JACPAC News & Opinion Digest

July 25, 2014 
How Has Obama Supported Israel Over the Years?

Obama Supporting Israel
JAC News: WATCH THIS!

  

 

This week we highlight two strong challengers hoping to capture two important seats held by anti-choice Republicans. Allison Lundergan Grimes (KY) and Michelle Nunn (GA) are within striking difference, but they will need JAC's help - and your help. JAC sees both of these races as an opportunity to elect pro-choice Senators who will work to protect reproductive rights and rights of women and families. Donate to these women today.

 

 

 

Allison Lundergan Grimes

Running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky

 

 

Allison Lundergan Grimes is seeking the seat held by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).  Lundergan Grimes is a strong supporter of Israel and its right to defend itself. "You can count on me to champion Israel's right to live in a secure society, free from terrorist attacks." She supports the funding of the Iron Dome Missle Defense System.

 

McConnell is one of the fiercest, anti-choice Members of Congress.  He pushed for a 20-week abortion ban in the Senate as well as other restrictive legislation.  McConnell actually believes that discrimination against women in the workplace is non-existence claiming "most of the barriers have been lowered." 

 

Grimes supports Roe v. Wade and other measures that would allow women to make their own, unfettered reproductive choices.  She comes from a family of women and "would never pretend to tell one of (her) sisters what to do with their body and (wouldn't) want the federal government doing that either." Replacing Mitch McConnell with Allison Lundergan Grimes would add another pro-choice vote in the Senate.  Grimes supports Israel's right to defend itself and a two-state solution. Donate to Allison and let's elect someone on our side.

 

 

 

CONTRIBUTE to Allison and let's elect someone on our side.  

She will fight for JAC's issues in the Senate.

 

 

 

_________________________________________

 

 

   Michelle Nunn

Running for U.S. Senate in Georgia
 

Michelle Nunn is seeking the open seat in Georgia once held by her father, former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn.  Her opponent is fiercely anti-choice and federal investigators found that his company discriminated against female employees and paid them less than men.  

 

Nunn believes abortions should be "safe, legal and rare and that women should be ultimately able to make this very difficult personal decision in concert with their doctor and their family."  Nunn supports efforts to stabilize Israel and end the Mideast conflict.  This is one of the key races that will determine control of the Senate. 

 

Nunn will be a strong voice on JAC's issues in the Senate.  If the Democrats can pick-up this seat, there will be one more Senator in Washington advocating for the values we believe in.  

 

"I seek to be a stalwart friend of the Israeli people, the cause of people, and democracy in the Middle East. Having wandered the alleyways of Jerusalem, hiked the cliffs of Masada and looked over the vistas of the Golan, I understand the deep and historical roots of the Israeli nation and its precarious security in a region of turmoil."

 

 

CONTRIBUTE to Michelle today.

We need her to fight for us. 

 

 

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JAC met with elected officials, candidates and leaders around the country.
 

JAC Meets with Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) at an event in Highland Park. (l to r: Janna Berk, Joy Malkus, Senator Ed Markey, Wendy Abrams, and Susan Berk)


JAC met with Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) and Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA) in Chicago (l or r: Janna Berk, Rep. Joe Kennedy, Wendy Abrams, Rep. Cheri Bustos, and Stephanie Victor.)


JAC staff member Hollis Wein with Israel supporters gathered for Israel rally in Downtown Chicago.


On Our Radar

Federal Legislation
we are watching:

* US-Israel Strategic Partnership
* IVAWA
* 2015 Appropriations 
* Voting Rights Act
* Unemployment Benefits
* Paycheck Fairness
* Immigration Reform 
* HR 1565 - Public Safety & 2nd
   Amendment Rights Act 
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Our members count on JACPAC to provide information on current events, candidates, and elections.  JACPAC depends on membership support to make this possible.

 

If you have not renewed your membership, please consider doing so today, to help us pursue a strong US-Israel relationship, reproductive rights, and separation of religion and state.  Together we can make this a better world!

