It seemed that Trump would face a skeptical and potentially hostile crowd – he arrived just hours after the Associated Press quoted him as saying that Israel might need to make serious concessions in any potential peace deal with the Palestinians.
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Trump backtracked on comments that he made Wednesday in which he suggested that Israelis could sacrifice more than they had already for the sake of peace. “They are dead wrong, and they don’t understand the enduring bond between Israel and America”.
I don’t believe, on the basis of this alone, that Donald Trump is an anti-semite, but these statements put his judgement into question.
“That’s why you don’t want to give me money, OK, but that’s OK, you want to control your own politician”.
The US should not let First Amendment protections of free speech stand in the way of confronting this “warped view of jihad”, Pataki continued, comparing a ban on inflammatory Islamic rhetoric to prohibitions on yelling “fire in a crowded theatre”. And you walk into a room, you can tell nearly like in two seconds whether or not you’re going to make a deal. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas told Jewish donors on ThursdayDonald J. Trump and Ben Carson may not have reduced doubts about their seriousness as leaders and their understanding of global affairs on Thursday as they delivered meandering speeches to one of the country’s most influential Republican Jewish organizations. Adelson’s willingness to make a huge political investment helps explain why his signature group attracted all of the major GOP presidential candidates to its forum in Washington even though the man himself wasn’t among the hundreds in attendance. Congress has passed legislation to move the USA embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but the past three presidents have all periodically issued waivers and maintained the status quo. “All of us are deeply concerned that this is yet another manifestation of terrorism”, he said, “radical Islamic terrorism here at home”.
Cruz opened his remarks with moment of silence for the California shooting victims.
“This horrific murder underscores that we are at a time of war”, Cruz told the crowd.
The Republican Jewish Coalition’s presidential forum offered the candidates a chance to flex their foreign policy muscles.
The two candidates aren’t just duking it out for voters – they are also making a play to appeal to powerful donors, many of whom pay close attention to the RJC forum. “The Adelsons are generally pleased with all of the Republican candidates and feel that the primary process will work its way out”.
Still, the prospect of Adelson’s nod looms large for the GOP field.
“It’s important to him that campaigns show that they can garner their own resources, build their own ground game and effectively mount a campaign that can win in the fall”, Abboud said.
That perspective misses the fact that certain absent parties are for many of these presidential candidates the real audience at the RJC meeting.
“Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t renegotiate deals?” he asked.
– “We’re all good with contracts”, he said, contrasting his audience with the Obama administration. “In this case he is speaking to a group of Jewish Republicans, a significant portion of whom are business people”.
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On the issue of the civil war in Syria, Cruz and Rubio took different approaches to whether Syrian President Bashar Assad should be removed from power. He added that his daughter Ivanka has a great husband and is very happy, but “the only bad news is I can’t get her on Saturday”, referring to Shabbat, a Jewish day of rest. “There is no moral equivalence between Israel… and those who seek to destroy her”, he said.
