Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, campaign finance, Knesset elections 2015, Tzipi Livni, Yitzchak Herzog
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:29 AM
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Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:21 PM
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Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Mitt Romney
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:08 AM
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Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, intelligence, Islamic terrorism
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:39 AM
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The group, Special Operations for America, filed paperwork Monday with the Federal Election Commission. It is headed by retired Navy SEAL Commander Ryan Zinke. During his 23-year career, Zinke spent time in the Navy's elite SEAL Team 6, the same team that killed Osama bin Laden in a commando raid last year.Something tells me that they raised a lot more than that today.
Zinke said he and other members of the special operations community are outraged that SEAL Team 6 was identified as the commando unit that carried out the raid, saying it put its members and their families at risk. Zinke said he believes the president has politicized his role as commander in chief to win re-election.
"Who was it at risk?" he said. "Was it the president? Or was it the young SEAL with the wife and kid at home? That's the arrogance."
Zinke, a Republican state senator from Montana, said the group also objects to deep military cuts and increases in health care costs to veterans. While he agreed there's room for cuts in military spending, he said the $1.1 trillion in cuts over 10 years that could start at the end of the year are too deep.
Officials with the group claim membership is in the "hundreds" and growing, although there is no way to confirm the number. And while spokesman Scott Hommel said the group is in negotiations with donors and is aiming for a budget of $10 million, records indicate it currently has assets of only $60.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Osama Bin Laden, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:42 PM
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The Obama team knew months ago that the economy would not sufficiently improve before Election Day to justify his reelection. Its polling showed simply blaming President George W. Bush wouldn’t be sufficient. The president and his political hacks concluded that it was too late and too risky to adopt a whole new second-term agenda. (It would risk offending either the base or centrists and reveal his first-term agenda to have been entirely inadequate.) So what to do?Read the whole thing. It's a pity that John McCain didn't know how to, or wouldn't, play this game four years ago.He could have saved the country several trillion dollars and the world several crises.
Extend the Republican primary by running ads hitting Romney and encouraging Democrats to vote against Romney in Michigan and elsewhere. Then, before Romney could fully get his bearings, unload a barrage of negative attacks, scare mongering and thinly disguised oppo attacks through the mainstream media, taking advantage of many political reporters’ relative ignorance about the private equity field and their inclination to accept whole-hog President Obama’s version of “facts.”
The extent of that effort is only now becoming clear. The Associated Press reports: “President Barack Obama’s campaign has spent nearly $100 million on television commercials in selected battleground states so far, unleashing a sustained early barrage designed to create lasting, negative impressions of Republican Mitt Romney before he and his allies ramp up for the fall.” Think of it like the Confederacy’s artillery barrage on the third day of Gettysburg before Pickett’s charge — you have to in essence disable the other side before the charge begins or its curtains.
Virtually all of the ads were viciously negative, and judging from the number of Pinocchios they’ve racked up, continually and materially false.
But it didn’t work. Romney and Obama are still deadlocked. (The AP quoted Republican operative Carl Forti: “I don’t think . . . [Obama’s] got a choice. He has to try to change the dynamic now, but the polling indicates it’s not working. He doesn’t appear to be making any headway in the polls.”)
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Mitt Romney
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:32 AM
2 comments
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, campaign 2008, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Mitt Romney, Tisha b'Av
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:34 PM
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In an earlier post, I reported that Jewish liberal icon Alan Dershowitz has gone after the National Jewish Democratic Council for its attack on Sheldon Adelson. Now, so has the Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman. “I think it’s inappropriate and a rush to judgement,” Foxman told The Times of Israel, “and it’s taking politics to a level that’s inappropriate.”What these guys apparently don't get is that unlike most of the mainstream Jewish leadership - who are Jews who happen to be Democrats - organizations like NJDC and J Street are Democrats who happen to be Jews. It's long past time for the American Jewish 'leadership' to get out of bed with the groups like that.
Foxman noted that when financier George Soros’s character was under attack, notably from some on the American political right in 2010, the ADL “stood up and said it was inappropriate.” The current attacks on Adelson, he said, should not be immune from criticism simply because they were coming from Jewish sources.
Foxman was speaking days after David Harris, the president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, urged Republicans not to take Adelson’s “tainted” money.
...
Foxman also protested the “selective” nature of the criticism. “Is the money tainted only when it is given to a political party?” he asked, noting that Adelson has made philanthropic contributions, too, to causes including Taglit-Birthright, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum, and the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby.
