Governor Christie to visit Israel in 2012
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) will take his first overseas trip in 2012, and unlike the President of the United States, Christie's first overseas trip will be to visit an American ally: Israel (Hat Tip: Mark L). "We look forward to continuing to strengthen our ties," Christie told reporters today. "There’s a great, great, great, long-term connection between New Jersey and Israel and I intend to make that as strong as I can along with the ambassador and other important folks in the Israeli government."The article goes on about how Christie's predecessors have also visited Israel. I think there are two differences between Christie and them. First, Christie has been mentioned as a Presidential candidate, although he has said that he will not run in 2012. And second, that visiting Israel has become a rite of passage for Republican candidates (and not just New Jersey governors) over the last several years. I would not be surprised if Christie shows up as a Vice Presidential candidate in 2012 or - if God forbid the Democrats win in 2012 - Christie throws his hat in the ring for 2016.
Israel has played an important economic and political role in New Jersey, which is 5.7 percent Jewish, the second-largest percentage of any state after New York.
Christie and his chief of staff, Rich Bagger, met in the governor’s office with Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador; Mark Levenson, chairman of the New Jersey-Israel Commission; Ido Aharoni, Israel’s consul general in New York; and Shlomi Kofman, the deputy consul general.
"Israel faces some acute and unique challenges, and we overcome those challenges through our strong support from the United States in general, and New Jersey in particular," Oren said.
Christie gave Oren a book of photographs of New Jersey as a gift. The two men share a personal connection as well — the governor grew up in Livingston, and the ambassador was raised in West Orange, neighboring towns with a robust football rivalry.
Neither Christie nor Oren took questions from reporters.
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Oren asked for a meeting with the governor after hearing him speak at a Jewish event in May at Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton.
Levenson said Christie would probably meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his trip.
Labels: Chris Christie, New Jersey Israel Commission
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:24 AM
3 Comments:
do we get a Shariah judge in Israel too?
Exactly, Noah. Christie has no objection to the Ground Zero mosque, either. And he's a RINO, as well.
Noah and Ashan, you may have noticed that it isn't only the dems who have moved left. When they talk about "compromise", they are talking about between RINOleft and marxleft. If you listen to old speeches of JFK and MLK, they sound like the evangelical right now (and maybe even more conservative than them!). Teddy Kennedy, the guy who got away with it, his junkie nextgen relatives, and Farrakhan, etc. did a major amount of shoving left and reviving public antisemitism. And Obama has moved the centerline a mile even further left. It will take some number of elections to move back to a reasonable place to talk about compromising from. Right now, everybody needs to get everybody registered and to the polls to overcome the dem cheater vote. And remind everybody that they still have a secret ballot... they can vote the complete (R) ticket a couple of times to move things back to a place where we can vote back and forth as in days of old. The dems are angling for a one-party dictatorship, as most Americans don't agree with their current philosophy, but they still seem to be "winning" key $plunder-accessible positions. An (R) ticket vote doesn't have to bring down the sky on Jewish voters, because it can be done in private; don't have to tell a soul.
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