NJDC's Blog

Neurotic Democrat: "McCain's Israel Omission"

Josh Rolinck of "Neurotic Democrat" has another great post. In his post titled, "McCain's Israel Omission."In his post, Rolnick writes about McCain's lack of attention to our closest ally in the Middle East. Here's an excerpt, but I encourage you to read his entire post by clicking here.

A party convention speech is an important thing. It gives us a sense of a candidate's priorities. So what are we to make of the fact that, after allowing his convention to be used as a platform to batter Barack Obama on Israel (see, for example, Rudy Giuliani's speech), John McCain took to the stage on the most important political night of his life and didn't mention Israel, even once?

More than 4,400 words, by my count, and no mention of the Jewish State.

I know McCain supports Israel. And I suppose I might be feeling more charitable -- more willing to overlook his unfortunate omission -- were it not for groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition, which consistently seeks to use Israel as a wedge issue against Democrats. (Its home page states: "A Risky Choice Just Got Riskier: Obama-Biden," claiming the Democrats have a poor record on Israel; it features articles like "Why Sarah Palin Will Likely Be Better For Israel Than Joe Biden.") Likely? They do this, despite the fact that it's ultimately detrimental to Israel, the very cause they espouse. (As even AIPAC notes, the best thing for Israel is strong, bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress.)

Unlike McCain, Obama did choose to mention the Jewish State during his moment in the international spotlight. (My wife was the one who pointed this out to me -- it meant something to her.)

Country First, if You Pray for it

The Jewish community has traditionally judged candidates based on a golden standard, their voting record and public statements. As executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), Ira N. Forman, said, “As a young lobbyist for AIPAC, my boss, the executive director, taught me that the way to assess a candidate for higher political office is to ‘go to the pro-Israel voting record.’ My boss was Morris Amitay.” The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and other Republican groups have ignored this rule as of late, threatening the strong bipartisan support and very safety of Israel.

Enter Sarah Palin.

Palin's only record on anything resembling a substantive stance on Israel is signing a resolution supporting Israel and Alaska’s friendship. Well, Israel needs more than friends, it needs allies willing to fight and defend her. Her public record on Israel, or any foreign policy for that matter, is virtually non-existent..

Look here for NJDC’s statement on the choice of Sarah Palin and here for Marc Stanley’s, Chairman of the NJDC, Op-Ed that was featured in the Jerusalem Post yesterday.

Biden is a Zadie?

Yesterday, Senator Joe Biden visit South Florida and spoke at the retirement community of Century Village in Deerfield Beach.

Biden used some Yiddish and called himself a "zadie" and emphasized the importance of "mishpuchah" (Yiddish for family).

Biden noted that he and Senator Barack Obama are strong allies of Israel and the American Jewish community, and stated, "I want to remind those of you who don't know me -- and those of you who do know me -- what my record has been. It has been unstinting in the defense and support of Israel."

Biden continued, "Not enough people know about Barack. I promise you, Barack Obama, this man understands what is the driving energy in our community."

Politico: Jewish Voters May Be Wary of Palin

Ben Smith of the Politico looked at the impact of the Jewish vote with Senator John McCain's selection of Governor Sarah Palin noting:

Barack Obama has struggled for 18 months to lock down the support of a traditionally Democratic group, Jewish voters.

In the past week, John McCain may have helped Obama with his Jewish problem by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

McCain and Obama are battling over a portion of the Jewish community: older, conservative Democrats, largely in South Florida, some of whom backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. McCain’s secular, hawkish credentials appeal to many in that group, who are skeptical of Obama’s relatively short record and have been deluged with rumors about his pro-Palestinian leanings.

But Democrats hope Palin’s social conservatism, her paper-thin record on Israel, and — perhaps most importantly — her cultural roots in evangelical Christianity may be a major turnoff to Jewish voters, just as Republicans have tried to reach women disappointed that Obama didn’t choose Hillary Clinton.

Democrats have already begun to to capitalize on the choice of Palin — over Jewish Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman — in South Florida and elsewhere. A prominent Obama backer, Florida Rep. Robert Wexler, has attacked Palin for appearing at a 1999 event with Pat Buchanan — who has attacked the influence of the Israeli lobby in America. And the same factors that are rallying the evangelical base to Palin may push away the Jews.

