Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. AIPAC 2021 Lobbying & Hill Agenda
3. Hearings & Markups
4. On the Record

On March 23 Israelis go back to the polls (again) — and Jewish Currents will be hosting live coverage and analysis on election night, with Peter Beinart, Contributing Writer Elisheva Goldberg, and Assistant Editor Joshua Leifer, and “a range of guests to discuss what, in their view, is at stake, including: political analyst Michal Sella; Jaffa city councilmember Abed Abu Shehadeh; former MK Stav Shaffir; policy analysts Lara Friedman and Yousef Munayyer.”

When Israelis go to the polls next week, they will be voting on – among other things – whether to bring followers of the late Meir Kahane into the Knesset and possibly into the government (since the Kahanists are in partnership with Netanyahu), on 3/18, FMEP convened a webinar entitled, “Mainstreaming the Extreme: How Meir Kahane’s Vision of Jewish Supremacy Conquered Israeli Politics.” The webinar featured featuring Amjad Iraqi (+972 Magazine), Professor Rabbi Shaul Magid (Dartmouth College and author of the forthcoming Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical), and Natasha Roth-Rowland (University of Virginia) in conversation with Lara Friedman (FMEP). Video and resources shared during the webinar are here; podcast version – Spotify, Soundcloud.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Senate Budget Resolution Amendment-Palooza
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. Hearings & Markups
3. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

The Middle East in the FY21 Consolidated Appropriations Bill

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

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This week Congress moved to avert a government shut-down (barely) by passing the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes 11 FY21 must-pass appropriations bills (funding core government functions/agencies), the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2021, and the Coronavirus Response and Relief bill. In addition, the Consolidated bill includes fully 16 other (non-must-pass) bills — dealing with a seemingly ad hoc collection of legislative priorities including bio/agriculture, pipelines, the environment, intellectual property, homeland security, museums, aircraft, energy, water, health, and taxes. On 12/21, the House passed this massive bill in two roll call votes (coming in at 327–85 and 359-53), and the Senate then passed the bill by a recorded vote of 92-6. The bill now goes to President Trump.

All told the bill weighs in at 5593 pages, plus there are hundreds of pages of joint explanatory statements laying out Congressional intent with respect to each bill included in the Consolidated bill. All of which was released the same day Congress had to vote on it. Which means that the chances that any member of Congress actually read even a small portion of the text or explanatory language before being forced to vote on the entire package are virtually nil.

The full text of the FY21 Consolidated Appropriations Act is here (the text of the bill was inserted into an existing bill, HR 133, which was hollowed out for this purpose; confusingly, as of this writing, that bill still shows up in the Congressional Record under its original title and with its original content).

Middle East-related provisions – which are present in Division C (Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2021), Division K (Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Act, 2021) and Division W (Intelligence Authorization Act, 2021) are detailed below. This analysis covers both bill language and language from the relevant Joint Explanatory Statement. Text of the Joint Explanatory Statement for SFOPS Approps is here; text of the Joint Explanatory Statement covering DOD Approps is here (and there is no statement for Intell Authorization).

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