Fourteen Republican candidates are speaking Thursday at a forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington, D.C. Comments made by front-runner Donald Trump are already garnering criticism on social media.
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It was hard to keep up with the number of times Donald Trump typecast Jews in a speech Thursday to the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“You are not going to support me even though you know I am the best thing that could happen for Israel”. “And the reason, I know why you’re not going to support me, and you’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money”.
“You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money”, Trump told members of the Sheldon Adelson-funded hardline pro-Israel lobbying organization. “You invest in a young guy – he’s a US senator – from Florida, and he’s in there about 12 seconds and decides he wants to run for president”, Trump said.
But the GOP front running presidential candidate says he has doubts about each side’s commitment to the Peace process.
Predicting a comeback, however, Bush said that “I’m going to win New Hampshire first”.
But more important even than the Adelsons is another absent audience: conservative Evangelicals, whose emotional bonds with the State of Israel, particularly under its current management, have made aggressive support for anything Netanyahu wants very almost a litmus test for Republicans wanting to be president. “You just like me because my daughter happens to be Jewish”, Trump said as he took the stage.
But Rubio was followed later in the morning by Trump, whose remarks nearly had the quality of a stand-up comedy routine, with jokes and asides aplenty but little of real substance.
“The reason Trump will not get the support of Jewish donors is because he’s not serious enough on policy”, Fleischer told Jewish Insider.
Later in his ramble, Trump suggested Jeb Bush’s acceptance of campaign contributions means his donors control him.
Trump evaded specific questions about whether Palestinian demands in peace negotiations are legitimate and whether Israel should be allowed to build settlements in the West Bank without restrictions, though he said the Israeli housing projects were a “huge sticking point” in talks.
“I’m a negotiator, like you folks”, he said. “You’ve got to go in and do it nicely so everyone’s happy”.
He echoed calls to roll back the Iran nuclear deal, and called Jerusalem the “eternal, undivided capitol of Israel”. Lindsey Graham supplied some counterprogramming by attacking Trump for alienating Latinos and Cruz and Rubio for taking extremist positions on abortion. RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks asked. “I’d rather save it for that moment when you walk into the room”, he explained. “Isn’t it insane?” Trump added in yet another part of his speech, prompting laughter. Trump responded to the jeers. “Do me a favor, just relax”, he told one of the people booing.
“I believe that I can put both sides together but it will take six months”, he said, speaking of his ability to reach a peace accord in the region should he be elected president. “Don’t worry about it”.
If Jews are canny deal-makers, Ohio Gov. John Kasich argued that they make the most loyal friends.
In his defense, the Anti-Defamation League later issued a statement saying “context is everything” and said they do not think it was “Donald Trump’s intention to evoke anti-Semitic stereotypes”.
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Trump “repeatedly invoked stereotypes about Jews and money” in the speech, BuzzFeed noted, pointing to Trump statements, like “Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t negotiate deals?”
