Republicans Use Israel To Attract Jewish Voters — And Jewish Money

The potency of Israel as a wedge issue for Republicans going into 2012 was on full display when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited a small group of Democrats and Republicans to a first-ever joint meeting at Blair House one day before his May 24 speech to Congress.

During his high-profile congressional speech, Democrats and Republicans rose as one to applaud Netanyahu about 30 times. But at the smaller meeting, what was meant to be a show of bipartisanship ended as a war of words between the heads of the National Jewish Democratic Coalition and the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the newly appointed head of the Democratic National Committee, suggested at the meeting that both parties pledge not to raise the issue of Israel in a partisan manner. But an angry Matt Brooks, executive director of the RJC, responded the following day in a letter to Wasserman Schultz that her request, made in front of a foreign leader, was politically motivated.

“I understand that you would like to stifle debate in the Jewish community on these issues, but the RJC believes they are legitimate issues and part of a healthy and vigorous debate,” Brooks wrote.

Tense relations between President Obama and Netanyahu are raising concerns in both Washington and Jerusalem, but for political activists vying for Jewish votes, they could mean a new opportunity to sway the pro-Israel community.

At the recent annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, pro-Israel activists found themselves courted both by Republicans critical of Obama’s Israel policy and by Democratic lawmakers seeking to distance themselves from the president. Democrats have brushed off Republican claims for potential gains in 2012 and pointed to the decades-long history of Jewish support for their party despite repeated attempts by Republicans to make inroads to the Jewish community. But the GOP believes there is a new opportunity for winning over some voters and — no less important — pushing big Jewish donors away from Obama’s re-election campaign.

Republican Ari Fleischer, who was the spokesman for the second President Bush, argued in a panel discussion at the AIPAC conference that even a small shift by Jewish voters, that could be generated by the controversy around Obama’s recent remarks upholding Israel’s 1967 borders, with adjustments, as a basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, could make a big difference for Republicans. According to Fleischer’s calculation, if the Democrats’ 4-1 favorable ratio among Jewish voters drops to 3-1, it could be enough for Obama to lose both Florida and Ohio in the upcoming elections.

Such a shift would depend largely on the AIPAC crowd, a group that has Israel as its top concern when making political decisions. While a majority of AIPAC members and activists, according to a former staffer, are Democrats — as are most members of the Jewish community — strong supporters of the group are more likely to make political decisions based on the candidate’s views on Israel.

Noam Neusner, a former speechwriter for Bush, offered a personal estimate of the American Jewish vote and Israel’s place in it: Only half of Jewish voters see Israel as a major concern, he said, and of these, half are already Republican. For the GOP, he said, “One of four Jewish voters are gettable through the prism of the Israel issue.” He stressed that his estimate was not based on polling data.

Dick Weiland, an AIPAC delegate from Cincinnati, said he was “very concerned” after hearing Obama’s May 19 speech on the Middle East. As he waited to enter his May 24 lobbying meeting, Weiland made clear that thanks to the clarifications made by Obama when he addressed the lobby May 22, all is gone, but not necessarily forgotten.

“I would have liked him not to have said it in the first place,” he said. Weiland did not rule out the possibility that tensions between Obama and Netanyahu will sway his vote come November 2012, and said he is still waiting to see who is running on the Republican side.

“Clearly some will use this moment for partisan political gains,” said David Harris, president and CEO of the NJDC. “The single best thing we can do is get the facts out.”

Harris cited the AIPAC speech that Obama made two days after his speech on the Middle East, in which he raised the significance of the 1967 borders as a starting point in negotiations. In the later talk, Obama emphasized that the these lines would require adjustments that both parties would have to agree on during those negotiations.

Nevertheless, some key members of the president’s own party are choosing to distance themselves publicly from Obama on Israel following his Middle East policy speech. At the AIPAC conference, top Democrats from both chambers took to the stage and rebuked Obama’s message on the border issue. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, in his May 23 address to the lobby, declared, “No one should set premature parameters about borders, about building or about anything else.”

