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Join JAC in Washington May 3-4
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Coffee with Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) in Chicago.
l to r: Diane Halivni, Marcey Barichello, Marcia Balonick, Maria Cantwell,
Linda Rae Sher, Hollis Wein
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Week In Review Commentary
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When the GOP wanted to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act and deny funding for Planned Parenthood, maternity care, prenatal care and newborn care, voters used their political muscle. We called and showed up at town hall meetings. Congress heard our voices and the repeal was tabled. Phone calls and pressure worked. We must remember that for the next big fight - the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch.
The Judiciary Committee will vote on Gorsuch on Monday to send the nomination to the Senate, with a full vote scheduled for next Friday.
A Trump advisor said, "If Trump is going to be a transformational president, not a transitional president, he needs a supportive court." Gorsuch was exclusively chosen for his conservative views to ensure that Trump's right-wing agenda will be enforced by the Supreme Court.
Gorsuch has a well documented record of voting against the rights of women, workers, and children with disabilities. Our country has a lot to lose by nominating Neil Gorsuch. (Click for video on the Case Against Gorsuch) This is not about the next four years, but the next 40 years.
We can't afford to sit this battle out. On Monday, start calling your Senators. Tell them to vote no. Then ask your friends to make calls; and then make 5 more phone calls. Don't stop.
Donate to JAC and stand with us as we fight the Gorsuch nomination.
Sources: Huffington Post, NowThis
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Call Your Senator
202.224.3121
Neil Gorsuch
___________________________
Neil Gorsuch is wrong for women's reproductive health.
Not sure who your Senator is?
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U.S. Planning Israeli-Palestinian-Gulf Peace Summit
The Trump administration appears to be exploring whether to host a landmark conference this summer that would bring Gulf Arab leaders, the Palestinian Authority president and Israel's prime minister onto the same stage for the first time. No event has been formally planned, and additional sources from both Israel and the US deny that a summit is the purpose of a recent flurry of American diplomatic activity in the region.
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U.S. Lawmakers Come Together, Promise Unwavering Support for Israel
Aiming to prove their commitment to Israel, senior U.S. lawmakers are backing bipartisan legislation that would impose new sanctions on Iran while maintaining rigorous enforcement of the landmark nuclear deal. The measures, unveiled at the opening of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, seek to build consensus among Republicans and Democrats who are so often bitterly at odds on domestic issues.
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All Signals Point Once Again to War in Gaza
by Dan Shapiro
The next war in Gaza is coming.
In over five years as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, I found no issue more impervious to solutions than Gaza. We were constantly preventing, managing or responding to crises -- trying to head off terror attacks by Hamas and others, supporting Israel's right to defend itself, negotiating ceasefires and working to alleviate human suffering. I also learned that Gaza wars follow a kind of routine. Unhappily, there are growing signs that this cycle is about to start anew.
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Egypt, Jordan, PA Look to Coordinate Stances Ahead of White House Visits
On the sidelines of the 28th Arab League Summit in Jordan, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. "In this meeting, positions were coordinated in what should be said or focused on regarding the Palestinian issue" when the three leaders visit the White House, the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement.
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Sessions Meets With Jewish Community Center Association After Threats
Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Jewish community leaders to discuss action against waves of bomb threats to Jewish community centers across the United States. Justice Department spokesman said AG Sessions "had a positive and productive conversation with the Jewish Community Centers and JCC Association of North America."
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A New Tech Tool Helping to Flag Campus Antisemitism
Campus antisemitism watchdog the AMCHA Initiative has unveiled four interactive maps that aim to expose sites of anti-Jewish activity at college campuses across the US. The Antisemitism Tracker Map includes all types of antisemitic incidents that were reported on US campuses since 2015.
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Mike Pence Breaks Senate Tie To Allow States To Defund Planned Parenthood
Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to overturn an Obama administration rule and allow states to withhold Title X family planning money from Planned Parenthood. "Mike Pence went from yesterday's forum on empowering women to today leading a group of male politicians in a vote to take away access to birth control and cancer screenings," Dawn Laguens, executive VP of Planned Parenthood, said.
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Why It's Become So Hard To Get An Abortion
When you can't ban something outright, it's possible to make the process of obtaining it so onerous as to be a kind of punishment.
Since the 1990's, states have enacted hundreds of new restrictions on the constitutional right to abortion, from obligatory waiting periods and mandated state counseling to limits on public and even private insurance funding. The cumulative effect has been to transform the experience and the reputation of a safe, legal medical procedure into something shady and disgraceful that women pursue only because they don't know enough about it or because they are easily manipulated emotional time bombs.
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Two Anti-Abortion Activists Behind Planned Parenthood Videos Charged with 15 Felonies
Two anti-abortion activists whose controversial undercover videos accused Planned Parenthood doctors of selling fetal tissue were charged Tuesday with 15 felonies by California prosecutors.
State Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra
's office alleges that David Daleiden and his co-conspirator, Sandra Merritt, filmed 14 people without their consent at meetings with women's healthcare providers in Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Francisco and El Dorado.
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North Carolina Governor Signs Bill Repealing and Replacing Transgender Bathroom Law
In a sharp reversal, North Carolina lawmakers voted Thursday to repeal and replace a costly and highly criticized law that restricts which public restrooms transgender people can use, backing down in the face of mounting economic pressure.
