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Terumah • Feb. 8, 2019 • 3 Adar 1 5779 • Torah columns pages 18–19 • Luach page 18 • Vol 18, No 5
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Dem ‘20 hopefuls: The Jewish angles
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This is part of a continuing series on 2020 presidential hopefuls. Previous reports (on Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand) can be found at TheJewishStar.com.
Booker: Cred’ & questions By Ron Kampeas, JTA Sen. Cory Booker literally carried a rabbi on his back until he (figuratively) cast same rabbi into the waters, like a forgotten sin. Booker, who is African-American, announced his presidential bid last Friday, the first day of Black History Month. The senator’s rise has been full of headlines. He was a heralded football player in high school who failed to live up to his billing at Stanford, and he is a former mayor of Newark who rescued a woman from a fire and a dog from freezing temperatures. Booker
was at the center of a bizarre nonscandal during last year’s Senate hearings confirming Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice after he leaked embarrassing emails that Kavanaugh had sent while he was counsel to President George W. Bush. Booker proudly said he was breaking Senate protocol by doing so, inviting the Senate to censure him, and calling himself “Spartacus.” The committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said, basically, no harm, no foul — Booker had not actually vioSee Booker on page 16
Schultz: Jew from B’klyn By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has said he is “seriously thinking of running for president,” and a lot of people aren’t happy about it. Schultz, who stepped down as chairman of the coffee chain in June, is a lifelong Democrat but has said he would run as a “centrist independent.” That has many on the left worrying that he could split the vote and help reelect President Donald Trump. “He should stick to coffee,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., joked.
Zeldin-Omar clash amplifies partisan divide over Israel Commentary by Jonathan S. Tobin ne of the constant refrains of pro-Israel activists is the need to keep support for the Jewish state a bipartisan concern, rather than something the major parties battle over. They’re right about that. But what happens when bipartisanship fails? More to the point, how is bipartisanship possible in a political environment where the center has collapsed? Polls consistently show that the overwhelming majority of Americans back the Jewish state, either on its own or in questions asking whether they support Israel or Palestinians. The only disturbing thing about those polls is that the numbers are skewed along partisan lines, with 79 percent of Republicans backing Israel and only 27 percent of Democrats agreeing. But one point that gets lost in that discussion is that most Democratic officeholders, especially the leadership of their congressional caucuses, are solidly pro-Israel. This means that despite the vitriol that See Zeldin-Omar on page 21
O
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has announced her intentions to run for her party’s 2020 nomination, grouped Schultz with other “billionaires who think they can buy the presidency to keep the system rigged for themselves while opportunity slips away for everyone else.” Others think that Schultz, who has publicly lamented the polarization of the Democratic Party, has actually done Democrats a favor by warning them that there is still a large contingent of moderate voters who they shouldn’t neglect leading up to ’20. See Schultz on page 16
Sanders: On Israel, it’s oy By Ron Kampeas, JTA WASHINGTON — If Bernie Sanders runs for president again, the one thing we know for sure is that Bernie, the sequel, will not be a retread. Much about Bernie 1.0 was attention-getting precisely because his campaign defied convention. The Independent senator from Vermont attached “socialist” to his name; he hadn’t done foreign policy, and it showed; and his campaign overall was a seat-of-itspants mess because it didn’t occur
Reps. Lee Zeldin and Ilhan Omar have been feuding on Twitter over Omar’s support of BDS. WikiCommons
to anyone until he won nominating contests that he could win. At 75, Sanders was the oldest candidate ever to win primaries in the double-digits and, as we’ve typed countless times, the first Jewish candidate to win majorparty nominating contests. This time around, Sanders will have popularity and name recognition on his side and, likely, better organization. Here are five things to look out for in Bernie 2.0. See Sanders on page 16
It’s more than BDS S
Commentary by Jeff Dunetz elected as Ranking Member of a House foreign relations subcommittee, Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin was surprised to learn that freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, a BDS supporter who once accused Israeli Jews of “mind control” over the rest of the world, was on the same committee that has an oversight role of US foreign policy. Zeldin complained on Twitter about Omar’s placement on the committee, to which Omar responded by retweeting an accusation of Islamophobic dog whistling. “Don’t mind him, he is just waking up to the reality of having Muslim women as colleagues who know how to stand up to bullies!” the tweet said. “It’s gonna be fun watching him lose his marbles.” Zeldin responded, “Those poor innocent ISIS fighters & Palestinian terroristst, right? Give me a break! That’s a problem no matter your religion or gender Ilhan. Your anti-Semitic & anti-Israel hate is strong & wrong & those terrorists have US blood on their hands as well.” See BDS on page 21