Several Jewish members of Congress issued statements that highlighted their differences with the president regarding the 1967 lines.

Former Rep. Robert Wexler, who until last January represented a Florida district that has a significant Jewish population, said members of Congress should keep in mind that Obama’s move was made to advance peace, not to win a debate. “We should remember that it is easier being a member of Congress or a senator than being the president of the United States,” said Wexler, who now heads the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.

For Democrats, the main potential concern as they look ahead to the presidential elections cycle is a lack of enthusiasm among Jewish voters and donors who, according to many estimates, make up more than half of the donations to the party’s candidates. A May 19 article in The Wall Street Journal reported that Jewish fundraisers and donors warned the Obama campaign that the president’s positions on Israel could cost him financial support. But Harris argued that the reality on the ground is different. “Maybe you can find a few people that are not pleased, but the numbers show a different picture,” he said.

One of those few displeased people is Israeli-born TV mogul Haim Saban, one of the biggest individual donors to the Democratic Party. In a May 24 interview with CNBC, Saban said that Obama should do more for Israel. Saban also stated he does not intend to contribute to Obama’s presidential campaign. “President Obama has raised so much money and will raise so much money through the Internet, more than anybody before him. And he frankly doesn’t, I believe, need any of my donations,” Saban said. He added, however, that he’d keep supporting Democratic congressional and senatorial campaigns.

“If there is a smell of tension, the sides will abuse it. No question about that,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

For the AIPAC rank and file, the focus during the policy conference was on issues more than on party identification. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor won more applause than any other politician speaking at the event when he told lobby delegates that the problem with peacemaking was the Palestinian side, not Israel’s refusal to withdraw to the 1967 borders. But Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer got a similar reaction when he, too, challenged Obama’s statement on borders.

“I don’t think what Obama said will change anyone’s mind,” said AIPAC delegate Robert Simon, from Wyndmoor, Pa. Simon, a registered Republican, did not like Obama’s mention of the borders but insisted that it was not a deciding issue for him.

“I didn’t call my rabbi and tell him to condemn Obama from the bimah, which is what some of my fellow congregants did,” Simon said.

http://www.forward.com/articles/138130/

For 1st time since 2006: IDF holds logistics drill

Army deploys all logistic equipment needed for battle on northern front, establishes stationary logistics center

For the first time since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the IDF has deployed all the logistic equipment needed for battle on the northern front. Within the framework of an extensive military exercise, it established a stationary logistics center which is supposed to supply troops with all the equipment necessary – from food to ammunition.


The logistics center which was first used in battle during Operation Cast Lead is meant to prevent delays in transportation of equipment to combat regiments. The soldiers will be able to take equipment from the center to the front while the General Staff will be able to keep an eye on the inventory.

The goal is to enable the soldiers to do their duty at the front continuously without their ever lacking in anything," Lieutenant Colonel Ronen Cohen deputy commander of the Northern Command logistics support unit told Ynet.


During the Second Lebanon War there was harsh criticism of the lack in logistical supplies. Food, ammunition, fuel and medical equipment failed to reach the troops in time if at all. In addition, various IDF units had to go through the different storage facilities throughout the country in order to get the necessary supplies.


Establishing the stationary logistics center in wartime allows the military to gather all the equipment in one place and shortens the transfer time from home front to battlefield.


Critical role
"Over the past few days we have carried out extensive exercises meant to give our reserve forces the tools to establish stationary logistics centers, operate it efficiently and even deal with the possibility that the center itself can come under threat," Lieutenant Colonel Cohen said.


According to Cohen, in battle the regiment transfers an equipment list to the supervising headquarters and after receiving approval, representatives make their way to the center and take the necessary equipment straight to the troops at the front.


This is also the first time that the logistics center has operated a computerized system which keeps tabs on the inventory and registers information about the amount of equipment taken and those requesting it. Until now, all the information was saved in documents.