   

Sincerely,

 
Janna Berk, President
Marcia Balonick, Executive Director
Joy Malkus, Research Director 

This week's issue highlights these key developments here and in the Middle East:
  • House passes bill expanding Hezbollah Sanctions
  • Massive terror tunnel uncovered into Netiv HaAsarah
  • After abortion ruling, MA pushes to replace buffer zone law
  • President Obama to issue executive orders to protect Gay Rights
  • JAC around town   
  • and so much more! 
This week's EZ Read brings you these stories and some that may have slipped past your news feed.
Israel & The Middle East 
Hamas Mega-Attack Planned Through Gaza Terror Tunnels

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/09/4031477/islamic-cleric-in-gaza-rejects.htmlstorylink=cpy

Hamas had apparently been preparing a murderous assault on Israeli civilian targets for the coming Jewish New Holiday, Rosh Hashanah, which begin on September 24, according anonymous sources in the Israeli security services, as reported by Israeli daily Maariv.

Read Full Article


 
An IDF paratrooper officer emerges from a Hamas cross-border tunnel that his unit discovered, July 20th, 2014

House Passes Bill Expanding Hezbollah Sanctions

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation that would target banks that deal with the terrorist group Hezbollah. The legislation passed Tuesday, initiated by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), expands sanctions already in place due to Hezbollah's designation as terrorist group to target financial institutions that do business with Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/09/4031477/islamic-cleric-in-gaza-rejects.htmlstorylink=cpy

UN Rights Council to Form Commission of Inquiry Over Israeli 'War Crimes' in Gaza

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/09/4031477/islamic-cleric-in-gaza-rejects.htmlstorylink=cpy

The United States cast the only dissenting vote in the United Nations Human Rights Council, with European nations abstaining. The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday launched a commission of inquiry into alleged Israeli war crimes in its current Gaza offensive, backing Palestinian efforts to have Israel held up into international scrutiny.

Fallen Soldiers of Operation Protective Edge
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/09/4031477/islamic-cleric-in-gaza-rejects.htmlstorylink=cpy

Throughout Israel's history, IDF soldiers have fallen in defense of their country and families. Sadly, this is an ongoing reality as the IDF operates in Gaza to defend Israel from Hamas rocket fire and the threat of terrorist infiltration by tunnels.

Operation
Operation "Protective Edge"

Analysis of Gazans Killed So Far in Operation Protective Edge
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/09/4031477/islamic-cleric-in-gaza-rejects.htmlstorylink=cpy

Some of the claims I am seeing online include how the vast majority of Gazans killed are civilians, and how Israel is deliberately targeting them. Regarding the latter, we all know this is nonsense - if Israel wanted to kill civilians it would carpet bomb Gaza. It is precisely because we want to avoid civilian casualties, that we opt for pinpoint strikes and ground operations, at the risk of our soldiers' lives. But what about the first claim? Are the vast majority civilians?


Has Hamas Ended the Prospects for a Two-State Solution?
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/09/4031477/islamic-cleric-in-gaza-rejects.htmlstorylink=cpy

Hamas's decision to fire rockets in the director of Ben Gurion Airport may well have ended any real prospect for a two-state solution. Whether the regulators and airlines that have stopped flights to and from Israel are right orwrong, the stoppage cannot possibly be tolerated by a democratic country that relies so heavily on tourism and international travel. It is of course a war crime to target an international civilian airport, as Hamas has clearly done. 


 
What Israeli Schoolchildren Sing to Deal With Rockets
What Israeli Schoolchildren Sing to Deal With Rockets
 

IDF Sets Up Field Hospital at Erez Border Crossing for Injured Palestinians
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/09/4031477/islamic-cleric-in-gaza-rejects.htmlstorylink=cpy

The IDF announced on Sunday that it was setting up a field hospital at the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The field hospital was set to begin functioning at 8 PM on July 20th. The IDF said that it will serve mainly women and children and will include a delivery room.



Reproductive Rights
Anti-abortion protester Eleanor McCullen stands at the painted edge of a 35-foot buffer zone outside a Planned Parenthood location in Boston in December. She says she'll fight Massachusetts' new bill just like she did the last one.

