(1) Israeli grip on America is weakening? But Trump to attend APIAC (2) Trump will "fall on his sword", making way for Hillary (3) Hillary will be a disaster for the whole world (4) Netanyahu to skip AIPAC, to avoid meeting Obama (5) Supporters call on Sanders not to attend AIPAC (6) AIPAC announces that Trump will speak at its conference (7) Reform Jews say they'll oppose Trump at AIPAC (8) Trump’s national political director, Michael Glassner, worked for AIPAC (9) AIPAC speech could give Trump legitimacy; but embroil Israel and inflame American Jews (1) Israeli grip on America is weakening? But Trump to attend AIPAC Subject: Re: Trump rise shows Israeli grip on American policymaking is weakening From: Alan Sabrosky <docbrosk@comcast.net> Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 06:32:50 -0500  > Trump rise shows Israeli grip > on American policymaking is weakening Is that why he & Hillary are speaking at the upcoming AIPAC annual convention? (2) Trump will "fall on his sword", making way for Hillary Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 07:36:50 -0500 Subject: Re: Trump rise shows Israeli grip on American policymaking is weakening From: Ron Corbyn <corbynrc@gmail.com> All of this I predicted a year ago. Trump, no doubt a freemason, has agreed to play the role of fascist extremist in order to smooth the way for Hillary, who while a communist will be painted as a level-headed moderate. In other words Trump has been ordered to, and will, "fall on his sword." Like Harry Hopkins, Jewish aide to FDR, said: "Americans are too dumb to understand what is going on." And, like FDR, a 33rd degree freemason, said: "In politics nothing happens by accident, it is planned that way." (3) Hillary will be a disaster for the whole world From: "Sandhya Jain" <sandhya206@bol.net.in> Subject: RE: Trump wave will become a Tsunami. Rigged Convention will lead to Revolt Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 20:12:12 +0530 I hope he wins, Hillary will be a disaster for the whole world. Sandhya (4) Netanyahu to skip AIPAC, to avoid meeting Obama http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/israel-netanyahu-official-trip-cancelled-obama-aipac-us-aid.html Why Bibi snubbed Obama and is skipping next week's AIPAC conference Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to cancel his US trip so that he could avoid meeting with both President Barack Obama and the US Jewish community. Author Ben Caspit Posted March 14, 2016 Translator Sandy Bloom To explain Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to forego a meeting with US President Barak Obama, associates of the prime minister noted to Al-Monitor the US primaries and Netanyahu’s desire to avoid being dragged into the ruckus surrounding them. While there is some truth to this excuse, given on condition of anonymity, it is not exactly high on the list of the real reasons. What is taking place in the US primaries has caused great consternation to Netanyahu as well as his American political patron, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. In contrast to the previous presidential contest, during which Adelson sunk many millions into the candidacy of Newt Gingrich before skipping over to Mitt Romney’s camp and investing $100 million in him, this time, Netanyahu and Adelson are waiting to see which way the wind would turn. The problem is that the wind has swirled in a crazy direction. No one in Netanyahu or Adelson’s circles had dreamed of Donald Trump's rise. Now they are beginning to get used to him, as reflected in the tone of the articles in Israel Hayom, the pro-Netanyahu newspaper financed by Adelson. Netanyahu had two more important reasons that induced him to skip the meeting with Obama on March 18 and waive an appearance before American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) the following night. One was a diplomatic reason, the other was political-religious. The diplomatic reason is connected to the discussion over a memorandum of understanding between Israel and the United States that will determine the dimensions of the military aid package from the United States to Israel in the decade starting in 2017. Currently, Israel receives about $3 billion a year in security aid. Following the nuclear agreement with Iran, Israel hoped to upgrade the package to more than $4 billion. However, Netanyahu refused to open contacts while the US administration was willing to meet it halfway (in the middle of last year), in order to wage his hopeless struggle against ratification of the nuclear agreement in Congress. Now, the prime minister finds himself in a hopeless situation. The Americans are agreeing to ramp up assistance, but not to the level that Israel wants. The gaps remain, and chances that they will be bridged are low. Israel demands $4 billion a year, not including special assistance for the development of its various interceptor programs, including the Magic Wand (David’s Sling) and the Arrow missile. They are intended to complete Israel’s aerial protection against long-range rockets and missiles. The support needed for these projects comes to hundreds of millions of dollars a year, meaning that what Israel really wants is assistance close to $5 