J Street says that on Monday it will announce its first slate of endorsed candidates. …

MEDIA ADVISORY

June 11, 2008

JStreetPAC to Announce First Endorsements Monday

WASHINGTON – The country’s first and only pro-Israel, pro-peace PAC will announce its first endorsements Monday of House candidates committed to strong American leadership to achieve a negotiated, two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In keeping with its mission to establish a new voice on Israel and the Middle East in American politics, Monday’s endorsements will highlight fresh faces – freshmen members of Congress, challengers and competitors for open seats – whose public records and campaign platforms are in line with the PAC’s positions.

Monday’s endorsements will be the first of several rounds that JStreetPAC will make in this election cycle. The PAC will target its efforts in 2008 on no more than a few dozen candidates running for the House and one or two for the Senate.

• Republican Jews say they’ve nabbed big Jewish Dem donor from South Florida. (Some liberal bloggers claim he’s given to GOPers before, but his FEC records show he generally helps Democrats.)
• Congress Daily reports on John McCain’s efforts to make inroads with Jewish voters.
• Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel of America defends Pastor John Hagee. Michael Felsen of the Workmen’s Circle says Israel and the pro-Israel lobby might be better off without friends like him.
• The creator of the Willie Horton ad presses Obama-is-a-Muslim campaign.
• L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa heads to Israel as his re-election campaign gears up.
• Michael C. Desch, the Robert M. Gates Chair in Intelligence and National Security Decision-Making at Texas A&M University, says a presidential candidate who wants to be a true friend of Israel would sound more like Kissinger, Carter and Baker.

JTA (and our blogs) are closed for Shavuot on June 9 and June 10. Enjoy the holiday (which commemorates the Jewish people’s receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai).

11:04 Hillary Clinton introduced by Lonnie Kaplan as “a Democratic candidate for president.”

11:04 Big standing O.

11:05 Feels like a big “family reunion.”

11:06 Remembering Tom Lantos.

11:07 Quotes from Isaiah.

11:07 I “reject” the argument that our “common commitment to Israel’s survival and well being is not in the best interest of America.”

11:08 “Is there anyone from New York even here in this audience today.”

11:09 “I stand with you and for you.”

11:11 “Israel is not yet safe. The values that Israel represents are not yet secure.”

11:12 Recalling visits to Israeli terror victims and citizens of Sderot.

11:13 We need a Democrat in the White House.

11:13 “I know Senator Obama knows what is at stake here… Let me be very clear: I know Senator Obama will be a good friend to Israel.” (Sounds like she’s already conceded.)

11:15 “President Bush has moved us in the wrong direction.”

11:15 John McCain will follow the same wrong policies on Iraq and the Middle East.

11:20 Sounds same note as Obama on talks with Hamas: No way, until Hamas recognizes Israel and ends violence.

11:21 Will keep fighting to bring home captured Israeli soldiers.

11:22 “No nuclear weapons for Iran.”

11:22 “We can never let Iran attain nuclear weapons.”

11:22 IRG is a terrorist organization.

11:23 Iran must know consequences of nuclear attack on Israel. But we must never let it get to that point.

11:24 “Further behind” in confronting Iran because of the Bush administration.

11:25 Must speak out against anti-Semitism. Big standing ovation.

11:25 Criticizes Palestinian textbooks. Criticizes Saudi textbooks.

11:25 “Debacle at Durban must never be repeated.” If efforts to keep anti-Semitism out of Durban II, then U.S. should boycott the meeting.

11:29 Recalling one of “my heroes”: Golda Meir (and how she would answer the phone in the middle of night).

11:30 “God bless you. God bless Israel. God bless America.”

John Boehner is up.

Iran. Iran. Iran.

So far, though, no clear shot at Obama/Dems.

Progress in Iraq. Won’t hear that from Dem speakers.

Iranians will be happy to fill the void in the Iraq left by a U.S. retreat. Big applause for that line.

U.S. loss in Iraq will hurt Israel. If Iran builds nukes or if “we” ignore the threats of Islamic militants “we will lose Israel.”

Ron Kampeas takes a look at the major items and talking points that AIPAC activists will be pushing on Wednesday in their meetings with members of Congress:

As 5,000 AIPAC activists ascend Capitol Hill this week, they will be pushing a multifaceted agenda with a clear bottom line: It’s the sanctions, stupid.

Some new wrinkles in the lobbying blitz that traditionally follows the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy forum deal with the role of Arab nations in advancing Israel-Arab peace and with securing a pledged increase in U.S. assistance to Israel.

But the most dramatic advance is in a proposal to cut off refined petroleum exports to Iran, hitting 40 percent of that country’s gas market.

• John McCain gets help from a big Jewish donor.
• Jim Besser of the Jewish Week looks at whether McCain’s decision to dump two prominent evangelicals will hurt him with Christian conservatives.
• Charles Krauthammer says it tells you a lot about Barack Obama that he wants to be in commander in chief but doesn’t know more about Auschwitz (we wonder if CK used that standard in 2000).
• Bernard Avishai suggests that right-wingers (especially ones who express admiration for Effi Eitam) should look in the mirror before trying to score points against Obama by playing connect the dots.
• Talking politics at the Jewish Community Center in San Rafael.
• The Forward’s Jennifer Siegel looks at whether the whole “Obama has a Jewish problem” thing is a bubba meisa.
• Also in the Forward: AIPAC tells members to behave when the presidential candidates show up for the group’s big parley next week.

