Tag Archives: Jewish Political News

Following Anti-Jewish Tweets, de Blasio Staffers Told To Lay Low On Twitter

Posted on 05/12/2013 No comments

Bill DeBlasioNYC Elects reports: Following the latest social media problems within the Bill de Blasio campaign, with the resignation of two staffers who tweeted anti NYPD, racist and antisemitic tweets, the campaign is now cracking down on the remaining staffers.

According to information NYC Elects has gathered, a few weeks ago, Mr. de Blasio’s staffers at the Public Advocate’s office were asked to review their Twitter timelines and previous tweets to accommodate with the campaign’s need to overcome recent controversies and avoid such stories coming out in the future. Read more »

Bibi Responds: Only Israelis Will Decide Who Represents Israel’s Interests

Posted on 01/16/2013 No comments

BibiFeed reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to US President Barack Obama’s criticism of his policies which lead, according to Obama, to Israel’s near-total isolation. “Everyone understands that only Israeli citizens will decide the true representative of Israel’s interests,” the prime minister said during a visit at the Gaza border.

“Over the last four years we have withstood enormous pressures: They wanted us to restrain our efforts on the Iran issue, to withdraw to the 1967 lines, to divide Jerusalem and cease construction in it. We have held back those pressures,” Netanyahu added.

Livni on Condi Rice: ‘Thats Nonesense! Bulls**t! Its a Lie!’

Posted on 12/16/2012 No comments

The Bibi Report: Livni got very agitated in an interview with Gil Hoffman for the Jerusalem Post, when former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s book No Higher Honor was raised. In the book, which came out in November 2011, Rice wrote that Livni told her and the Palestinians following a generous offer that then-prime minister Ehud Olmert made to PA chairman Mahmud Abbas in August 2008 that Olmert “has no standing in Israel” and advised them to wait until she took over from him.

Livni responded bluntly that what Rice wrote was “bullsh*t.” Read more »

Jewish Representation in Congress Declines

Posted on 12/11/2012 1 comment

ABC reports: The Jewish religion is the third most represented denomination in Congress, trailing behind the Protestants and the Catholics, but since 2008, the numbers of Jews serving have been declining.

According to a study done by the Pew Forum, only 2 percent of the adult population in the United States is Jewish but representation in the House and Senate was much higher than that in the 112th Congress.

Jewish representation accounts for 7 percent of Congress as a whole and 12 percent of the Senate which is a considerably high percentage. Read more »

Lew Fidler: A Challenge that Simcha Felder Must Answer

Posted on 11/15/2012 1 comment

Mr. Fidler, who yesterday criticized Senator-elect Simcha Felder for vowing to cross party lines and caucus with the Republicans, took another pass this afternoon in a lengthy statement where he demanded Mr. Felder himself answer questions about the decision. Here’s the statement:

Yesterday, I expressed my disappointment in my friend and former colleague Simcha Felder’s decision to caucus with Republicans and asked for an explanation. Through a spokesman, Simcha issued a statement which on its face lacks any substantive credibility. Read more »

Hikind: Don’t Castigate Felder for Being Independent

Posted on 11/15/2012 No comments

Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) is outraged at talk about expelling fellow Democrat, Simcha Felder from the party after the State Senator-elect announced he would caucus with the Republicans.

“The hypocrisy of this discussion is almost beyond belief,” said the Assemblyman. “Simcha Felder is an honorable man who has not sold out in any way. He made no campaign promises that I am aware of other than to faithfully serve the best interests of his constituents, which is what he is doing by aligning himself with the party that best represents his constituents’ philosophical preferences. While many of his constituents may be Democrats, they also clearly supported Republicans. Read more »

FINAL: Felder to Caucus with Senate Republicans

Posted on 11/13/2012 2 comments

Capital Tonight reports this exclusive story: Senator-elect Simcha Felder, a conservative Brooklyn Democrat who has been keeping people guessing about his political loyalties since he announced his campaign for the new “Super Jewish” seat back in April, has finally chosen a side.

