected to be modest. Why is the Republican majority so indifferent toward Americans' attitudes?
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What Did and Didn't Make It into the Final GOP Tax Bill
The final version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act omits some of the unpopular provisions that appeared in the House GOP's first pass at the bill. The initial version slashed deductions for medical expenses and student loans, erased another deduction for educators who buy their own school supplies, and weakened rules that prohibited religious organizations from endorsing political candidates. Although dollar amounts involved were often relatively small, the changes provoked a big backlash.
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In 2017, Trump Revived Feminism, Saved Satire and Reinvigorated Journalism
As America approaches the end of Donald Trump's first year as President, the entire country can agree is that this has been a year like no other. And yet, not every development in the last year has been negative. Here are five of Donald Trump's greatest unintentional accomplishments.
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The Starkest Divide Americans See Isn't Black-White. It's Red-Blue.
The divide between parties is real, measurable and trickles into other aspects of American life. More than half of Republicans & more than half of Democrats see other party's policies as a serious threat.
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New Supreme Court Cookbook Dishes Up History, Recipes
Every year Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sends her colleagues homemade beef jerky. The recipe is included in "Table for 9: Supreme Court Food Traditions & Recipes," coming out this month.
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Poland to Invest $28 Million to Restore Warsaw Jewish Cemetery
Projects include involvement with the Auschwitz Museum and the establishment of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, established in 1806, has approximately 250,000 graves. It is the most recognizable Jewish cemetery in Poland.
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"My colleagues haven't learned from the last time they tried to pass an unpopular bill - Trumpcare - that the American people expect them to put country over politics. Our job is to strengthen our country and improve the lives of the American people and help them succeed."
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)
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SAVE THE DATE
JAC 2018 Annual Meeting
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, March 13th - Wednesday, March 14th, 2018
Special Pre-Conference VIP Tour
Monday, March 12th, 2018
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of African American History and Culture
_________________________________________________
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
Friday, January 19th
12:00 pm
Chicago, IL
Call the JAC office for details and to RSVP
847.433.5999
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Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC) is a pro-Israel PAC with a domestic agenda. We support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and advocate for reproductive health and the separation of religion and state and incorporate other issues of importance to the Jewish community, including gun violence prevention and climate change. In addition to providing financial support for U.S. Senate and House campaigns, JACPAC educates our membership with outreach events designed to inform and activate their participation in the political process.
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Federal law requires political committees to report the name, mailing address, occupation and employer for each individual who contributed to JACPAC. Maximum contribution per person may not exceed $5,000 per calendar year. According to law, JACPAC cannot accept corporate contributions. Membership, gifts, or other payments to JACPAC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
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