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Orthodox Jew Hosts Presidential Candidate

October 15, 2007 9:55 am 8 Comments

(By Shmuel Hakoton) Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential contender, gave a stump speech and answered questions today at the home of New Hampshire State Representative Jason Bedrick, the first Orthodox Jew elected to the NH House of Representatives. “People often tell me that they agree with what Huckabee has to say, but don’t think he can win,” said Bedrick, “Not only can he win, he must win if we’re going to put this country back on track.” Bedrick also noted that though Huckabee isn’t a household name yet, he believes that he will be. “No one had ever heard of the last governor from Hope, Arkansas, Bill Clinton, the summer before he was elected. Huckabee is polling well in all the early states; he’s a long shot but he’s the best shot we’ve got.” New Hampshire is the home of the first primary in the nation and it has a history of picking lesser-known candidates who go on to become President. In response to a question about the Middle East from Rabbi Moshe Bleich of the Wellesley-Weston Chabad Center, Gov. Huckabee expressed frustration with Israeli politicians who wanted to give away the Golan Heights and firmly opposed dividing Jerusalem. When asked about a Palestinian state, Gov. Huckabee stated that he supports creating a Palestinian state, but believes that it should be formed outside of Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives, noting that the Arabs have far more land than the Israelis and that it would only be fair for other Arab nations to give the Palestinians land for a state, rather than carving it out of the tiny Israeli state. Gov. Huckabee, who has visited Israel nine times, also expressed support for moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and stressed the importance of making America energy independent in ten years for both environmental and national security reasons. “We just can’t continue to be dependent on Saudi oil,” explained Huckabee, “I want to be able to tell the Saudis that we need their oil about as much as we need their sand.” A crowd of over seventy people came to meet Gov. Huckabee and listen to him answer questions while they enjoyed kosher pastries and coffee. Gov. Huckabee also spoke of the need to overhaul the tax code, eliminating the IRS and replacing all taxes on income and production with a consumption tax. Gov. Mike Huckabee served as governor of Arkansas for ten years and he is a past chairman of the National Governors’ Association. Rep. Jason Bedrick is a first-term state representative serving the towns of Windham and Salem, NH. He is also the gabbai of the Wellesley-Weston Chabad synagogue in Wellesley, MA.

Entire 2016 Field Descends on New York City Ahead of Primary

April 14, 2016 12:00 pm No Comments

New York’s matzo factories and diners will take a backseat to the debate stage and talk show circuit as the entire presidential field — two Democrats and three Republicans — descends on the nation’s largest city. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will hold their first debate in more than a month, a showdown Thursday in Brooklyn that comes at a tense moment in the Democratic primary. Republicans Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich will each speak at a state GOP gala before the latter two candidates make appearances on the late night shows. While the White House hopefuls have been blanketing New York state for several days, holding rallies and mingling at local hangouts, Thursday’s events are among the last high-profile opportunities they’ll have to appeal to voters. Front-runners Clinton and Trump hope the state can propel them past stubborn challengers and into the general election. Preference polls show Clinton and Trump leading their respective contests heading into Tuesday’s primary, an edge New York billionaire John Catsimatidis attributes to their local ties. “I favor them both, as New Yorkers,” said Catsimatidis, a grocery chain owner who hosts a weekly radio show. Clinton spent eight years as a New York senator. Trump is a Queens native, built his fortune in New York’s real estate market and lives in an opulent Manhattan high-rise bearing his name. Sanders, a Vermont senator who was born in Brooklyn, has also been touting his local roots as he seeks to upset Clinton in New York. While Sanders is on a winning streak in primaries and caucuses, he desperately needs a big victory in New York if he hopes to cut into Clinton’s delegate lead and slow her march to the nomination. The Democratic race has become increasingly heated in New York — including Sanders first questioning Clinton’s qualifications to be president, and then reversing himself — and the tensions could spill over onto the debate stage. Even getting Clinton and Sanders to agree on the date and location for the debate was a herculean task, underscoring the discord between the rivals. Trump hopes New York marks an end to the worst period of his candidacy, a stretch that raised new questions about his policy chops and revealed his campaign’s lack of preparedness for a potential delegate fight if the GOP race heads to a contested convention. A big victory in New York could preserve his ability to clinch the nomination before the convention. Cruz has been cutting into Trump’s delegate lead and working feverishly to court the delegates who would determine the race at the July convention. But New York hasn’t been friendly territory for the Texas senator. Even as he’s tried to embrace East Coast culture, including making matzo with children in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, he’s been dogged by his earlier criticism of Trump’s “New York values” and had to cancel an event at a school because students threatened to walk out. Seeking to lower expectations, Cruz said Wednesday that if Trump doesn’t get more than 50 percent of the vote in his home state, “that’s widely going to be seen as a crushing loss.” Still, Cruz is looking for opportunities to pick off some delegates both upstate and in the Bronx and Brooklyn. He was participating in an MSNBC town

Op-Ed: Community Activists Ought To Show Some Restraint!

September 21, 2011 9:00 am 8 Comments

The Obama administration is often considered the most hostile administration to Israel since its inception in 1948. President Obama compared Palestinian suffering to the murder of six million Jews during the holocaust in his infamous Cairo speech. He also publicly humiliated Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously berated Netanyahu on the phone for 45 minutes and once called on Israel to show “respect.” The administration’s demands from Israel have often shocked the world; from its requirement for more Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, to the ridiculous order of returning to the 1967 indefensible borders, to the insistence that Israel stops building homes in disputable territories as a precondition. Indeed, John Bolton, the former US envoy to the UN said: “President Barack Obama is “the most anti-Israel president in the history of the state, without any question.” Additionally, New York Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, called on the Obama administration to stop the “counter-productive” policy regarding Israel. Furthermore, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset yesterday, Netanyahu signaled that he is bracing for another cold shoulder from the President. The prospective Republican presidential candidates also took the President to task. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney slammed President Obama for disrespecting Israel and throwing it “under the bus,” Rep. Michele Bachmann blamed Obama for siding with the Palestinians over Israel,” and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich charged that “Obama is endangering Israel.” However, Texas Governor Rick Perry took it a step further. At a speech he delivered in New York yesterday, as the United Nations General Assembly convened with a vote on a Palestinian state looming, Perry accused Obama’s “naive, arrogant, misguided and dangerous” foreign policy as “isolating and undermining Israel.” He elaborately outlined his vision for peace and demonstrated unwavering support for Israel. Nevertheless, what was intriguing with Perry’s speech was not the policy he outlined or the words he chose; it was the backdrop. Perry is a long-time friend of Israel. He has been to Israel more than any other candidate and often compared Texas’ struggles to those of Israel, Yet, amongst the American and Israeli flags that propped the stage, were a dozen or so Orthodox-Jews that stood alongside him. They are known community activists that came out to show their support for the current front-runner in the race; yet, the things they did and said were startling. Jacob Javits wrote: “The reluctance to challenge the president is founded in an awareness that he holds, in large degree, the fate of the nation in his hands. We all wish to assist and sustain the presidency. But I have come to the conclusion that the awesome nature of the power over war in our time should require us to withhold, in relevant cases, that unquestioning support of the presidency.” Israel is facing a diplomatic tsunami, and only the United States will spare it some shame. Whether or not the President is to blame for this debacle, Orthodox-Jews must not scold and chastise the President in-his-face during a period when he will undeniably stretch out his neck for the Jewish State. We shall not be ungrateful after the President got involved saving Israelis that were trapped at the Israeli embassy in Egypt. Yes, we can send a message by electing conservative

Search Results for: Orthodox Jew Hosts Presidential Candidate