The 149th Anniversary Lincoln Dinner, on March 3, 2024 at Antun’s of Queens Village, was a spectacular patriotic gala with the theme “Make America Great Again in 2024.” We’ll see you all at our milestone 150th next year! Here are the videos of the outstanding speakers and honorees from beginning to the end of the dinner program.
Thank you to James Doukas our Lincoln Dinner videographer!
(Book Chapter Highlights)
By Elizabeth Berney, Esq.
ZOA Director of Research & Special Projects
Note: This article is not an endorsement of any party or candidate for office.
In 2021, the University of Southern California Casden Institute asked Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton Klein and I to co-author a chapter for a book entitled “The Impact of President Trump’s Presidency on American Jews and Israel.” Our book chapter, “Trump: Friend Extraordinaire to Israel and the Jewish People,” is reprinted on the ZOA.org website.
Here are some highlights (and Biden’s efforts to undo Trump’s accomplishments):
• Trump’s “Executive Order on Combating Antisemitism” helped defend Jewish and pro-Israel students from harassment on college campuses. ZOA previously led a successful battle to reinterpret the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students. Trump’s order enshrined, strengthened and required vigorous enforcement of these rights.
• Trump combated antisemitism in numerous other ways: (i) He brokered a groundbreaking MOU with Bahrain to eradicate antisemitism (in addition to the Abraham Accords). (ii) Trump deported the last known Nazi war criminal from the United States. Multiple previous administrations failed to do so. (iii) Trump condemned Congressional squad members’ antisemitism. (iv) Trump’s State of the Union address and many speeches denounced “the vile poison of antisemitism, or those who spread its venomous creed . . . anywhere and everywhere it occurs.”
• Regarding Charlottesville, Trump initiated a priority civil rights investigation; brought Heyer’s murderer to justice; and supported the Congressional resolution against “white nationalists, white supremacists, the KKK, neo-Nazis and other hate groups.” He did not call neo-Nazis “fine people.” In the very same breath as “fine people”, Trump said: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.”
Biden’s combating antisemitism strategy downgraded the widely-accepted helpful IRHA definition of antisemitism; welcomed alternate definitions which protect antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism; and ignored antisemitism from sources other than white supremacy.
• Trump relocated the U.S. Embassy to Israel’s eternal capital Jerusalem. Biden tried to undermine this by pressuring to open a US consulate for Palestinian Arabs in western Jerusalem.
• Trump recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. (The Golan was part of the original Mandate held in trust for the Jewish people and has a long Jewish history.). Biden’s Secretary of State refused to acknowledge Israeli soereignty.
• Trump correctly recognized that Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria are legal. The Biden administration maligns and pressures Israel to stop these lawful Jewish communities and refused to visit them.
• Trump resigned from the so-called United Nations Human Rights Council because the UNHRC focuses on falsely attacking Israel. Biden rejoined the UNHRC.
• Trump sanctioned International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel for their unlawful investigation of Israel, and closed the PLO Washington DC office for prompting the illegal ICC investigation. Biden lifted the ICC sanctions.
• Trump appointed great friends of Israel to important posts. Biden appointed numerous Israel-haters, boycott supporters and antisemites. See the Biden Appointments Watch page on ZOA’s website.
• Trump was the first U.S. president to pray at the holy Western Wall in Jerusalem. Biden removed the Israeli flag from his limo when traveling in the Jewish quarter where the Western Wall is located.
• Trump respected Israel’s sovereign rights, keeping his campaign promise: “When I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second-class citizen will end on day one.”
Biden undermined Israeli sovereignty. Biden calls for a Palestinian Arab state in Gaza and on the indefensible pre-1967 lines with imaginary mutually agreed swaps. This would reward Hamas’ and PA terrorism, divide Jerusalem, leave 800,000 Jews homeless, and be an Iranian-proxy terror state in Israel’s lawful heartland. Abba Eban called these indefensible lines “Auschwitz lines” because they would cause Israel’s destruction. Lyndon Johnson correctly stated that retreating to the pre-’67 lines “is not a prescription for peace, but for renewed hostilities.”
• Trump policies saved Israeli and American lives. Trump signed the Taylor Force Act; stopped sending U.S. tax dollars to the Palestinian Authority regime because the PA incites and pays Arab terrorists $400 million per year of “pay-to-slay” rewards to murder Jews; stopped funding the UN Relief and Works Agency because UNRWA stores Hamas rockets and teaches Arab children to hate and kill Jews; ended the dangerous Iran deal; killed IRGC terror leader Qasem Soleimani, and imposed maximum sanctions on Iran, which significantly reduced Iran’s funding of terror proxies Hezbollah and Hamas.
Unfortunately, upon taking office, Biden immediately restarted funding the Palestinian Arabs and UNRWA, and gave them more even after Hamas launched 4,500 rockets at Israel in May 2021 (a total of $1.5 billion of our U.S. tax dollars). This enabled more anti-Jewish terror. Biden also failed to enforce Iran sanctions, and even allowed $10-$16 Billion to be released to Iran – the funder and trainer of Hamas – after Hamas’ October 7thatrocities.
• Biden pressured Israel to enter into a terrible 2022 deal to give rightful Israeli maritime territory and gas fields to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, enriching Iranian proxy Hezbollah with billions of dollars. Hezbollah is now launching rockets at Israel every day. Yet Biden is promoting another bad deal, for Israel to give Israel’s vital lookout lands to Lebanon, in exchange for Hezbollah’s empty promise to do some of what Hezbollah is already required to do under UN Resoluton 1701, passed in 2006 (disarm, stop launching rockets at Israel and withdraw to north of the Litani River).