John Heilemann takes a look in New York magazine at the prospects of Michael Bloomberg becoming either Barack Obama’s or John McCain’s running mate.

No, I haven’t been smoking anything, but I can see why you might be wondering. The standard calculation around selecting the Tonto for a presidential ticket boils down to narrow electoral math: Who would most enhance the prospects of carrying a crucial state the nominee might otherwise not win? But Bloomberg would do nothing to alter the outcome in New York for Obama or McCain; the blueness of the state on November 4 is a lead-pipe cinch. And, despite his recent flashes of tetchiness toward anyone who annoys him, Bloomberg has inclinations toward moderation and civility that make him an improbable attack dog—the running mate’s traditional role.

So the case for Bloomberg requires you to stretch your mind a bit. But just a bit. It begins with the eminently reasonable assumption that the economy will be the central issue in the fall campaign—an issue neither Obama nor McCain has a solid handle on. Bloomberg, with his entrepreneurial background and his record of financial stewardship of Gotham, would be a boon to either runner in this department, but maybe especially to McCain, whose economic anti-cluefulness is glaring.

And, he reasons, Bloomberg should help Obama with that whole Jewish thing.

What Bloomberg would bring to Obama’s ticket would be no less significant. If the central doubt about Obama is his lack of experience (and, in particular, executive experience), Bloomberg would provide a degree of reassurance. Picking him would substantiate and reinforce Obama’s message of pragmatism and post-partisanship. And he would go a long way toward mitigating Obama’s problem with Jewish voters, a dilemma brought on by a combination of his association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the nuthouse rumors that he is a closet Muslim, and his willingness to talk to anti-Israel crackpots such as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Just how serious is that problem? So serious it might put Florida out of Obama’s reach. And Schoen contends it might even give him trouble in states as far-flung and unlikely as Nevada (where the electorate is 3 to 4 percent Jewish—who knew?), Colorado (1 to 2 percent), and Pennsylvania (4 to 5 percent). “For Obama, the question is, how does he get to the states John Kerry carried plus one?” says a Democratic operative. “Given his difficulties in Pennsylvania and Ohio, there’s not a lot of room for error. With Bloomberg on the ticket, Florida is back in play—especially if he’d spend, say, $50 million on Barack’s behalf there.”

But ultimately, Heilemann points out, “vice-presidential nominees rarely deliver much directly in terms of votes, let alone states.”

The main function of a veep choice, goes this line of argument, is branding. What would say more about Obama’s desire to reach beyond traditional categories and transform our politics? What, coming from McCain, would be more of a declaration of independence from the GOP?

Which ticket would Bloomberg prefer to be on (assuming he would ever accept the second slot)?

Given his druthers, which of the two would Bloomberg prefer to get the call from? His relationship with McCain has been longer, warmer, dating back many years. McCain endorsed him for mayor in 2001, long before Rudy Giuliani did; Bloomberg has hosted a book party for McCain and visited him at his ranch. But the mayor also likes Obama, seeing eye to eye with the Democrat on many issues, including Obama’s refusal to pander on the gas tax, for which Bloomberg flayed McCain and Clinton.

Check back tomorrow for a deeper look into the Jewish Veep race.

• In an article in the Wall Street Journal adapted from a speech at Commentary magazine’s recent dinner, Joe Lieberman takes aim at Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders. The New York Times returns the favor, using a lead Sunday editorial calls the gentleman from Connecticut a would-be censor.
• Zbigniew Brzezinski, who has shared advice with Obama, sounds off on the pro-Israel lobby. Brzezinski’s daughter, Mika, an MSNBC morning host, says Jewish critics have her Dad all wrong — and, inexplicably, turns to Pat Buchanan for a hecksher. Talk about a lack of Jewance.
• Andrew Silow-Carroll of the New Jersey Jewish News wonders whether any of the candidates has a clue about what to do when it comes to Iran.
• Obama’s videographer — the nice son of a Jewish mother, according to National Journal.
• David Brog, executive director of Christians United for Israel, makes the case for Pastor John Hagee.
• Rabbi David Saperstein, of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, issued a statement praising John McCain for rejecting his endorsement from Hagee. Can’t seem to find any evidence of Reform concern regarding Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Of course, on the other side of the ideological spectrum, the Zionist Organization of America has put out plenty of criticism of Wright, but not a negative word to say about Hagee’s most controversial statements.
• In the “a little late, but worth it” department: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from South Florida and one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest Jewish backers in the Sunshine State, manages to make attacking President Bush’s Knesset speech a black-Jewish unity thing.

Here’s the statement on the McCain-Hagee split from Rabbi David Spaerstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism:

“We commend Senator McCain for his unequivocal denunciation of Pastor John Hagee’s deeply troubling remarks suggesting Jewish fault in the Holocaust and Hitler being part of God’s plan to force the Jews to go to Israel. Pastor Hagee’s remarks are deeply offensive not only to the Jewish community, but to all people of conscience. We hope that Senator McCain’s responsible action in this matter will encourage other political and religious leaders to act likewise in condemning Pastor Hagee’s remarks.”