New Website, JewsVote.org, Wants to Get the "Real" Facts Out About Obama

JewsVote.org, a new website with a high-tech approach, has launched at the Democratic Convention to fight the rumors and misinformation in the Jewish Community about Senator Barack Obama.

"The goal of this website is to provide a series of powerful tools to Jews who are supportive of Obama and dismayed at the rumors that have made a lot of Jews question whether or not they can support Obama in the election," said Mik Moore, one of the group's founders told the Politico."These rumors were spread through the community using the closed networks that exist in the Jewish community, and what these tools do is allow folks to communicate through these very networks."

NJDC's Vice Chair Big Convention Role

Sunita Leeds, Co-Chair of the Rules Committee for the Democratic Convention and Vice Chair of the NJDC spoke on Monday at the podium of the Democratic Convention in Denver's Pepsi Center. The Rules Committee for the DNC Convention establishes the procedural rules under which the Convention will operate, and nominates the permanent officers of the Convention.

JTA blogged about Leeds role in the convention in a posting entitled, "Jews and Arabs Rule the Rules," noting:

Jews and Arabs can work out a few rules for getting along, at least when it comes to the Democratic convention.

Sunita Leeds, a member of the National Jewish Democratic Council’s executive committee, co-chaired the party’s Rules Committee with Mary Rose Oakar, the former Ohio congresswoman who is now president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

At the launch of the business part of the Denver convention on Monday, Leeds’ job was to note efforts by the committee to address difficulties surrounding the role of unpledged delegates – the thousand or so folks that under current rules can throw the popular vote out the window.

NJDC Honors Jewish Members Congress at Democratic Convention

NJDC hosted a reception last night in Denver to honor Jewish Members of Congress.

The Dallas Morning News called the event, "lots of schmoozing. Lots of noshing. Such a spread."

Many members of Congress and several candidates who are seeking congressional seats attended the event.

JTA reported about former Representative Charlie Wilson who attended our event (of Charlie Wilson's War fame).

Wilson told the JTA regarding Iran and Russia, "I don’t think we should invade Iran tomorrow. I don’t think we should invade Russia. I’m a little concerned that the administration…"

But JTA also noted that Wilson was a "happy retiree in Texas all this war talk wasn’t his business anymore."

Republican Jewish Coalition's Ridiculous Biden Rhetoric

Ira N. Forman, Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) today released the following statement:

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and their allies have already gone on the attack with their fear and smear campaign against Joe Biden.

Biden's record is clear; he is great friend of the American Jewish Community with extensive foreign policy experience and a strong pro-Israel record.

Even if Democrats had picked David Ben-Gurion to run as Vice President, the RJC would be charging that he was anti-Israel.

This reflexive negativism is symptomatic of the bigger problem the GOP has this year. Their own ideas and candidates are so discredited that the only thing McCain's allies know how to do is attack pro-Israel
Democrats as being anti-Israel.

Don't they ever worry about looking ridiculous and losing allcredibility? We guess not.

NJDC: Blogging from the Democratic National Convention

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) will be at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and will be live blogging, giving you an insiders view from Denver next week. If you use a RSS feeder to view blogs, click here to add NJDC's blog.

McCain Picking on Jewish Supreme Court Justices?

When Pastor Rick Warren asked Senator John McCain to name his least favorite current U.S. Supreme Court justices it seemed that he was picking on the Jewish members of our highest court.

Eric Fingerhut of JTA summed up the situation well in his article titled, "Presidential forum highlights divergent views on Supreme Court."

When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was asked Saturday night which member of the U.S. Supreme Court he would not have nominated, the Republican presidential candidate didn't just name his least favorite justice.

He picked four -- the group commonly identified as the more liberal wing of the court, including the two Jewish justices, Ruth Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer -- citing their "legislating from the bench."

McCain's answer at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency -- an event in a Lake Forest, Calif., church aimed at evangelicals -- bothered some Jewish activists.

The issue isn’t that McCain would have wiped out Jewish representation on the court, but rather that he would have eliminated a whole worldview from the justices' deliberations. And, Jewish communal observers say, the clear contrast the candidates drew on judicial nominees could lead to the issue taking on a higher profile in the campaign.

Please click here to read the entire article and see how top Jewish community leaders respond, including our own Executive Director, Ira N. Forman.

Jewish Democrats are promising to play up McCain’s answer about the justices.

"It summarizes the stakes of the election," said Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.