“Five months ago, I was with you”.
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Republican presidential hopefuls courted Jewish voters Thursday, with promises to scrap President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and vows of fervent loyalty to longtime U.S. ally Israel, AFP reported.
“Irreverence is good”, said Eric Levine, a NY attorney who is raising money for Florida Sen. “They are dead wrong, and don’t understand the enduring bond between Israel and America”. “We’re negotiators. This room negotiates perhaps more than any room I’ve spoken to and maybe more”.
In addition to the six countries listed above, the foreign ministers of another nine countries – Britain, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Croatia, Portugal and Slovenia – signed a letter earlier in the year urging European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to move forward on settlement labeling. “In this case he is speaking to a group of Jewish Republicans, a significant portion of whom are business people. That doesn’t bother me and I believe he would be great for Israel”, Friedman told the Examiner.
“Very soon I’m going to Israel”, Trump said.
He added that the King of Jordan “seems like a nice man”. The political problem for the party, of course, is that Trump’s ignoble attitudes in this respect will become associated with the party as a whole.
“There’s plenty of evidence of Israel’s repeated attempts at peace”, he said.
Trump told the AP he planned to meet Netanyahu during a trip to Israel “sometime after Christmas, probably”.
“She shouldn’t be allowed to run for president”, Trump declared.
As he faced boos, Trump fired back at the crowd, singling out one man who booed Trump: “Who’s the wise guy?”
“I’ll be able to tell in one sit-down meeting with the real leaders”, he said.
Michael Leventoff, a NY businessman and member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said Trump questioning Israel’s commitment to the peace process is another example of him “just getting it wrong”.
“Stupidly, you want to give money….You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money”. “I want to be very neutral and see if I can get both sides together”.
“When I heard about it, I figured probably not”, he said.
Rubio discussed his pro-Israel record, and how he recently passed sanctions against the Shiite terror group Hezbollah, has continued to put the pressure on the Iranian regime, and has pushed the Palestinian Authority to reject Hamas. The U.S. does not now recognize the Palestinian territories as an independent state, though the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in 2012 to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state”.
A Palestinian intelligence officer was reportedly behind an attempt to stab an Israeli soldier and a pedestrian near Jewish settlements in the West Bank on Thursday.
Several activists who headed for lunch after Trump’s talk said they did not think much of his speech but were not offended, with one man noting that Trump was introduced as mishpucha, the Yiddish word for family.
“I’m leading in every single poll in every single state, in every single national poll”, he said.
The discussion nationally was on gun control, possible terrorism and the massacre of 14 in San Bernardino, Calif. But at a forum that drew every major Republican presidential candidate, the focus was on terrorism, Islamic fundamentalists and protecting Israel. “We have a president who refuses to use the term”.
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Israeli troops fire tear gas toward Palestinians gathering near the scene of what the Israeli military claims was a suspected stabbing attack by a Palestinian, south of the city of al-Khalil (Hebron), the occupied West Bank, November 25, 2015.
