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Friends,

Thursday was Yom HaShoah, the day of remembrance for the more than six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust (Shoah). House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) reminded us that "Every human being who inhabits our planet has a responsibility to learn the lessons of the Holocaust because it is a warning to all of humanity. ‘Never Again!’ must be a promise kept by all."

The Shoah could not have occurred without government sponsorship. Elections matter. All antisemitism is dangerous (and much is not political), but state-sponsored or condoned antisemitism is the most dangerous. The terror of Charlottesville was not simply that white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched with tiki torches chanting "Jews will not replace us," but that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, referred to them as "very fine people" and that Trump's antisemitic rhetoric did not prevent the Republican Party from nominating him for president not once, but twice.

Trump’s first presidential campaign trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes, including Jewish money in politics and other anti-Jewish stereotypes. In October 2018, Trump promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theory on Twitter. Trump accused Jews of dual loyalty at the 2018 White House Hanukkah Party and in April 2019 in Las Vegas. Trump said in August 2019 that American Jews who vote Democratic--that's the vast majority of us--are either ignorant or "disloyal." When asked to clarify, he said he meant "disloyal to Israel."

In December 2019 Trump again invoked antisemitic tropes about dual loyalty and Jewish avarice that Jewish groups denounced. Trump's record goes back further than that; a 1991 book that Trump admitted was accurate quoted him as saying that "The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day."

Not one Republican member of Congress has ever called out Trump for his antisemitic rhetoric. They would do well to remember what President Biden said on Thursday: "The legacy of the Holocaust must always remind us that silence in the face of such bigotry is complicity."

Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Last week, a Morning Consult poll found that while 71% of Democratic voters would consider allegations of antisemitism a "major problem," only 47% of Republican voters would. (The poll found that Republican voters are even less concerned about racist and homophobic remarks.)

The ADL recently identified more than 100 candidates with extremist ties running for political office--all Republicans.

Antisemitism exists across the political and social spectrums, but when we vote, our choice is not "the left" or "the right" writ large, but Democrats or Republicans. When Democrats run the national government, antisemitism is marginalized. When Republicans are in charge, antisemitism is mainstreamed. Which makes you feel safer?

This is not what some of us want to hear because it means if we prioritize antisemitism, we cannot support one of our two major parties. The same is true of democracy itself, contrary to AIPAC's misguided sentiments (AIPAC recently endorsed 72 more insurrectionists, bringing its total to 109).

If you're wealthy, it's a bummer to hear that the party that will cut your taxes and deregulate your business is also the party that will foment the conditions that could lead to the persecution of your family, but closing your eyes, putting your fingers in your ears, and shouting "bipartisanship! both sides!" will not make it go away or alter the reality that antisemitism has found a home in the mainstream of only one of our two major parties.

The logical inconsistencies of those who oppose reentering the JCPOA never cease to amaze. They tell us that Biden will do anything to get back into the Iran Deal, yet it escapes their notice that we aren't back in the deal--because Biden refuses to budge on removing the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC). And they tell us that the IRGC is so bad that we cannot lift the FTO designation, yet it escapes their notice that a nuclear-armed Iran would make give the IRGC far more power than the lifting of a symbolic designation.

Reentering the JCPOA is about lifting nuclear-related sanctions in exchange for Iran rolling back its nuclear program. But Iran is demanding a non-nuclear concession--delisting the IRGC--and the Biden administration seems to be demanding non-nuclear concessions in return, even though delisting the IRGC would have little practical impact and would seem a small price to pay for taking the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran off the table. As Rob Eshman writes, returning to the JCPOA is the best option for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.

But domestic politics is an issue. Barbara Slavin reports that "Polls show that a majority of Americans now support the agreement — unlike in 2015 — but the partisanship around the deal rages unabated. Republicans continue to insist that Iran is bent on getting a bomb, conveniently leaving out that a Republican administration made it easier for Tehran to move in that direction. And some Democrats, especially those who opposed the deal to begin with, don’t like the optics of removing the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation from the IRGC, even if that will have almost no real-world effects."

Jewish voters support reentering the JCPOA 68% to 32%, similar to the more than 2-1 margin by which Jewish members of Congress supported the original deal in 2015.

