asmPolitics-285 [Netanyahu is in Another League]

asmPolitics-284 [GOP Fundraiser Is Threatened]

A local Republican group in Ohio has canceled a fundraiser featuring a ride on a train bearing President Trump's name after alleged threats from political opponents.

The event for the Republican Women of Warren County was scheduled to take place in the Cincinnati suburb on Oct. 5, complete with a “Trump Train” ride. But the group behind the event said organizations attached to the GOPprogram were “threatened/harassed” over their involvement, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

“That kind of bullying discourages citizens from participating in society,"  said Julie Byrne, vice-chair of the Warren County Republican Party. "The people that engage in this behavior prevented fellow citizens from peacefully assembling and having a family event on a fall afternoon, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

According to promotional material, three train rides were being offered throughout the day for up to 300 passengers per trip, with tickets ranging from $15 to $20 for children and $20 to $30 for adults. The event was also supposed to feature food trucks, souvenirs and entertainment.

Byrne did not give details of the threats, only saying that they referenced legal action and boycotts.

Warren County Democratic Chair Bethe Goldenfield came out against such tactics, reportedly telling Warren County GOP Chair Jeff Monroe that her group had nothing to do with it. “[W]e haven’t made any threats,” she told the Enquirer.

Monroe condemned those who would threaten people or businesses based on their beliefs.

“It’s a shame that politics has gotten to the point where people believe it’s ok to harass businesses because of their customers’ political viewpoints,” he said.

Goldenfield noted the train ride could have run into potential legal issues, anyway. The company that runs the railroad is operated by a nonprofit, which is prohibited from partisan political activity. While the event was not related to any particular political campaign, Goldenfield reportedly said she was going to contact the railroad about this, but the local Republican group canceled the event first.

“I don't consider that threatening," she argued. "I'm doing my due diligence.”

Further, the railroad company released a statement after the event was canceled, saying once they found out the ride was being called the “Trump Train,” they chose to “disassociate” themselves from the event.

Byrne claimed that the ride would not have posed legal problems, as other nonprofits have rented space or facilities to political groups “without jeopardizing their status.”

asmPolitics-283 [U.S. & Israel Mutual Defense Treaty]

Israel and the United States are discussing a mutual defense pact, US President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday.

Following a phone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump tweeted: "I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries. I look forward to continuing those discussions after the Israeli Elections when we meet at the United Nations later this month!"

Trump's tweet comes three days ahead of Israel's election on Tuesday. Haaretz reported last week that Netanyahu is looking for a dramatic gesture from the US president that would return him to office following the September 17 poll.

Netanyahu responded using the official Prime Minister of Israel twitter account, saying, "Thank you my dear friend President @realDonaldTrump. The Jewish State has never had a greater friend in the White House.

I look forward to our meeting at the UN to advance a historic Defense Treaty between the United States and Israel," he concluded.

While the idea of a US-Israel defense pact has been discussed on and off for several decades, it has re-emerged in recent months.  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) broached the proposal in June at a dinner hosted by the Endowment for Middle East Truth, saying he wanted Israel to be added to the list of countries with which the US has treaty obligations.

“I think it is important to send a signal in the 21st century: If you are intending to destroy Israel, you have to go through us, and it will not turn out well for you,” he said.

Graham discussed the idea of a treaty when he was in Israel in July. Politically, this is something that could benefit both Netanyahu and Trump in their upcoming electoral battles: Netanyahu in securing yet another diplomatic gift from a friendly administration, and Trump in giving something to Israel that will go down well with his evangelical base.

While some analysts view such a treaty as a significant diplomat achievement, others say  such a pact would limit Israel's operational freedom.

asmPolitics-282 [President Donald J Trump, Israeli Transportation Minister Israel Katz]

A train station that will be built not far from the Western Wall will be named after US President Donald Trump.
Transportation Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday: “The Western Wall is the holiest place for the Jewish people, and I decided to name the train station that leads to it after President Trump – following his historic and brave decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.”

Katz approved the construction plans. They will include a 3-km. tunnel from the nearly completed Uma (nation) station, which will be named after late president Yitzhak Navon and is near the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, to the Cardo in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, not far from the Western Wall.

In between the Uma/Navon station and the Jewish Quarter stop, there will be a station in downtown Jerusalem, at the intersection of King George and Jaffa roads.

Katz said that he sees the project of extending the length of the railway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as the most important national project, and ordered officials in the Transportation Ministry to define it as a top priority.

In a statement, Katz said that the total cost of this project will be NIS 2.5 billion.