Matt Brooks, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, earlier said the NJDC call was “disgusting” because it was based on allegations in a lawsuit filed by Steven Jacobs, a casino executive who was fired by Adelson in 2010.
“Setting aside their partisan agenda, the NJDC should be ashamed of itself for attacking someone who has done more for the Jewish community and Jewish philanthropy than anyone in recent history,” Brooks said, also citing Adelson’s major contributions to Birthright and to Yad Vashem.
“If this is proven to be nothing more than rantings of an employee in legal battle, NJDC is going to have a lot of egg on its face,” Brooks said. “If they were truly mensches about it, they would wait until it is adjudicated.”
Labels: Abe Foxman, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Mitt Romney, Sheldon Adelson
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:11 PM
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Harvard Professor and liberal Jewish Israel supporter Alan Dershowitz slams the National Jewish Democratic Council for its attack on Sheldon Adelson. This is from the first link. It’s hard to find anyone who has done as much for the Jewish community as Sheldon Adelson.Indeed. Read the whole thing.
Adelson grew up in Boston in near poverty and is a shining example of the American dream. He is a self-made multi-billionaire who has contributed significantly to the world of modern technology and to the economic growth of Las Vegas and other areas. His generosity has helped repair the world.
I AM a Democrat and do not agree with many of Adelson’s political views, but I think it’s outrageous for the National Jewish Democratic Council to level unfounded allegations against Adelson. They do not speak for me, and for the many other Jews who admire Adelson’s contributions to the world, to America, to Israel and to the Jewish community.
I don’t know who Harris purports to speak for as president of the NJDC, but his partisan gamesmanship is an embarrassment to many Jewish Democrats. The attack comes with particular ill grace from a Jewish organization, considering all that Adelson has done for Jewish causes, and considering the fact that there is nothing uniquely “Jewish” about the questionable allegations against him.
Moreover, the demand that Mitt Romney return Adelson’s contributions is absurd. If all candidates had to return the contributions of every businessman against whom questionable allegations were made in a vengeful lawsuit, millions of dollars would have to be returned by hundreds of candidates all around the country.
Labels: Alan Dershowitz, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Mitt Romney, National Jewish Democratic Council, Sheldon Adelson
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:09 PM
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Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Obama's arrogance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:42 PM
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Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:59 AM
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Adam Kredo exposes Hala Hijazi, a 'Muslim Palestinian-American' who bundles money for President Obama. Hala Hijazi, a Jordanian native and current San Francisco city employee, has personally secured between $100,000 to $200,000 for Obama’s reelection effort, according to Federal Election Committee filings.Read the whole thing. This woman is a real piece of work.
She also has gone on record accusing Israel of war crimes while castigating America for providing the Jewish state critical military aid—a long-term investment that has bolstered U.S. security interests.
Hijazi, who has cultivated pristine left-wing credentials during her government career, is another name on an ever lengthening list of Obama-affiliated donors and bundlers who are either entangled in legal woes or hail from controversial backgrounds.
A prominent Hillary Clinton supporter who has long been entrenched in San Francisco’s left-wing political machine, Hijazi appears to be tapping a list of high profile West Coast liberals in an attempt to replenish the president’s campaign coffers.
Her public writings on Israel—an issue that has plagued Obama since the start of his presidency—reveal a longstanding and deep-seated hostility towards the Jewish state.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:33 PM
3 comments
The Forward reports that not only are many Jewish voters sticking with Obama, but so are the big financial guns. “The enthusiasm factor is down,” acknowledged Betsy Sheerr, a Pennsylvania Obama supporter who expects to be among the conveners of the campaign’s Jewish leadership council in Philadelphia.Read the whole thing. For a supposedly smart people, Jews can be awfully dumb.
But the 2012 list of volunteer bundlers does indicate that Obama has not lost the Jewish Democratic elite who made up a significant proportion of his support in 2008.
Republican-affiliated groups like the Emergency Committee for Israel and the Republican Jewish Coalition have worked to drive a wedge between American Jews and Obama over Israel and Iran. Asked about the return of all of Obama’s 2008 top bundlers to his camp, RJC executive director Matthew Brooks said, “These people are the committed of the committed. The question is what success do these people have when they go to their Rolodex and try to get contributions?”
Alan Solow, a former chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and a major Obama fundraiser, said the would-be donors in his Rolodex are responding just fine. “I’ve made many calls to prior supporters of the president, including members of the Jewish community, and I don’t have any sense of any fall-off in support,” he said.
But Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Council for World Jewry, who hosted a campaign fundraiser attended by the president in November, said, “I think it’s a challenging time to do fundraising. In the Jewish community, it may not only be the fact that many Jews are concerned about the U.S.-Israel relationship, but also the economy. I can’t say that it wasn’t difficult getting people to contribute.”
Though lobbyists who collect donations on behalf of a candidate are required to report their activities to the Federal Elections Commission, non-lobbyist volunteer fundraisers are not. In 2008, campaigns released their own lists of their non-lobbyist volunteer fundraisers. The Obama campaign released lists of its 2012 bundlers, the most recent in early October.
With more than a year to go before the election, most of the $500,000-level bundlers from 2008 have yet to raise an equally large sum for the 2012 campaign. Peter Buttenwieser, a longtime Obama stalwart and prominent Jewish supporter in Pennsylvania, was among the campaign’s top fundraisers in 2008, but had raised under $100,000 by the end of September, when the campaign released its most recent bundling data. DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, on the other hand, had already raised more than half a million dollars for the 2012 campaign.
Missing from the latest 2012 bundler list are top-level 2008 fundraisers Solow, and billionaire DreamWorks founder David Geffen. But Solow told the Forward that he is fundraising for the campaign. A spokesperson for the Obama campaign said that Geffen is also fundraising. Geffen did not respond to a request for comment.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, liberal Jews
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:31 PM
6 comments
On Thursday, President Obama had a conference call with 900 rabbis. On Friday, one rabbi, Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein, gave this account (Hat Tip: Dan F). Agudat Israel, the Orthodox rabbinic group, was included but they were at the bottom of the list so that none of their rabbis had a chance to ask a question. This is hardly a surprise since Orthodox rabbis are least likely to be in Obama’s corner. Two questions were selected, one on the economy and the other on the Middle East. There were no surprises. It was an electioneering effort by the President which was warmly received by the rabbinic left. I noticed one thing that seemed to reflect the President’s mind set: He twice emphasized that the road to peace in the Middle East, especially between Israel and Egypt and Turkey, was through successful peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which, as we know, is nonsense. The Palestinians won’t make a genuine peace and the Israelis would be insane to give away an inch of territory after what they should have learned in Gaza, South Lebanon, and the Sinai. Moreover, Obama’s remarks seem to indicate that he believes the conflict is territorial rather than religious. A territorial conflict can be resolved through compromise and diplomacy, but not a genuine religious conflict. At least, Hamas speaks the truth on that issue.What percentage of American Jewry will donate to Obama's reelection campaign? (That - rather than what percentage will vote for him - is really the relevant question). How much will they donate?
...
I would guess that Obama’s next move, perhaps through Hilary, will be to tell the Israelis, “Look what we’ve done for you. We can’t go on helping you forever so you had better come up with a plan that Abbas can accept. This may have to wait until term 2, if he has one, and he will then say that the US has done all it can but the Israeli “hard right” has not cooperated. Therefore, we have no choice but to support Palestinian statehood, putting all the blame on Netanyahu, with the Jewish left serving as the amen corner.
Labels: American Jewish indifference to Israel, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:48 AM
0 comments
In an earlier post, I gave you my assessment of what President Barack Hussein Obama had to say on Monday night to the stupid Jews who still support him. But I was looking at the substance of his words. A separate question was whether the Jewish donors who were present bought into it. Obviously, given that they paid at least $25,000 a plate to be there, they bought into it at least somewhat. Will they donate more? Here are three assessments.I find it curious that the furthest date Obama gave is 24 months, which would be five months past - God forbid - a second Obama inauguration. What does he think will happen after that?“And there are going to be moments over the course of the next six months or the next 12 months or the next 24 months in which there may be tactical disagreements in terms of how we approach these difficult problems,” Mr. Obama said. ”But the broader vision, which is one in which Israel is a secure Jewish state, is able to live in peace with its neighbors … where the hopes and dreams of the original travelers to Israel, the original settlers in Israel, that those hopes and dreams that date back a millennium, that those hopes are realized. That will remain our North Star. That will remain our goal.”Mr. Obama said that despite the challenges in the Middle East, Israel will“always be at the top tier of considerations in terms of how America manages its foreign policy.”
The president said that Israel and the United States were united on a broader vision for a secure Jewish state able to live in peace with its neighbors "where kids can get on the bus or go to bed at night and not have to worry about missiles landing on them."Was that a reference to kids in the Jewish state or kids among the neighbors? Curiously, Reuters also acknowledges that Obama 'ignited the latest row with Netanyahu.' I wonder if these wealthy Jews see it that way.