Trump reversed bipartisan U.S. policy over several administrations when he added the IRGC to the FTO list in large part because Trump wanted to make it politically difficult for a future administration to reenter the JCPOA. Trump's successes are few, but that decision has achieved its intended results--so far.

Until Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, Iran was verifiably prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. Since then, Iran has increased both its malign nuclear and non-nuclear activities. The JCPOA will not solve, nor is it intended to solve, every problem under the sun. But as State Department spokesperson Ned Price said last week, "if we are able to put Iran’s nuclear program back into a box, if we are able to contain what would constitute the greatest challenge we could face from Iran, the greatest challenge we could face in the region, we will be more effective and better positioned to confront these other challenges that we face with Iran."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified last week that "Iranian attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East increased 400% after the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal and Iranian military forces and proxies in the region have seen 'sustained support' even when economic pressure on the regime was highest. 'It’s an unfortunate fact of life that Iran is willing to dedicate what resources it has to supporting its military, to supporting its various tools – the destabilization and terror, including the IRGC Quds Force – irrespective of what its revenues are from other sources,' he said.

Israeli security experts Yair Golan and Chuck Freilich explain why sanctions, covert operations and sabotage, regime change, and military action are not viable alternatives, and that it is in Israel's security interests--and ours--to return to the JCPOA, even if that means delisting the IRGC.

See also this letter supporting reentering the JCPOA from European experts.

Ariel Sheffey is running the NYC Marathon. In November, Ariel will be running the NYC Marathon with the National Alliance for Mental Illness - NYC Metro (NAMI-NYC) in memory of her sister (my daughter) Orli, who died by suicide in February 2022 at age 19. During her life, Orli cared deeply about expanding access to mental health services, and prior to her death, she was training to become a mental health peer counselor at her university. Ariel is raising money so that NAMI-NYC can continue fighting for mental health care to be fully supported and destigmatized, particularly in underserved and marginalized communities. Please donate if you can.

Last week's newsletter.

ICYMI. IRGC terror designation should not prevent Iran nuclear deal.

Tweet of the Week. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) goes off on Marjorie Taylor Greene. (Noteworthy in its own right and because no Republicans are doing so--she is not the fringe of the GOP.)

Twitter Thread of the Week. Kelsey Davenport.

Video Clip of the Week. David Letterman's last Top Ten list.

Upcoming Events. Please join hosts Lynn & Skip Schrayer, along with me, Dana Gordon, Politics with Dana and Steve, Mike & Eileen Tarnoff, and many others for a Zoom discussion on the impact of the Jewish vote in 2022 and protecting our democracy with special guests Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), and JDCA CEO Halie Soifer on Monday, May 16, from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm Central Time. Contributions to JDCA are encouraged not required. RSVP to [email protected] to reserve your space and get the Zoom link.

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The Fine Print: This newsletter usually runs on Sunday mornings. If you receive it as an ICYMI on Wednesday it's because you didn't open the one sent on Sunday. Unless stated otherwise, my views do not necessarily reflect the views of any candidates or organizations that I support or am associated with. I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn more. I am willing to sacrifice intellectual consistency for intellectual honesty. I might be wrong: Read opposing views and decide for yourself. A link to an article doesn't mean that I agree with everything its author has ever said or that I even agree with everything in the article; it means that the article supports or elaborates on the point I was making. I take pride in accurately reporting the facts on which I base my opinions. Tell me if you spot inaccuracies, typos, or other mistakes so that I can correct them in the next newsletter (and give you credit if you want it). Advertisements reflect the views of the advertisers, not necessarily of me, and advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertisements. I read, value, and encourage replies to my newsletters, but I don't always have time to acknowledge replies or to engage in one-on-one discussion. I'm happy to read anything, but please don't expect me to watch videos of any length--send me a transcript if the content is that important. Don't expect a reply if your message is uncivil or if it's clear from your message that you haven't read the newsletter or clicked on the relevant links. Dedicated to Ariel Sheffey, Ayelet Sheffey, and Orli Sheffey z''l. ©2022 Steve Sheffey. All rights reserved.