“Some 11 million Jews and tourists from the entire visit the Kotel annually. According to the plan, two underground stations will be built – each at a depth of 52 meters,” he said, so as not to destroy archeological remains.

Transportation Ministry spokesman Avner Ovadia told The Jerusalem Post that if there are no unforeseen delays, this project could be finished in five years.

“This project is now awaiting a discussion in the National Infrastructure Planning Committee. 

When it is discussed there, it means that it receives priority in its advancement and in carrying out the project,” he said.

“It passed a preliminary approval, and now it will be further discussed – and this phase takes around a year. After that, carrying out the project will take around four to five years, if no problems will occur,” he said.

asmPolitics-281 [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump, Trump Heights]

It is safe to say that most Israelis are (at least grudgingly) appreciative of the special friendship between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.

If any head of state in any other developed country was to establish a new town today and name it after President Donald Trump, left-wing political leaders and activists would immediately hit the streets and organize mass demonstrations condemning such a move. Nonetheless, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cut the ribbon of “Trump Heights”yesterday, a new town on the Golan Heights in the far north of Israel, no angry mob showed up, no infuriated demagogues gave speeches, no one attempted to capitalize on free media, or build a political career based on Trump hatred.

Israel is oddly becoming the only democratic country in the world where Donald Trump is not a polarizing personality. In fact, President Trump’s policies and actions thus far, with regards to Israel, have enjoyed a very broad consensus across the Israeli political spectrum. Virtually no Israeli political leader, or even journalist for that matter, strongly condemned the US government’s official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, or the US government’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Not even the Druze communities living in the Golan Heights, which used to identify as proud Syrian citizens, showed up at Trump Heights to demonstrate. Of course, with tons of grenades and missiles flying once again across the Syrian skyline, and with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil threatening to send back three-quarters of Lebanon’s Syrian refugees, quietly acquiescing to Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is the wisest choice for Druze residents living there.

Humble Beginnings

The location designated for the new Trump Heights town is on the site of a former temporary settlement named Baruchim, which in Hebrew means “blessed”.  The Hebrew concept of being blessed is a humbling reminder that it is not our “own strength that brought this prosperity” (Deut. 8:17). Acknowledging blessing is an expression of our dependence on the Creator, and that He is the source from which goodness comes. This concept is reflected by the fact that the word for blessing in Hebrew, bracha, shares a root with the word berech, meaning “knee.” When a bracha is recited in a synagogue, those praying bend their knees, expressing humble appreciation for divine kindness.

Trump Heights is exceptionally humble. Although it is a Trump-branded piece of real estate, it lacks any elaborate structure, skyscraper, golf-course, casino, helicopter landing pad, golden door knobs or crystal chandeliers. No asphalt. No marble. No neon lights. No bar. No swimming pool. There is really nothing on this, seemingly G-d forsaken, site except for a modest sign in English and Hebrew which says “Trump Heights”, and that will probably be the case for the foreseeable future. Creating, planning, approving, financing, and constructing new towns in Israel can take a very, very long time.

In fact, the only criticism lobbed towards yesterday’s ceremony at Trump Heights, from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political rivals, was skepticism that anything will actually ever be built there. MK Zvi Hauser, a former aide to Netanyahu, and current political rival condemned yesterday’s ceremony as nothing more than a PR stunt. “Anyone who reads the fine print in this ‘historic’ decision will understand that this is nothing more than a nonbinding, fake policy,” MK Hauser said. “There is no budgeting, no planning, no location for a settlement, and there is no binding decision to implement the project. But at least they insisted on a name for the settlement.”

Such criticism coming from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s strongest political opposition, is essentially a back-handed compliment. Knowing that the establishment of Trump Heights is actually a brilliant diplomatic move, MK Hauser’s only option for criticizing the Prime Minister Netanyahu is to imply that he could have done it better.

We can only hope that regardless of its humble beginnings, Trump Heights, like the name it shares with extravagant real estate properties worldwide, will bring a blessing of economic development and prosperity to its provincial settings.

Calev Michael Myers is the Deputy President of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ) and the President and Executive Chairman of ARISE - Alliance to Reinforce Israel's Security and Economy (ARISE). He is also a Senior Partner at Yehuda Raveh & Co. Law Offices (YR&Co.). The opinions expressed in Calev's blogs may not necessarily reflect the opinions of the IAJLJ, ARISE or YR&Co.

asmPolitics-280 [President Donald J Trump & Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu]

JERUSALEM – There is a widespread misconception that Donald Trump is the most popular ever U.S. president among Israelis. And the bromance between Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embellishes this perception. However, a quick look at the archives of the authoritative Washington-based fact tank, the Pew Research Center, shows this not to be accurate.