After meeting with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Felder has decided to turn his back on his fellow Democrats and caucus with the Republicans next year. Here’s his statement: Read more »

Satmar Feud Dampens Its Political Power

Posted on 11/13/2012 4 comments

Chris Bragg Writes in Crain’s Insider: An interesting trend continued this election cycle in Kiryas Joel, a heavily Satmar town of about 20,000 in Orange County, which has been courted as a voting bloc for years by local and national politicians.

By voting as a bloc and turning out in high numbers, the Hasidic Jewish community has long been able to leverage its political power. Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor visited the community the Friday before this year’s election to campaign for Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth, who ultimately lost to Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney.

But the last several elections, a fracture in the community has formed that diminishes the town’s political power. Read more »

Jewish Republicans Advise the Party on Way Forward

Posted on 11/12/2012 No comments

Ron Kampeas reports in the JTA: The Republican Party as a whole is having the morning-afters, reconsidering how it might have done better in an election that saw the party fail to win the White House and suffer modest losses in Congress, and Jewish Republicans and conservatives are coming forward with their own insights.

“There will be a lot of very frank conversations between our organization and its leadership and the leadership within the party,” Matt Brooks, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said last week in a conference call that otherwise addressed gains that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared to have made among Jewish voters. Read more »

Democratic Leaders Insist They Can Lure Felder to Their Side

Posted on 11/12/2012 No comments

City and State reports: Felder could become a key vote among Democrats if the party is able to claim 32 seats or more. Counting Felder and the IDC, Democrats currently hold 31 seats and the GOP 30 in a chamber that will expand to 63 seats next session.

But Felder, despite his party affiliation, has left open the possibility of caucusing with the Republicans. E. O’Brien Murray, a Republican who managed Felder’s campaign, said it was too early to say which party the senator-elect would work with.

“He made it clear he’d work with senators from any party at this point, but basically it would be incumbent upon which party is best for his district,” Murray said. “Simcha Felder just won a seat with 67 percent of the vote. That puts him in a very strong position in any situation. In a tight Senate, that just makes it a little more powerful.” Read more »

Felder: No Decision Yet on Which Party to Caucus With

Posted on 11/11/2012 9 comments

ALBANY — The NY Post reports: The courting of Simcha Felder has begun now that the Brooklyn Democrat holds one of the keys to control of the state Senate.

Republican and Democratic leaders jockeying for control of the Senate have contacted aides to Senator-elect Felder, according to the Brooklyn Democrat — who can help tip the balance of power to either party.

Felder says he could side with Republicans or Democrats depending on which party will help his heavily Orthodox Jewish district more. Read more »

Brooklyn, NY – Storobin Considering a City Council Run

Posted on 11/07/2012 1 comment

Fresh off a lopsided loss Tuesday night, state Sen. David Storobin,  R-Brooklyn, told The Insider that he’s considering running for the New York City  Council in 2013.

Mr. Storobin, who lost to Democrat Simcha Felder by a 2-to-1 margin, said he  would most likely run in the district currently represented by term-limited  Councilman Michael Nelson, D-Brooklyn. It has a substantial Russian-American  population, which represents his base of support and is fairly  Republican-friendly. (The district will be redrawn to an unknown extent for the  2013 election.) Read more »

Daily Kos: 8 Actual Dems, 4 IDCs, 1 Felder, 30 Republicans

Posted on 11/07/2012 1 comment

This is how the Daily Kos describes the Balance of power in the New York State Senate: So a crazy thing happened on Tuesday night: Democrats might—might—have retaken the New York state Senate, even though the GOP had a free hand in drawing the ultimate screw-the-Dems map. (I guess there’s only so long you can defy demographics.) Here’s the deal: Team Blue held its two vulnerable seats, SD-15 and the open SD-37. Dems also picked up, as expected, SD-55, an open GOP seat. But there appear to be two shocker victories. In SD-41, Democrat Terry Gipson looks to have defeated GOP Sen. Steve Saland, who staved off a primary challenge after voting for gay marriage, but who nevertheless still had to deal with that opponent running on the Conservative Party line. That allowed Gipson to squeak out a 1-point, 44-43 win. Read more »

Video: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s Concession Speech

Posted on 11/07/2012 No comments

October 26, 2012 Flashback: Why is Rabbi Shmuley Wasting Adelson’s Money?