billion, all told. The Americans are willing to enlarge the aid to about $4 billion total. This is a significant gap. Netanyahu is still determined to postpone the agreement to the next president’s term of office, despite Vice President Joe Biden begging him last week when he was in Israel to sign it during Obama’s term of office. Netanyahu has his reasons. The prime minister is concerned about a "diplomatic ambush" from Obama during his last few months in office. He fears something along the lines of the Clinton Parameters that President Bill Clinton set out in the last few days of his term of office. Obama possesses a framework agreement formulated by Secretary of State John Kerry. The president can deliver a speech and detail the conditions of the framework agreement, a kind of "Obama Parameters." Or he can lend his support to the French initiative at the Security Council regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state by not vetoing it. Obama could even take an American framework agreement to the Security Council for ratification. Such acts would be viewed by Netanyahu as a real strategic catastrophe. Netanyahu reckons that the president would find it easier to carry out such a move if a military aid package for the next decade is signed. A well-publicized signing ceremony would remove the anti-Israeli image that Netanyahu has painted on Obama in recent years. Simultaneously, it would allow the American president to leave behind a diplomatic legacy. Those close to Netanyahu assess that if the sides do not reach an agreement on military aid, it will be harder for Obama to embark on a diplomatic campaign. He will need something to show his even-handedness, Netanyahu’s people think, because he won’t want to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances at the presidency and he won’t want to go down in history as an anti-Israeli president. Netanyahu, who was a cautious and calculating leader for most of his career, has become an out-of-control gambler in the last two years. Success has gone to his head and his closeness to Adelson and his unlimited financial resources have given him a false sense of security. After he lost his wager on US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Netanyahu went on to fail in his Iranian policy and then gambled again to try to avert congressional authorization of the agreement. He failed yet again — but each time he keeps raising the bar one more notch. An Israeli minister told Al-Monitor last week on condition of anonymity that Netanyahu is endangering Israel’s most important strategic interests. "It could happen that Trump will be president and he’ll reassess the whole business of American support all over the world. We could even find ourselves with zero support due to Netanyahu’s shenanigans," he said. So, to avoid finding himself being dragged into signing the memorandum, Netanyahu decided to miss the presidential meeting. At the moment, his coalition is more important to him than military aid. He founded a narrow right-wing government, and a political tremor could dismantle it. The second reason that impelled him not to travel to the United States at this time is also connected to these political interests: In January, the Israeli government reached a historic compromise and allotted Reform and Conservative Jews a special, separate prayer space opposite the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site. This compromise passed a government vote, but also let an ancient genie out of its bottle. The ultra-Orthodox parties, without whom Netanyahu cannot maintain his government, are now threatening to dismantle the coalition unless he agrees to their demand to amend this historic agreement. This is the same agreement that is viewed by world Jewry as a reconciliatory step taken by the Jewish state controlled by an Orthodox establishment with most of the world’s Jews, who are Reform or Conservative. Netanyahu knows that if he attends the AIPAC conference at the end of this week, he would receive a warm and festive public welcome from the Reform and Conservative Jews. But it would be a dangerous bear hug. Netanyahu is a secular Jew, even a borderline atheist, and has no interest in all this hullabaloo. His worldview is decidedly non-Orthodox, but he is an experienced politician and his coalition would fall apart without the ultra-Orthodox. He fell into this trap against his will and at the moment, has no idea how to get through this impasse. The last thing he needs now is a public show of support by Reform Jewry, which will only further enrage his natural ultra-Orthodox coalition partners. Netanyahu understands that sometimes, the best thing to do is simply stay home, disengage and pray for a miracle. (5) Supporters call on Sanders not to attend AIPAC http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/thousands-call-bernie-sanders-reject-aipacs-invitation-speak-alongside-trump-and Thousands Call on Bernie Sanders to Reject AIPAC's Invitation to Speak Alongside Trump and Clinton Pink Floyd's Roger Waters is among 4,000 who have signed petition. By Sarah Lazare / AlterNet March 14, 2016 Thousands are urging 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders to refuse an