After Abortion Ruling, Mass. Pushes To Replace Buffer Zone Law
Just three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law that created at 35-foot buffer zone around clinics that perform abortions, lawmakers there are rushing through a replacement. The new bill, which they hope to pass before the legislative session ends in two weeks, would give police more power to disperse unruly protestors.
 
Anti-Choice Groups Seek to Stack State Courts
Over the past two years ultra-conseratives have seen a slate of victories in Kansas, long a bastion of political conservatism. Republician Gov. Sam Brownback instated the most aggressive income tax cuts in state history, leading to extreme budget shortfalls; he cut public education funding so severely that the Kansas Supreme Court had to interfere; and he removed nearly 45 percent of poor families from state welfare.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal Will Oppose Controversial Obama Nominee Michael Boggs
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Thursday became the latest Democrat to say he will vote against President Obama's embattled judicial noninee Michael Boggs.


 

Abortion Protesters Interrupt Church Service, Tell Pro-Choice Worshippers To 'Repent'
Hundreds of anti-choice activists are currently congregating in New Orleans to stage proteslong. So far, tensions have come to a head in an unexpected place: the sanctuary of a church, where abortion opponents interrupted a service to tell congregants that they don't have a "true faith" because their denomination supports reproductive rights.
 
Separation of Religion & State
What Does the Recent Supreme Court Decision do for Women's Economic Security?

In the final days of its 2013-14 term, the Supreme Court handed down three rulings of major consequence for women.

 
The family that owns the Hobby Lobby chain is planning to build a Bible museum on the site of the Washington Design Center, shown here, near the National Mall.
 
Family Behind Hobby Lobby Has A New Project: Bible Museum
The evangelical Christian family that owns Hobby Lobby, the chain of craft stores, make history two weeks ago when the Supreme Court overturned the Obama administration's mandate that family-woned companies must provide contraceptive coverage to their employees. Now, the family is looking to build a permeant presence on the Washington landscape, by establishing a sprawling museum dedicated to the Bible - just two blocks south of the National Mall.


 

Some American's Still Monkeying Around on Science Education

Colloquially known as the "Monkey Trail," the Tennessee v. John Scopes trail need on July 21, 1925, but 89 years later, the American public is still debating on where it stands with religion and science education.

 
Beyond the Core

President Obama Signs Executive Order to Protect Gay, Transgender Employees from Workplace Discrimination

President Barack Obama on Monday gave employment protection to gay and transgender workers in the federal government and its contracting agencies, after being convinced by advocates of what he called the "irrefutable rightness of your cause."

 

 

Sen. Mitch McConnell Declares Workplace Sexism Over
Sen. Mitch McConnell Declares Workplace Sexism Over

 

The Campagin to Unload: Anti-Gunners Fighting Corporate Ground War 

It is no secret that U.S. Corporations ban guns inn their boardrooms and corporate headquarters. Why? Because they know that guns are dangerous and kill and they want to protect their top officers. Yet the same corporations who protect their CEO's from gunfire (and protect all of their employees and customers from secondhand smoke) don't have the ethical integrity to stand up to the gun lobby."

Political Byte
Money Gap: Why Don't Women Give?

For all the progress women have made in Congress and in elections, they are practically sitting out in the game that is redefining American politics: big money.


 

The 2014 Quest to Get Single Women to the Polls

Single women tend to stay home in greater numbers in mid-term elections than in plvanizing those voters on issues like access to birth control, as they try to keep control of the Senate.

 
FYI
The Data of Hate
Stormfront was founded in 1995 by Don Black, a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Its the most popular "social groups" are "Union of National Socialists" and "Fans of Supporters of Adolf Hilter." Over the past year, according to Quantcast, roughly 200,000 to 400,000 Americans visited the site every month.

NFL Will Bench You Longer for Driving With No License Than Violently Assaulting Women
The NFL has suspended Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games
Read Full Article
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Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC) is a national network committed to the special relationship between the US and Israel and a social agenda that includes reproductive rights and separation of religion and state.  JACPAC supported US Senate and House candidates who uphold this agenda and maintains ongoing dialogue with those it helps elect.  In addition, JACPAC serves as a political resource for the Jewish community, furnishing information about candidates, elections and issues.

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