"Over the past few months we have developed a unique system that significantly shortens the waiting time for the units at the center," said Lieutenant Colonel Aner Gottlieb, head of the Technological and Logistics Directorate.



"Logistics has a critical role in warfare and the stationary logistics center is a key stage in emergency situations," Chief Logistics Officer Brigadier General Mofid Ganem noted.



"We have undergone logistics training programs on the subject, including the deployment of the stationary logistics centers in their final configuration and we all understand the importance of the situation."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4065460,00.html

Holo Survivors lobby to sue French railroad

Holocaust survivors lobbied in the U.S. Congress for a bill that would allow lawsuits against France's national railroad.

Bills introduced in March in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Senate, and by a bipartisan slate of top lawmakers, would make SNCF and other railroads that transported Jews during the Holocaust subject to lawsuits in federal courts.

On Thursday, Rosette Goldstein and Leo Bretholz briefed congressional staffers on their experiences.

Bretholz and a friend pried apart the bars of a transport headed for Auschwitz.

Goldstein, who as a child was protected by a Christian family, related how her father was transported.

“My father, like so many others, met his death because of the role SNCF played in the Holocaust,” she said. “I hope Congress will support this legislation that will finally allow us to gain justice from the company responsible for such atrocities.”

The proposed federal laws come in the wake of efforts in a number of states to force SNCF publish its World War II-era records if its American subsidiary is to win contracts.

SNCF transported 76,000 Jews and other prisoners from the suburbs of Paris to the German border from 1942 to 1944. The company was paid per head per kilometer to deport the Nazi victims, according to reports.

The company has defended itself by saying its employees were under the control of the occupying Nazi forces. SNCF has posted material on its website claiming that “many railway workers took part in the French resistance.”

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/29/3087246/survivors-lobby-to-sue-french-railroad

'Hatred and denial of Jews has become hatred and denial of Jewish state'

The prime minister spoke ahead of Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day; Holocaust victims group releases survey saying 208,000 survivors live in Israel today, but are passing away at a rate of around 35 per day.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned before Holocaust Memorial Day on Sunday that "hatred of the Jews and the denial of their existence have turned into hatred of the Jewish state."

"The important question that must be asked today is: Have we learned the lessons of the Holocaust in the world? And to our great regret, the answer is no," Netanyahu said.

Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day begins at sundown on Sunday. A siren will be sounded throughout the country on Monday morning in honor of the six million Jews who were murdered in World War II.

Some 208,000 Holocaust survivors remain in Israel today, the Tel Aviv-based Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel said ahead of the memorial. They also reported that half of the survivors are older than 80, and every day about 35 of them pass away.

Some 74,000 of survivors living in Israel were once held in camps or confined to ghettos, while the remaining 134,000 are Holocaust refugees who survived the war by fleeing the Nazi horrors or going into hiding.

While in the early years after Israel's foundation, in 1948, Holocaust survivors made up about half the country's Jewish population, they today form under 4 per cent.

Their number is dwindling fast - about nearly 13,000 die each year, said the Holocaust survivors foundation.

That means that in some 16 years no one will be left in Israel to tell the story of the Holocaust first hand.

The foundation commissioned a study by an Israeli-Jewish American social research center, the Meyers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, which found that survivors sometimes live in difficult conditions.

Some 40 percent of the survivors reported loneliness. Around 20 percent said they did not have enough heating in the winter. About 5 percent said they did not have enough food, while another 25 percent said they had enough to meet their daily needs, but not the kind they would like. Many also suffer from age-related health problems.

Foundation chairman Elazar Stern said the results of the study showed that the need for assistance among aging Holocaust survivors would only grow in the coming years.

"The young generation won't forgive us if we don't care for the older generation with the respect that it deserves," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/hatred-and-denial-of-jews-has-become-hatred-and-denial-of-jewish-state-1.359152?localLinksEnabled=false