invitation from the right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to speak at its upcoming policy conference in Washington, DC. "As the main arm of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, AIPAC has sworn to promote the racist, militaristic, and anti-democratic policies of the most right-wing government in Israel's history," states a petition, which was created by AlterNet senior editor Max Blumenthal and has garnered 4,000 signatures in just four days. "Its conference this year will feature Islamophobes, anti-immigrant activists, and religious extremists." "With his promise to seek a 'level playing field' on Israel-Palestine, Bernie does not belong on the same stage as these figures," continues the petition, whose prominent signatories include Roger Waters, well-known musician and co-founder of Pink Floyd. Israeli activist and author Miko Peled, Palestinian-American civil rights campaigner and commentator Linda Sarsour and scores of other leading campaigners for Palestinian human rights have lent their names to the initiative. AIPAC invited every presidential candidate to speak at the conference, slated to take place March 20 through 22. Hillary Clinton was the first to confirm, with Donald Trump following closely behind her. Clinton has made her ardent support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a cornerstone of her campaign – and vowed in a letter to mega-donor media mogul Haim Saban to crush the grassroots BDS movement calling for the boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israel. A growing number of advocates for Palestinian rights are among Sanders’ supporters, including Waters, Sarsour, and writer Kumars Salehi, who recently registered his concern with Clinton, "who grinned from ear to ear in photo-ops with Netanyahu and claimed Palestinians in Gaza are not trapped by Israel’s blockade so much as they are "trapped by their leadership." Mondoweiss reporter Philip Weiss described the petition as "an effort to politicize Israel support inside the Democratic Party," noting that Clinton’s presence alongside Benjamin Netanyahu "demonstrates the intersectionality (we used to say overlap) of Clintonism and neoconservatism." The initiative has earned coverage from media in Israel, including a Jerusalem Post article highlighting Waters' support for Sanders. The Sanders campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (6) AIPAC announces that Trump will speak at its conference http://www.jewishjournal.com/robeshman/item/trump_and_aipac Trump and AIPAC by Rob Eshman March 15, 2016 This year was the hardest yet to come up with ideas for our Purim joke cover. How do you spoof Donald Trump better than John Oliver? How do you poke fun at Bernie Sanders when Larry David roams the earth? How do you mock Trump Steaks when there is such a thing as "Trump Steaks?" Finally, and most distressingly, how do you crack jokes when one of the most important Jewish organizations in the world invites Donald Trump to speak at its annual policy conference? Because that’s just not funny. Last week, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced that Trump will speak at its conference, which takes place March 20-22. The conference isn’t some closed-door, meet-the-candidates policy confab. It is the largest gathering of pro-Israel activists in the world. Some 15,000 people converge on Washington, D.C., to meet with elected officials, attend panels with scholars and foreign affairs analysts, and to hear keynote addresses from presidents, prime ministers and, yes, leading presidential candidates. AIPAC has confronted the immediate and expected backlash to its Trump invite by explaining that it is a nonpartisan organization with a long tradition of inviting whomever looks to be the likely Republican and Democratic nominees to speak. It stresses that the invitation is not an endorsement. This is true. AIPAC’s goal is to make deep and lasting connections with policymakers across the political spectrum. I know many of its board and rank-and-file members, and they are hardly right-wing or left-wing. And from AIPAC’s perspective, I get it: If there is a chance the man might be the next president, or even the Republican nominee, why not engage now in order to exert a positive influence on him and his policy team? That would seem to be the reasonable, pragmatic and bipartisan approach. And agree or disagree with some of AIPAC’s positions or tactics, the group has been extremely effective because it has always operated from the pragmatic center. But in this instance, AIPAC misjudged. By extending an invite to Trump with no additional comment, no caveats, no reproach, AIPAC is helping Trump erase the many lines he has crossed. Just last week, Trump declared, "I think Islam hates us." Earlier in his campaign, he called for a temporary travel ban on all Muslims — all — from entering the United States. His campaign’s exact words are, "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on." Here’s a thought experiment the leaders of AIPAC might want to try for a second. Substitute the word "Jew" and "Judaism" for "Muslim" and "Islam." If Trump had said those words instead, would he still have been invited? Of course not. Bigotry is