"The most important message I have for all of you here tonight is that, even as we try to manage what is going to be a very difficult and challenging situation over the next 12 months, the next 24 months, the next decade, that one inviolable principle will be that the United States and Israel will always be stalwart allies and friends," Obama said to applause.I would love to be a fly on the wall there, although it doesn't sound likely that Obama was significantly challenged. After all, it was a sold-out event.
Although some conservatives have been attacking Obama's policies toward Israel, members of the audience greeted Obama with applause. They had paid $25,000 to $35,800 each to attend what a Democratic National Committee official said was a sold-out event.
"That bond isn't breakable and ... Israel's security will always be at the top tier of considerations in terms of how America manages its foreign policy," Obama said. "... Israel is our closest ally and friend. It is a robust democracy. It shares our values and it shares our principles."
Obama spoke for about seven minutes before beginning what he said he expected to be a "substantive" question and answer session with the group. Reporters were ushered from the hotel meeting room before the questioning began.
Marilyn Victor, a supporter at the fundraiser, characterized the attitude of Jewish donors thusly: “We support you, but we’re a little insecure, so make us secure.” “We were very reassured,” said Randi Levine, who attended with her husband, Jeffrey, a real estate developer in New York City.Omri believes that Obama is setting out to weaken Israel and to drive a wedge between the US and Israel. Read the whole thing. What could go wrong?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Jewish donors
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:44 PM
2 comments
If only 'fresh eyes' meant waking up to the reality that there is no 'Palestinian partner' for peace. Alas, it is far more likely that 'fresh eyes' is the vision in the illustration at the top of this post. "Both the United States and Israel are going to have to look at this new landscape with fresh eyes," Obama said Monday night at an event in Washington that charged a minimum $25,000 a couple. "It's not going to be sufficient for us just to keep on doing the same things we've been doing and expect somehow that things are going to work themselves out. We're going to have to be creative and we're going to have to be engaged."He'll say anything to get re-elected, won't he?
Obama said Israel is the United States' "closest ally" and that he was committed to Israel facing the challenges "from a position of strength," noting the closeness between the two countries' defense establishments and his increase in defense assistance to Israel.
Obama, who has clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over settlement building and parameters for peace talks with the Palestinians, said that in the coming months "there may be tactical disagreements in terms of how we approach these difficult problems."
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:53 AM
2 comments
Stupid Jews. Why don't they donate to Hamas while they're at it?Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:39 AM
2 comments
Even before President Obama decided to slam Israel on Thursday night, he was in trouble with Jewish donors to his re-election campaign. It is difficult to assess how widespread the complaints are. Many Jews support Mr. Obama's approach to the Middle East, and his domestic agenda. But Jewish fund-raisers for Mr. Obama say they regularly hear discontent among some supporters.Well, he's blown one of those opportunities already and prospects don't look so good for the second one later on Friday. Maybe he can just get the Chinese to lend him some money instead.
The Obama campaign has asked Penny Pritzker, Mr. Obama's 2008 national finance chairwoman, to talk with Jewish leaders about their concerns, Ms. Pritzker said. So far, she said, she's met with about a half dozen people. She said the campaign is in the process of assembling a larger team for similar outreach.
"I do think there's an education job to be done, because there's lots of myths that abound and misunderstandings of the administration's record," she said. "The campaign is aggressively getting the information out there."
Robert Copeland, a Virginia Beach, Va., developer, who has given large donations to many Democrats, has already decided he won't vote for Mr. Obama in 2012. "I'm very disappointed with him," he said. "His administration has failed in Israel. They degraded the Israeli people."
An Obama campaign spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Messina's conversations with donors, but said the campaign would reach out to Jewish donors and expected strong support. She also directed questions to Ken Solomon, an Obama fund-raiser and CEO of the Tennis Channel, who said any problems were minimal and that most Jewish voters were concerned about many issues, not just Israel.
Malcolm I. Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said he saw potential for the discontent to affect Mr. Obama's fund raising.
"It's that people hold back, people don't have the enthusiasm and are not rushing forward at fund-raisers to be supportive,'' he said. "Much more what you'll see is holding back now."
Mr. Adler says he does not doubt Mr. Obama's commitment to Israel but thinks the White House needs to do a better job communicating its support.
Three opportunities come in the next four days: On Thursday, Mr. Obama gives a speech about U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa, and on Friday he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Sunday, Mr. Obama addresses the largest pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:39 PM
0 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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