Over the past two decades, the highest rated U.S. president among Israelis was George W. Bush whose rating stood at 83% as he invaded Iraq in 2003. Trump’s marks (69%) are lower than Barack Obama’s peak favorability (71% in 2014), before the latter clashed with Netanyahu over the Iran nuclear deal.

Despite not reaching Bush’s popularity levels, Trump’s blatantly pro-Israel gestures, peaking in his decision to overturn 70 years of U.S. policy and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and also his imposition of sanctions on Iran, have persuaded a majority of Israelis to enthusiastically express their admiration for him, even those on the left of the political spectrum who would normally be antagonistic. Moreover, as the Israeli left shrinks, voters on the burgeoning right express blanket support for him.

“Israelis see Trump as the ‘great white hope’, who will not only save the U.S., but will also defend Israel’s majority that yearns for a return to all our God-given land,” former San Franciscan Fred Moncharsh, a member of the central committee of Netanyahu’s Likud party, tells The Jewish Journal.

Then there’s the mutual admiration society between Netanyahu and Trump. While Netanyahu was still trying to cobble together a coalition after the April election, Trump tweeted: “Hoping things will work out with Israel’s coalition formation and Bibi [Netanyahu] and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever.”

And Netanyahu’s going to need all the help he can get following his abortive attempt to form a coalition after the election, which he had engineered ahead of the scheduled date to stave off looming indictment proceedings for graft. There are signs that Netanyahu’s position is weakening even within his own party and he indeed might not be the one to voted in to head the next government coalition.

Trump went out of his way to help Netanyahu before the election: he authorized U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, still considered occupied Syrian territory by the rest of the world. Netanyahu flew to Washington to receive Trump’s sovereignty gesture; Trump’s predecessor, Obama, had scrupulously avoided meeting Netanyahu ahead of the previous Israeli election.

We now wait to see what ace Trump pulls out of his sleeve to help Netanyahu ahead of the second general election this year on September 17.

There is an enthralling synergy between the two. The neophyte, bumbling, barely articulate head of the most powerful nation in the world could learn much from the veteran politician, who, for over 13 years, though being at the helm of a small Middle Eastern country, has had disproportionate weight in world affairs.

Netanyahu has served as a sort of bridge between Trump and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Netanyahu had five successful meetings with Trump in two years, and 13 equally successful meetings with Putin in the past four years.

Supremely suave and compellingly fluent in two languages, Netanyahu gives master classes in right-wing populism, and he has gleefully embraced Trump’s disdain for so-called “fake news.” They both share a contempt for the law, especially when they are the targets.

They are both darlings of evangelical Christians, who at the same time are a powerful support base for Trump and who have become Israel’s biggest support base in American politics: 65% of evangelicals want the U.S. to lean toward Israel compared with 26% for the rest of the population. They both receive significant support from U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson, whose deep pockets fund the pro-Bibi newspaper Yisrael Hayom, which is totally dedicated to maintaining Netanyahu in power.

In addition, as University of Maryland polls have shown, Republicans love Netanyahu. In fact, during the 2015-2016 presidential primaries, his name was invoked in the Republican debates more than that of any other world leader, and, Netanyahu tied Ronald Reagan as the most admired leader among Republicans – even surpassing Reagan among evangelical Republicans.

In several European nations, Trump receives higher ratings from supporters of right-wing populist parties than from America’s traditional allies. Netanyahu was also doing quite well cultivating the Visegrad Group, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, which are considered to be the most nationalist and right-wing countries in the European Union, A Visegrad summit was due to be held in Israel in February. However, Netanyahu’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Israel Katz managed to upset Poland by accusing them of collaborating with the Nazis and the summit was cancelled.

Pew’s survey of America’s global image among 25 nations, including all of the its leading European allies, shows Trump’s international approval rating plummeting amid widespread opposition to his administration’s policies and lack of confidence in his leadership.

The poll recorded historically low support for Trump among key allies including Britain, where only 28% of respondents said they had confidence in the U.S. president, Canada (25%), and France and Germany where Trump’s confidence ratings stood below 10%.

But Israel stood out as an exception, where Trump’s popularity jumped to 69%, up from 56% in 2017 on the heels of a number of pro-Israel policy moves including the transfer of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Pew’s pollsters found that large majorities of the international public express concern about the U.S. role in world affairs and feel that the U.S. doesn’t take into account their countries’ interests when making foreign policy decisions.