bigotry. Racism is racism. A demagogue willing to defame or threaten an entire religion or nationality just to rile up voters could easily redirect his venom to some other group when the time is ripe. That’s the line Trump crossed. He is creating an atmosphere and a precedent for winning votes by fanning hate and discord. The near-riots last weekend at Trump rallies in Chicago and St. Louis show what will happen in a Trump America — and what might happen at the AIPAC conference. By giving Trump a platform without taking a stand on outright hate speech, AIPAC is helping to fuel this discord. That’s the core moral mistake AIPAC is making. But there is another oversight that is even more surprising, considering how pragmatic AIPAC leadership normally is. Inviting Trump is a slap in the face to two ethnic groups whose goodwill and understanding are critical to the survival of the State of Israel. Twenty percent of Israeli citizens are Muslim. They are integral to the economy, culture and politics of the nation. As a Middle Eastern country, Israel’s future peace and prosperity will depend on its relations with Muslims, from Palestinians to Jordanians, from the Emirates to India to Indonesia. That’s why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to meet with Trump on the candidate’s planned visit to Israel last year, prompting Trump to scuttle his trip. And it’s why this week, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hosted the principal Muslim religious leaders of Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Zambia on a five-day visit to Israel with civic and religious leaders from the spectrum of faith communities in Israel. For AIPAC to lend its imprimatur to a man who defames Islam is an affront to Islamic leaders courageous enough to reach out to Israel. The second group is the Latino community. By calling Mexicans "rapists" and insisting on mass deportation and a penitentiary-like wall, Trump is alienating the largest and fastest-growing minority group in America — a group whose support and understanding Israel and the American Jewish community has assiduously cultivated over the past decade. Inviting Trump is not an endorsement, but it is an affront to these groups. Should AIPAC retract? Not necessarily. But the organization needs to state clearly and publicly that it does not condone Trump’s incendiary statements regarding Mexicans, Muslims and others. It must denounce his clear incitement to physical violence at his rallies. It must make clear that those who foment hate and violence have no place in American politics, or on an AIPAC dais. Or it can continue to pretend that Donald Trump is just like every other candidate — and allow his stain to spread over AIPAC’s good name. (7) Reform Jews say they'll oppose Trump at AIPAC http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/.premium-1.708882 Reform Judaism’s Chiefs Say They'll Oppose Trump at AIPAC Conference, but Don’t Explain How 'Mr. Trump's extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric reminds us that our own ancestors' access to American shores of freedom and promise were once blocked, with deadly consequences,' say Jewish leaders. Allison Kaplan Sommer Mar 14, 2016 11:44 PM Will members of the Reform movement hold up protest signs or walk out when Donald Trump addresses the AIPAC conference in a week? An unusual and rather cryptic joint statement released by leaders of the Union for Reform Judaism and their rabbinical organization, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, does not make that clear, but hints at some form of action, saying that "the Reform Movement and our leaders will engage with Mr. Trump at the AIPAC Policy Conference in a way that affirms our nation's democracy and our most cherished Jewish values. We will find an appropriate and powerful way to make our voices heard." The press release was issued as a "response" to the announcement made over the weekend that leading GOP presidential hopeful Trump had accepted his invitation to the Policy Conference scheduled from March 20-22. Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton has also confirmed that she will address the gathering. The statement said that while the Reform movement has always worked closely with AIPAC and "understands" and "respects" its decision to invite all of the viable presidential hopefuls to its major gathering including Trump, they "cannot ignore" the troubling turn of Trump’s presidential bid has taken. It was signed by URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs and board chair Daryl Messinger, as well as the CCAR President Denise L. Eger and CEO Rabbi Steven A. Fox. Trump’s campaign, the statement said, "has been replete with naked appeals to bigotry, especially against Hispanics and Muslims. Previous comments he has made – and not disavowed – have been offensive to women, people of color, and other groups. In recent days, increasingly, he appears to have gone out of his way to encourage violence at his campaign events. At every turn, Mr. Trump has chosen to take the low road, sowing seeds of hatred and division in our body politic. Mr. Trump's extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric reminds us that our own ancestors' access