Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is circulating a letter among colleagues on Capitol Hill warning of a swift and harsh U.S. reaction if the Palestinian Authority were to successfully suspend or expel Israel from the United Nations.

Cruz, who has been tracking the matter since being briefed by U.N. and Israeli officials earlier this month, is collecting signatures for the letter, obtained by Jewish Insider before it is sent to U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Secretary of State Tony Blinken next week. 

The memo lays out what “the consequences of such an action are likely to be, especially for America’s relationships with the UN and the Palestinians,” and urges the ambassador to “use all available resources to deter the PLO from taking that action.”

The letter, which comes days after JI reported on a Palestinian Authority initiative to expel Israel from the United Nations General Assembly that was making headway, serves as a blueprint for how Republicans would respond if Israel were suspended or expelled from the body.

“The effort to diplomatically isolate Israel is aimed at ultimately destroying the Jewish state, which is both obscene and antithetical to American national security interests. If Israel is suspended from the U.N. General Assembly, we will move to limit American participation and funding across the U.N., including U.N. Programmes, Funds, and Other Entities and Bodies, as well as its Specialized Agencies and Related Organizations, both those in which the PLO participates and generally,” Cruz writes in the letter.

The Texas senator warns that such a campaign being successful would place the Palestinians in violation of the Oslo Accords, noting in the letter that, “Those agreements committed the Palestinians not to internationalize their conflict with Israel outside the contours of bilateral negotiations, which the United States has traditionally mediated.”

“The proposal by President Abbas to suspend Israel from the U.N. General Assembly would straightforwardly violate and fundamentally abrogate those commitments, in turn requiring a comprehensive reevaluation of the U.S.-Palestinian relationship,” Cruz said. 

“We would pursue such a reevaluation, which will minimally include downgrading cooperation with the PA, ending assistance to the West Bank and Gaza, terminating all Palestinian-related offices across the U.S. government including the Palestinian-facing consulate and the Office of Palestinian Affairs, and broadly curtailing diplomatic, economic, and security engagements between American and Palestinian officials.”

The letter also threatens to reimpose antiterrorism sanctions on the Palestine Liberation Organization and the PA that are currently “vitiated by licenses and waivers, and are primarily limited to Americans’ ability to assist those groups.” “Should the PLO move to suspend Israel from the U.N. General Assembly, we will seek to ensure that those licenses and waivers are ended, and to expand American antiterrorism sanctions to include third parties,” Cruz writes.

Reached for comment on the PA effort, a U.S. official told JI that, “We have consistently made clear – in public and in private – our opposition to steps that move us farther away from ensuring peace and security for both Israel and Gaza.”