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Government Relations ZOA remains one of the only Jewish organizations not in denial—and perhaps the only one that never pretended otherwise—about the actual state of partisan reality on issues relating to Israel. As Washington continues its preoccupation with health care policy and the alleged Russia scandal, important foreign policy is suffering from some inattention. The Trump administration still has the potential to make game-changing impacts to Iran policy, the Arab war against Israel, and other areas where ZOA is heavily engaged, but it appears some additional patience may be required to allow the administration to make a difference in each of these areas. Congress still has an important role to play at driving policy, as well. We’ve noted in the past the increasingly partisan environment in Congress and the impact this has had on our policy issues. Unfortunately, this divide has increased and gotten much worse. The pro-Israel consensus within the Democratic Party was already under siege by political and ideological forces within the party’s big tent. President Obama actively enabled those forces and encouraged the ongoing fraying of the pro-Israel consensus in exchange for short-term political gain to, among other things, smash resistance to the Iran deal. The situation today has deteriorated, as anti-Israel elements have grown more emboldened. The larger context of opposition to all things related to President Trump has added yet another layer of difficulty, standing in the way of efforts to find common ground. ZOA remains one of the only Jewish organizations not in denial—and perhaps the only one that never pretended otherwise—about the actual state of partisan reality on issues relating to Israel. ZOA remains firmly in favor of strong bipartisan pro-Israel policies, but when we encounter the reality of partisan hostility, we do not pretend it is not present and so never allow good actions to be held hostage to such niceties. THE TAYLOR FORCE ACT Taylor Force was a U.S. citizen, Army veteran, and West Point graduate who was killed by Palestinian Arab terrorists while on a graduate school trip to Israel in 2016. The Taylor Force Act currently working its way through Congress will limit or eliminate U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as long as the PA continues to make payments to terrorists and their families. It turns out that these payments, made on a sliding scale depending on how heinous the original crimes were, amount to a significant portion of the $500 million dollars the U.S. pays annually to the PA. ZOA has been a champion of this bill, which was the main focus of our successful June 2017 mission. The next step is the elimination of all 20 Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. JOSH LONDON Co-Director, Government Relations Department DAN POLLAK Co-Director, Government Relations Department


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