• Trump negotiated the Abraham Accords, establishing peace between Israel and four Arab countries. Biden is undermining the accords by trying to use them to promote a Palestinian Arab state.
• Trump signed U.S.-Israeli scientific, industrial and agricultural research cooperation agreements, enabling joint projects in Judea/Samaria and the Golan Heights. Biden issued guidance ending this joint research. This is a boycott against Jewish researchers in Judea-Samaria.
• Trump reversed discriminatory labeling regulations that had facilitated antisemitic boycotts against Israeli products made in Judea-Samaria.
• Trump allowed Americans born in Jerusalem to list “Israel” on their passports.
• When Trump was President-elect, Trump tried to stop the lame duck Obama-Biden administration from orchestrating the passage of horrendously anti-Israel UN Security Council resolutions. Biden recently refused to veto, and thus allowed the UNSC to adopt two harmful-to-Israel resolutions regarding Gaza.
By Paul King
Candidate for U.S. Congress, NY5
For years, I cringed when newscasters and politicians declared, “This year’s election is the most important election in the history of the republic.” That’s why I was a little uncomfortable two years ago when I said the 2022 elections were a stepping stone to 2024… which will be the most important election since 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected.
Well, that has proven to be an understatement.
This year’s elections are far more important. If the Democrats hold onto the White House and retake the House of Representative, they will drag America into an abyss. The damage will last for decades.
Think I am exaggerating? Consider these five long-term tumors:
Migrant Crisis – Things are bad now. Imagine if another 8 million people enter illegally during Biden-Harris 2? Consider the strain from the hundreds of thousands in NY that came because of our sanctuary city status and at the behest of Mayor Adams, who now admits “will destroy” the city and cost NYC $12 billion by mid-2025.
$34 Trillion in Debt – This is an enormous weight on future generations and the American Dream. Biden, Meeks and Jeffries just want to borrow, borrow, borrow so they can spend, spend, spend. Economies cannot long survive when debt is far in excess of 100% of GDP. NY public authorities hold $329 billion in public debt – 97% of the state’s total according to Reinvent Albany.
Military Wokeness/Weakness – America has a shortage of soldiers, sailors and ships. Four more years of a DEI focus at the DoD will only further embolden our enemies. Speaking of which…
China’s Ascension – The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is working on many fronts toward supplanting America as the world leader this century. Four more years of Biden pussyfooting with China (and Iran) will leave America weak and at risk of a kinetic war. NY has been home to “police stations” run by Chinese nationals. Thousands of military age men, many identified as members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the armed wing of the CCP, are entering the U.S. open borders.
Green Obsession – The irrational progressive dash to an all-electric world will create an enormous economic burden for everyday citizens and leave America extremely vulnerable to a debilitating attack on a singular source of energy. Gov. Hochul doubled down on former Gov. Cuomo’s Climate Action Plan with her expanded zero-emissions plan that would force New Yorkers at minimum to replace their gas stoves with electric ones and pay exorbitant utilities bills.
So, how do we win this most important election of our lives?
Coalesce to Create a Real Red Wave – In 2022, New York delivered the House to Republicans. The Democrats want to steal those seats back through any means necessary (i.e., gerrymandering). We need to hold serve, and flip more blue seats by sending people like Alison Esposito, Tom Zmich and me to Congress. That starts with keeping the George Santos seat in the red column. Some people are understandably uncertain about Mazi Pilip. Well, we need to put aside the intramural fighting this year. Next year, we can get back to arguing about the future of our party after we save our country.
Overcome Cheating – The most shocking lesson from my 2022 run is that Democrat cheating is not just pervasive, it’s blatant. People can rightfully point to how Tom Sullivan had his victory taken away or the dirty voter rolls, but while good people combat those structural issues, we need to take our fight to the point of attack. By that, I mean we need hundreds of Republicans to step up and be poll workers or poll watchers. Democrats managed to win about 100% of the votes in nursing homes. They distribute materials for Democratic candidates inside polling places! They instruct immigrants and first-time voters that since they are registered as Democrats, they should fill in all the circles in Column A. They get away with it –brazenly– because no one is watching. YOU can stop them. Commit now to being a poll worker or poll watcher.
Turnout – Every election is about turnout, but in the post-COVID world –where the Democrat ballot harvesting machine works on steroids– the old rules of turnout do not apply. Republicans need to:
1) Get many of our most reliable Republicans to vote early. (Check out ny.bankyourvote.com.) If our most loyal citizens put their votes “in the bank” in October, then candidates can focus GOTV on occasional Republican voters in the home stretch.
2) Start working NOW to educate and motivate citizens who usually stay on the sidelines in November. We all have friends and family members who say things like, “Why vote? It does not change anything.” Or “I only have one vote. I can’t make a difference.” We need to get those Americans in the game. It’s not going to happen by dropping off campaign material in the fall. It’s not going to happen because candidates like me (or even Donald Trump) give a great speech. It will happen because of YOU! Start educating your fellow citizens now so they do the right thing in November
This year, I will spend months deep inside the darkest blue areas of Southeast Queens, explaining to fellow citizens that Republicans are not their enemy, that their values are actually the same as our conservative values, and that they should give us a chance rather than supporting the same old, same old Democratic Party failures.
It is hard work, but I’m happy to do it – not because I want to be a congressman, but because we Republicans are going to save America. Please join me in that fight throughout 2024. If we all go all-in over the next 10 months then we will preserve the last best hope of man on earth. Our children and grandchildren will be forever grateful.
Dear Club Members and Friends,
As Sunday, March 3rd approaches, we are excited to present our 149th Anniversary Lincoln Dinner. Our dinner committee is hard at work to make this our greatest patriotic gala in this crucial year 2024, the year we will Make America Great Again, and to fill our hearts with hope and optimism for the future of America!