Israelis, by contrast, are “more likely than any other public surveyed to say the U.S. is doing more to address global problems than a few years ago” and Israel “tops the list in terms of the share of the public – 79 percent – saying that relations with the U.S. have improved during Trump’s term.”

Avi Hoffman writes from Jerusalem.

asmPolitics-279 [Israeli Jews Support President Donald J Trump]

69 percent of Israelis express confidence in Trump as president, compared with 28 percent in U.K. and 30 percent in Japan.

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump’s popularity among Israelis has significantly grown over the past year and is much higher than in most European countries, according to a poll released Monday by the Pew Institute. The two countries where Trump has the highest support are Israel and the Philippines.

The researchers interviewed people in 25 countries including all of America’s key allies. The poll shows historically low support for Trump among leading U.S. allies such as Germany, Britain, Japan, Australia and Canada.

But it shows very high support among Israelis following policy moves over the past year such as the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and the American withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.

According to the poll, 69 percent of Israelis expressed confidence in Trump as president, compared with 57 percent who did so in last year’s survey. Trump had a higher confidence rating only in the Philippines, at 78 percent. 

In Britain, only 28 percent said they had confidence in Trump, while in  France and Germany the numbers were below 10 percent. Throughout his eight years in office, Barack Obama enjoyed a confidence rating topping 60 percent in these countries.

In Japan, while 78 percent of respondents expressed confidence in Obama by the time he left office, only 30 percent expressed confidence in Trump this year. That number, however, is better than Trump's performance last year: 24 percent.

The pollsters highlight Israel as an exception. In 2016, 49 percent of Israelis said they had confidence in Obama, compared with Trump's 69-percent performance today.

But Obama’s high mark during his presidency among Israelis, in 2014, was higher than Trump’s today. Back then, a year before Obama clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Iranian nuclear deal, 71 percent of Israeli respondents had confidence in Obama. His number dropped over the next two years while the Iran deal was negotiated and signed.

Trump’s current figure is also lower than the high mark of George W. Bush among Israelis. Back in 2003, as the United States was entering the Iraq War, 83 percent of Israeli respondents had confidence in Bush. His numbers then deteriorated, though when he left the White House more than 50 percent of Israelis still had confidence in him.

The pollsters also noted that in this year’s poll, Israelis “are more likely than any other public surveyed to say the U.S. is doing more to address global problems than a few years ago.” They added that “Israel tops the list in terms of the share of the public – 79 percent – saying that relations with the U.S. have improved in the past year.”

The poll is consistent with previous surveys conducted over the past year. A survey by the University of Maryland earlier this year showed that almost 60 percent of Israeli Jews had a favorable opinion of Trump, with only 19 percent expressing a negative opinion.

asmPolitics-278 [President Donald J Trump, Israel, anti-Semitism]

“This is a free country. Jews aren’t a monolithic bloc, nor single-issue voters. Some will vote Democratic, others Republican. As Americans, that’s their right. Please keep loyalty out of it,” he said.

On Tuesday, Trump lashed out at Democrats over what he claimed was their lack of support for Israel, suggesting that American Jews who intend to vote for his rival party in the 2020 elections would be displaying “great disloyalty.”

“I think any Jewish people who would vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with President Klaus Iohannis of Romania.

Trump was commenting on the uproar in Washington over Israel’s barring of Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from entering the country due to their support for boycotting Israel.

Trump has repeatedly voiced his frustration over his unpopularity  among American Jews, despite his close support for Israel and his steps to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there.

Indeed, more than 75 percent of American Jews voted for Democrats in the 2018 midterms, according to exit polls. That marked a four percentage point increase from the percentage of Jewish voters (71%) who pulled the lever for Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016.

And Jewish Democrats said Trump’s words, amounted to perpetuating an anti-Semitic notion that Jews have dual loyalty to America and Israel.

“This is yet another example of Donald Trump continuing to weaponize and politicize anti-Semitism,” said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

“At a time when anti-Semitic incidents have increased — due to the president’s emboldening of white nationalism — Trump is repeating an anti-Semitic trope,” she continued. “If this is about Israel, then Trump is repeating a dual loyalty claim, which is a form of anti-Semitism. If this is about Jews being ‘loyal’ to him, then Trump needs a reality check. We live in a democracy, and Jewish support for the Republican Party has been halved in the past four years.”

Other Jewish Democratic operatives said that Trump’s latest comments were part of a long and pernicious pattern of anti-Semitic political leaders accusing Jews of lacking in loyalty.