to American shores of freedom and promise were once blocked, with deadly consequences." It further noted that AIPAC has "a singular focus: the U.S./Israel relationship. AIPAC's intent – and its responsibility – is to better understand the candidates' views on issues that impact the U.S./Israel relationship." Since "Mr. Trump is the unarguable front runner for the Republican nomination, and he has not yet spoken clearly about his views on U.S./Israel issues," the reasoning behind the invitation was clear – to give Trump an opportunity to do so. "At the same time," it added, "we cannot ignore the many issues on which Mr. Trump has spoken clearly. When he speaks hatefully of Mexicans or Muslims, for example, we recall a time when anti-Semitism put Jews at deathly danger, even in the United States." The core values of Reform Jews, "justice, mercy, compassion, peace," the movement leaders noted, "are altogether absent from Mr. Trump's statements" and because Jews identify with minorities such as those Trump has "demonized" – Muslims, Hispanics, and African-Americans, the movement must speak up against "hate speech." Although the Reform movement typically does not endorse or reject candidates, they said, "Mr. Trump is not simply another candidate. In his words and actions, he makes clear that he is engaging in a new form of political discourse, and so the response to his candidacy demands a new approach, as well." What that approach will be, however, the statement did not say. (8) Trump’s national political director, Michael Glassner, worked for AIPAC http://www.jewishjournal.com/nation/article/trump_to_address_aipac Trump to Address AIPAC by Jacob Kornbluh, Jewish Insider Posted on Mar. 11, 2016 at 11:07 am Republican presidential front-runner has confirmed his attendance at AIPAC’s Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., later this month, AIPAC announced on Friday. The 2016 AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled for March 20-22. Plenary sessions will take place at the Verizon Center. AIPAC extended invitations to all of the current presidential candidates. So far, only Hillary Clinton and Trump were confirmed as speakers at the gathering. "Our Policy Conference is likely to be one of the few venues that these candidates will have to speak to a bipartisan audience between now and Election Day," AIPAC said in an email. "We are delighted for AIPAC to serve as the venue for presidential candidates to share their perspectives, and we look forward to welcoming them." Trump recently came under heavy criticism for suggesting that he would take a "neutral" approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Thursday, during the CNN presidential debate in Miami, Florida, Trump maintained, "There’s nobody on this stage that’s more pro-Israel than I am. I have [a] tremendous love for Israel. A poll released on Friday shows a plurality of Israelis viewed Trump as the presidential candidate who will best serve Israel’s interests as president. It should be noted that Trump’s national political director, Michael Glassner, served as AIPAC’s Southwest Regional Political Director before joining the Trump campaign last July. Read our profile of Glassner here. (9) AIPAC speech could give Trump legitimacy; but embroil Israel and inflame American Jews http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.709073 Trump/AIPAC Conference Could Embroil Israel and Inflame American Jews Speech by controversial GOP candidate could give him legitimacy he lacks, which is precisely what enrages his opponents. Chemi Shalev Mar 15, 2016 7:56 PM Donald Trump is an international brand. He makes more money from licensing the use of his trademark name than he does from the real estate, golf courses and other properties that he owns. He has made hundreds of millions of dollars by allowing his name to be used on a wide range of products, from residential towers and exotic resorts to home furniture, men’s clothing and energy drinks. Next week’s annual AIPAC Conference is also likely to be remembered as the Trump Conference, or perhaps the Trump/AIPAC Conference, though this certainly isn’t what its organizers had in mind. The focus on Trump at AIPAC, which is already stirring debate inside the Jewish community, is sure to intensify once the dust settles on Tuesday’s crucial primaries. All the elements of a blockbuster television spectacle are already in place: the appearance of one of the most divisive presidential candidates in modern American history, before the annual convention of one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, on a topic with both internal and external ramifications, Israel and the Jews, which sparks substantial media interest even when times are normal. Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton have already accepted AIPAC’s invitation to address the conference, and other candidates might join them. The question of Bernie Sanders’ appearance is also sparking considerable debate among his supporters, between those who are urging him to speak his stark, even-handed truth to the powerful lobby and those who claim he shouldn’t legitimize a group that the radical left views as reactionary war mongers. But this mini-brouhaha doesn’t come close to the potential earthquake-level reverberations of the much-anticipated Trump speech: perhaps AIPAC will try to avoid the controversy by making it hard to fit the speech in Trump’s campaign schedule. In the meantime, his very invitation is being challenged. Rob Eshman, editor of the Los Angeles based Jewish Journal wrote this week that Trump should never have been invited, but once he was, AIPAC is duty bound to condemn his racism and bigotry, otherwise it would "allow his stain to spread over AIPAC’s good name." An AIPAC official said in response that it is long-standing policy to invite all the "active Democratic and Republican presidential candidates." The event "provides our community with an extraordinary opportunity to hear, directly and on-the-record, the positions of the presidential candidates on the U.S.-Israel relationship." But Jewish figures close to AIPAC concede that it is caught between a rock and a hard place: it could not avoid inviting Trump, but is well aware of the potential damage involved. Trump won’t be making money from this appearance, but he could nonetheless emerge with a handsome profit. The sharp-tongued, shoot-from-the-hip billionaire certainly isn’t lacking for publicity, but at AIPAC he could deviate from his image as a divisive brawler and gain a measure of the respectability that he sorely needs. Since the start of his astonishing campaign, Trump hasn’t appeared before a bipartisan forum that enjoys such prestige in Washington's corridors of power. AIPAC could very well fortify the presidential image that Trump would need in order to win the general elections: this, of course, is exactly what infuriates his critics. A lot depends on the tone of the speech Trump will choose to deliver, but no less on the kind of reception he will get from the AIPAC audience, which will reach close to 20,000 this year. Although AIPAC is seen as leaning decidedly right on matters concerning Israel and the Middle East, many of its members are still card-carrying Democrats with liberal views on domestic affairs. Many of them are uncomfortable with Trump’s appearance, including the leaders and rabbis of the Reform Movement, who have already promised to protest, though they haven’t specified how. Trump might encounter the same kind of sporadic interruptions to his speeches that he has met on the campaign trail, but he probably won’t repeat his encouragement to fans to make sure the protestors are smacked or carried out on a stretcher. That might not go over very well at AIPAC. The irony is that Trump’s problematic statements on Israel and the Middle East won’t be the main source of tension in the auditorium at the Washington Conference Center next week, despite the fact that AIPAC is a pro-Israeli lobby that claims to distance itself from internal politics. Trump’s declarations that he would remain "neutral" in order to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, his hints that Israel is responsible for the breakdown of peace talks, his refusal to acknowledge the unity of Jerusalem or to promise to abrogate the Iran nuclear deal and even his anti-Semitic sounding comments at a recent Republican Jewish Coalition forum about Jews wanting to buy candidates for money - all of these might have generated intense interest at AIPAC were it not for the far more incendiary controversy surrounding Trump for other reasons. His denigration of Mexicans and Muslims, his exhortations to violence and strife, his image as a candidate who thrives on incitement and confrontation and racial enmity - all of these will fuel the hypertension surrounding his speech. Uncharacteristically, the opposition to Trump unites right and left in the Jewish community. It encompasses liberals who either are or aren’t engaged with Israel as well as die-hard hawks and conservatives who have been the bedrock of support for Israel, in general, and for Benjamin Netanyahu, in particular. But not everyone shares the negative view of Trump: interviews in recent days with Florida Jews, both American and expat Israelis, indicate that Trump will pick up support among Jews who either agree with him on Muslims and illegal immigration or view him as the lesser evil on Israel than Sanders or Clinton, who would only continue what they perceive as Obama’s awful legacy.  From that point of view, the friction caused by Trump at AIPAC is merely a harbinger of the potential internal strife in the Jewish community that would be generated if Trump were the GOP candidate. In recent years Israel is said to be splitting the Jewish community but Trump would amplify the problem many times over. His opponents, who will outnumber his supporters by far, will reject any attempt to whitewash a vote for Trump on the basis of his stand on Israel. They view Trump as a candidate who is morally repugnant and a danger to American democracy. When these are the perceived stakes, the clash is inevitable, as is the price that will likely be paid by both Israel and AIPAC. Perhaps this is the reason, rather than his tense relations with Obama, that Netanyahu preferred to stay home. -- Peter Myers Australia website: http://mailstar.net/index.html |
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