{"id":88959,"date":"2016-03-01T19:49:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T03:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=88959"},"modified":"2016-03-01T19:49:40","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T03:49:40","slug":"where-did-all-the-closeted-rubio-fans-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=88959","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhere did all the closeted Rubio fans come from?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Forward: Jewish Republicans Scramble To Stop Donald Trump After \u2018Neutral\u2019 on Israel Declaration<\/a><\/p>\n

Jewish Republicans have never been a constituency Donald Trump could lean on for support. But recent comments made by the New York billionaire and what seems to be his unstoppable race to the Republican nomination, have only made things worse.
\nSome in the community are sounding alarm bells, calling for action before it is too late to stop Trump\u2019s race to the top, but others in the Jewish Republican camp are cautioning against collectively rejecting Trump.
\n\u201cIf he will be the eventual candidate, you don\u2019t want him to be an enemy,\u201d said Fred Zeidman, a major Jewish Republican donor from Texas who had initially backed Jeb Bush and is now waiting on the sidelines. \u201cThe last thing I ever want is to have an enemy in the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

But others believe that Trump\u2019s comments on Israel and his initial refusal to disavow White Supremacist groups pose a real problem for Jewish voters on the Republican side.
\n\u201cTrump promising he\u2019ll be neutral when it comes to Israel is highly concerning,\u201d said a Jewish Republican activist. \u201cJewish Republicans,\u201d the activist who asked not to be identified because his organization does not endorse candidates, \u201care obviously troubled by these comments.\u201d
\nSeveral Jewish donors and activists contact by the Forward avoided speaking on record against Trump, even after Republican lawmakers announced they would not vote for Trump if he wins the GOP nomination.
\nTrump\u2019s ascent has spurred an unusual Jewish political coalition. Pro-Israel Republicans, neo-conservative ideologues, and human rights activists have all been ramping up their criticism of Trump, in public and in private discussions. Some are actively calling for a joint Jewish effort to block Trump from becoming the GOP nominee.
\nSome, like historian Robert Kagan, who is considered among the fathers of American neoconservatism, have taken bold steps. Kagan, announced in a Washington Post article that Trump\u2019s emergence as the most popular Republican candidate has led him to cross the political line: \u201cFor this former Republican, and perhaps for others, the only choice will be to vote for Hillary Clinton,\u201d Kagan wrote. \u201cThe party cannot be saved, but the country still can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Senor, a Jewish Republican columnist and former Bush administration official, wouldn\u2019t go as far as throwing his support behind Clinton, but made a clear pledge not to vote for Trump if he becomes his party\u2019s nominee. \u201cI\u2019m not voting for Donald Trump. I\u2019m not voting for him in the primary and I\u2019m not for him in the general,\u201d Senor told Bloomberg Politics.
\nOthers have taken to an activist campaign in attempt to dissuade conservative voters who care about Israel and support a strong American international stature, from accepting the inevitability of a Trump candidacy. The Emergency Committee for Israel, a pro-Israel organization headed by leading neoconservative William Kristol, released on February 28 a video ad titled \u201cTrump Loves Dictators.\u201d The spot is compiled of clips in which Trump speaks positively of ousted leaders Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Mouammar Kadhafi of Libya, as well as Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. \u201cHow can Trump make America great when he\u2019s kissing up to anti-American dictators?\u201d the ad concludes. Kristol, in a press release, said: \u201cIf you\u2019re pro-Israel, you shouldn\u2019t be pro-Trump. Apologists for dictators aren\u2019t reliable friends of the Jewish state.\u201d
\nTrump\u2019s February 17 refusal, during an interview on MSNBC, to take sides in the Israeli \u2013 Palestinian conflict raised eyebrows among many Jewish Republicans. \u201cLet me be sort of a neutral guy,\u201d Trump said, explaining that only this stance could make him acceptable on both sides as an honest broker. The comment, a clear deviation from the automatic siding with Israel which has become the standard among candidates, was viewed by Trump\u2019s rivals as an opportunity to attack the frontrunner. During the February 25 Republican debate, Trump tried to defend his stand, stating he was \u201ctotally pro-Israel\u201d and explaining the need to make sure none of the sides see him as biased against them.
\nBut for some Jewish Republicans, Trump\u2019s explanations did little to put to rest their lingering doubts regarding his position on Israel. \u201cHe can\u2019t just paper over these comments by saying he\u2019s pro-Israel,\u201d a Jewish Republican activist said a day after the debate. \u201cDonald Trump failed that test last night. He\u2019s words were very troubling.\u201d
\nJay Lefkowitz, a Jewish Republican who served on both Bush administrations, called a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in November would be \u201cvery depressing.\u201d From the perspective of Israel,Lefkowitz added, \u201cbased on Clinton\u2019s record and Trump\u2019s statements, I would have serious concerns about both candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source. Forward: Jewish Republicans Scramble To Stop Donald Trump After \u2018Neutral\u2019 on Israel Declaration Jewish Republicans have never been a constituency Donald Trump could lean on for support. But recent comments made by the New York billionaire and what seems … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21791,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-jews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88960,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88959\/revisions\/88960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}