“Jews have had a long history of being in countries where we are accused of being disloyal,” said Aaron Keyak, former head of the National Jewish Democratic Council and a veteran political operative.

“These sort of attacks are dangerous, reckless, and wrong. Just because President Trump is deeply unpopular in our community is no reason to slander us with echos of some of the most insidious attacks against our people. We’ve seen where this road has led before.”

Ann Lewis and Mark Mellman of Democratic Majority for Israel called it “one of the most dangerous, deadly accusations Jews have faced over the years. False charges of disloyalty over the centuries have led to Jews being murdered, jailed and tortured.”

Non-Jews, too, noted the connotations of Trump’s remarks. The former CBS anchor Dan Rather tweeted that they were bigoted. “Let’s be crystal clear,” he said. “When Pres. Trump says that Jews who vote for Democrats show ‘either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,’ he is summoning the forces of bigotry and anti-Semitism with all of its blood-stained history.”

Trump’s comments came after much of the US Jewish community and virtually all of Democratic Party has expressed outrage over Israel’s barring of Tlaib and  Omar.

Omar and Tlaib, who have sparred with Trump over Israel and a number of other issues, said Monday that the US president pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ban them. They followed by calling for the United States to cut aid to Israel until it halts settlement building and ensures equal rights for Palestinians.

While criticism of Trump’s “disloyalty” remarks were widespread within the US Jewish community, at least one Jewish group came to his defense.

“President Trump is right,” the Republican Jewish Coalition tweeted, “it shows a great deal of disloyalty to oneself to defend a party that protects/emboldens people that hate you for your religion.”

The liberal Mideast advocacy organization J Street, however, said it was the logical next step after the president’s bigoted attacks on other racial and ethnic minorities.

“It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal,” said Logan Bayroff, the group’s director of communications. “But it is no surprise that the president’s racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews.”

asmPolitics-277 [Democrats Furious With Two Ambassadors]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s ambassador to the US is done in the House, and the US ambassador to Israel may not be far behind.

Multiple Democrats told The Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Ron Dermer’s role in the banning of two congresswoman from visiting Israel means he will never get a meeting in a Democratic office again.

“She hates Israel and all Jewish people. She is an anti-Semite. She and her 3 friends are the new face of the Democrat Party. Live with it!”

Tlaib and Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar — the first two Muslim women elected to Congress — were denied entry to Israel last week over their support for the Palestinian-led boycott movement.

Tlaib, a US-born Palestinian-American from Michigan, had also planned to visit her aging grandmother in the West Bank. Israeli officials later relented and said she could visit her 90-year-old grandmother if she did not engage in politics, but Tlaib then declined.

Speaking alongside Omar at a Monday press conference, Tlaib got emotional as she told how her “Sitty” — an Arabic term of endearment for grandmother — urged her during a tearful late-night family phone call not to come under what they considered such humiliating circumstances.

“She said I’m her dream manifested. I’m her free bird,” Tlaib recalled. “So why would I come back and be caged and bow down when my election rose her head up high, gave her dignity for the first time?”

“And so through tears, at 3:00 in the morning, we all decided as a family that I could not go until I was a free United States congresswoman,” she told reporters.

Tlaib and Omar are known as supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, a campaign that seeks to force Israel through economic pressure and social and cultural ostracism to dismantle its military presence in the West Bank. Supporters say the movement is a nonviolent way of protesting Israel’s 52-year military rule over the Palestinians, but Israel says it aims to delegitimize the state’s existence.

Israel had granted Omar and Tlaib permission to enter in principle last month, but banned them from visiting the country last Thursday under a 2017 law allowing it to expel or deny entry to anyone who backs BDS.

The decision was made less than two hours after Trump tweeted that it would be a “show of weakness” if Israel gave them permission to come, and the reversal was widely seen as the result of pressure from the US president, who has sparred with the lawmakers.

At Monday’s press conference, Tlaib and Omar accused Israel of bowing to Trump and trying to hide the reality of the Palestinian situation.

“I would encourage my colleagues to visit, meet with the people we were going to meet with, see the things we were going to see, hear the stories we were going to hear,” Omar said. “We cannot let Trump and Netanyahu succeed in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us.”

Tlaib and Omar are part of the “squad” of four liberal House newcomers — all women of color — whom Trump has labeled as the face of the Democratic Party as he runs for reelection. The Republican president subjected them to a series of racist tweets last month in which he called on them to “go back” to their “broken” countries. They are US citizens — Tlaib was born in the US and Omar became a citizen after moving to the US as a refugee from war-torn Somalia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.