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Inside the Fight Over Guns on Campus
More than 200 colleges across the U.S. allow campus carry. Since it became law, statutes have gained a foothold in two more states, Tennessee and Ohio, and various legal actions have inched versions of campus carry into five others - including Oregon, Pennsylvania and Virginia. This year, 12 other states are considering similar legislation.
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Judge Maintains Broad Block on Trump Travel Ban
A judge in Hawaii has extended a broad block on President Donald Trump's revised travel ban, turning aside pleas from the federal government to narrow or drop an earlier order forbidding the president from implementing key parts of his plan.
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Trump Just Released His Plan to Gut Obama's Climate Policies. It's Worse Than You Thought.
Trump issued his long-promised executive order rolling back federal government efforts to fight climate change. The wide-ranging order, accompanied by other environmental directives, targets Obama-era policies across the government, including in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, and the Department of Defense. Additionally, Trump asked the Justice Department to stop defending the plan in court.
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Who Spent Millions to Get Judge Gorsuch Confirmed? Democrats Want to Know
Senate Democrats are asking Judge Neil Gorsuch in a letter released Thursday to call for the Judicial Crisis Network, an organization that spent $10 million in support of President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, to reveal its donors. The letter was sent by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Al Franken of Minnesota, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Dianne Feinstein of California.
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Yes, Dems Should Block Gorsuch While the FBI's Trump Probe Goes on
Mitch McConnell obstructed not only Obama's Supreme Court pick but his effort to alert voters about Russian election hacking-inextricably tying these issues together. A growing number of Senate Democrats want to pause confirmation hearings for Gorsuch while the FBI probes alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere with the 2016 election.
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Don't Torpedo Senate Rules for Gorsuch: Nan Aron
For four days this month, court-watchers were glued to C-SPAN or the web for the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. It was a very public, high-stakes interview for a rare kind of job: a lifetime position on the nation's highest court.
And it wasn't a good performance. Gorsuch was by turns condescending, canned and alarmingly evasive. But one by one, Democrats spotlighted key cases where everyday Americans got the shaft in Gorsuch's rulings.
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Neil Gorsuch and the Senate's "Nuclear Option," Explained
As the Senate prepares to decide on the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, it appears increasingly likely that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have to invoke the "nuclear option" in order to secure Gorsuch's confirmation. You might have a few questions as to what this means, both for Gorsuch and also for the future our democracy. We have (some) answers:
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Trump: 'We must fight' Hard-Line Conservative Freedom Caucus in 2018 Midterm Elections
President Trump threatened this week to try to knock off members of the House Freedom Caucus in next year's elections if they don't fall in line - an extraordinary move that laid bare a civil war within a Republican Party struggling to enact an ambitious agenda.
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Will Suburban Activism Pave The Democratic Path To The House?
With the Trump administration and the Republican Congress both off to the rockiest of starts, and with progressive and Democratic activists mobilized as never before, Democratic strategists hope, and increasingly believe, that the Republican House members from districts that Clinton carried in November can be defeated in the 2018 midterm elections.
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Kochs Bankroll Move to Rewrite the Constitution
A constitutional convention, something thought impossible not long ago, is looking increasingly likely. Currently, according to the US Constitution, if 34 state legislatures "issue a call" for a constitutional convention, Congress must convene one. By some counts, the right wing only needs 6 more states. Once called, delegates can propose and vote on changes and new amendments to the US Constitution, which, if approved, are currently required to be ratified by 38 states. But once a convention is underway, all bets are off.
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Hillary Clinton Talks Trump, GOP Health Care Flop in Women-Focused Speech
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made light of her 2016 election loss saying, "There is no place I'd rather be than here with you, other than the White House." Clinton addressed a diversity conference hosted by the Professional BusinessWomen of California in San Francisco speaking on women's equality while throwing in some jabs at President Trump and the GOP's failed attempt at health care.
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Joan Nathan Maps Out the World of Jewish Food
Joan Nathan, the "doyenne of Jewish cuisine," is at it again. The James Beard Award-winning author has just published a new cookbook-her 11th: King Solomon's Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World. Nathan first tapped into the global nature of Jewish cuisine while living in Israel in the 1970s. "It was and is a country of immigrants, really, and so are we in America," she told me. She was years ahead of her time in terms of recognizing the power and meaning behind Jewish food.
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"This Administration's proposed cuts to international health, development and diplomacy would be a blow to women and children and a grave mistake for our country....
Turning our back on diplomacy won't make our country safe. It will undermine our security and our standing in our world."
Hillary Clinton, March 31, 2017
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May 3-4
Washington, DC
(Hotel rooms are going fast. Register today.)
_________________________
An Evening with
Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10)
&
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
April 2nd
Highland Park, IL
_________________________
Lunch with
Senator Bob Casey (D-PA)
April 21
Philadelphia, PA
call JAC office for details
847.433.5999
______________________________
JAC II Event
April 26th
Detroit Area
Details to follow
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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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Paid for by Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs. Contributions or gifts are not tax deductible. Contributions may total up to $5400 per individual ($2700 for the primary election, and $2700 for the general election). Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation, and name of employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 in an election cycle. Corporate contributions and contributions from non-US citizens who are not lawfully admitted for permanent residence are prohibited. All contributions by individuals must be made from personal funds and may not be reimbursed or paid by another person.
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