Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The Implosion of the Republican Party -- and what it means for Jews and Israel

From an article of the same title above in the Jewish Forward magazine by Jane Eisner:

Each presidential election cycle, the Republican Jewish establishment spends zillions of dollars to lure liberal Jews to its side. The arguments touch upon domestic policy and social issues, but the core, emotional attraction hinges on unquestioned support for Israel — the promise that Republicans alone understand the many dangers Israel faces and are far more willing than their squishy Democratic counterparts to project strength in a volatile, unfriendly world.

Like so many of his platforms, Trump’s policy on the Israelis and the Palestinians is filled with contradictions. He vows to stay “neutral” on the conflict in order to make a deal, but such vagueness only alienates both sides. To many Jews, neutrality is a code word for getting too tough on Israel. For Palestinians, Trump’s professed love for Israel and the Jews, and his concomitant disdain for Islam and Arabs, cancels out his “neutrality” and hardly makes him an honest broker.

Trump’s refusal to pledge full allegiance to Israel, a key precept of Republican orthodoxy until now, seriously undermines Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to U.S. politics, which has been to align himself with the GOP standard-bearers. But those standards have systematically been knocked to the ground by the Trump stampede: Former House speaker John Boehner (remember him?), the one who invited Netanyahu to make his controversial and, in the end, futile speech against the Iran deal before Congress, endorsed Kasich. Will Kasich’s win in Ohio make any difference? Many GOP Jews were ready to embrace a President Rubio, now just an expensive memory. Big moneyman and Bibi backer Sheldon Adelson has stayed quiet and therefore irrelevant so far.

P.S. Thank you Donald Trump for making it patently clear for all of my gun-show Republican friends that the Republican Party doesn't belong to them, the little Republicans (little gentile folk). Likewise, the Democratic Party doesn't belong to the little Democrats. The Republican Party belongs to the likes of Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers (jewish oligarchs); the Democratic Party belongs to the likes of George Soros (jewish oligarch).

P.P.S. And thank you, Donald Trump for chasing Jeb Bush off the stage.

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