Olmert: Netanyahu Interfered in U.S. Elections for Adelson

Posted on 11/07/2012 No comments

Haaretz reports this exclusive story: Following U.S. President Barack Obama’s victory in the American presidential elections, on Wednesday former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of blatantly interfering in favor of Republican nominee Mitt Romney, adding that he did so in the name of Netanyahu and Romney-backer Sheldon Adelson.

“This represents a significant breach of the basic rules governing ties between nations, made worse by the fact that these are allies like Israel and the United States,” Olmert said during a meeting with the heads of New York’s Jewish community.

“The prime minister has a right to prefer one candidate over another,” Olmert said, adding, however, that it was “better, obviously, if he kept it to himself. What took place this time was a breaking of all the rules, when our prime minister intervened in the U.S. elections in the name of an American billionaire with a clear interest in the vote.” Read more »

10/27/12 Chart: Daily IBD Average of Likely Jewish Voters

Posted on 10/27/2012 No comments

10/24/12 Chart: Daily IBD Average of Likely Jewish Voters

Posted on 10/24/2012 No comments

10/23/12 Chart: Daily IBD Average of Likely Jewish Voters

Posted on 10/23/2012 No comments

Photos: Press Conference by Jewish Community Leaders Regarding MBP Regulation

Posted on 10/23/2012 No comments

Jewish Community Leaders, Legal and Health professionals held a press conference regarding the legal action that has been undertaken to thwart the regulation on Metzitzah B’peh.

Read more »

Video: Obama, Romney Bickering Over Israel Support

Posted on 10/22/2012 1 comment

Watch LIVE: Third and Final Presidential Debate (Starts 9 pm)

Posted on 10/22/2012 No comments

Live video from your iPhone using Ustream

Queens Photo: ‘Community First PAC’ Hosting Breakfast to Support Ulrich

Posted on 10/21/2012 No comments

Republican NYS Senate Candidate Eric Ulrich speaking at the breakfast attended by many Jewish community leaders

Obama’s Hometown Jewish Newspaper Endorses Romney

Posted on 10/19/2012 60 comments

The Chicago Jewish Star an independent twice-monthly general interest Jewish newspaper wrote an editorial endorsing Governor Romney over their Hometown President Barack Obama.

“It is not only that Mr. Obama thus deserves to be a one-term proposition; it is that Mr. Romney is simply the better bet for our country.” writes the Chicago Jewish Star.

The Following are excerpts of the editorial: In many ways this is still a post-9/11 world. The threat of Islamic terror, a depressed and failing economy, an unsure future for a troubled healthcare system, a genocidal-spewing Iran, an unbalanced Middle East- these are some of the problems which surfaced after that fateful September day and mutated afterwards in unexpected ways. Read more »

NY6 – GOP Candidate Wants to Save Jerusalem from Obama, Arabs

Posted on 10/18/2012 No comments

Capital NY Reports: In the latest edition of the Queens Jewish Link, a biweekly newspaper, for Republican congressional candidate Dan Halloran, playing to the fear that President Obama will create an independent Palestinian state, which could then bar Jews from parts of Jerusalem.

The ad says:

“President Obama has a real chance of winning reelection. He will attempt to create a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The last time Arabs controlled Yerushalayim Jews were not allowed access to the kosel.”

Read more »

UPDATED CHART: Obama Attracts 53% of Likely Jewish Voters in Average of IBD Polls

Posted on 10/18/2012 2 comments