News

2 Republican presidential hopefuls bump into each other in… Israel

Rick Perry
Rick Perry

The news is filled with discussions and meetings between Israeli and American officials. You’d think that Israel was the 51st state. Or maybe Iowa. From Haaretz:

U.S. governors Rick Perry of Texas and Brian Sandoval of Nevada, Republicans tapped for 2016 presidential runs, are visiting Israel.

Perry, who has visited Israel multiple times in the past, was in the country this week to announce the planned Nazareth campus of Texas A&M University. But he also had meetings with Israeli leaders, including on Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He will meet later this week with President Shimon Peres.

Perry is being accompanied by Fred Zeidman, a major GOP campaign donor, and Matthew Brooks, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Sandoval is making his first visit to Israel, where he is studying desert farming techniques. The rising Latino star of the Republican party met with Peres on Sunday.

The big prize on the Republican side is of course Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire supporter of Israel who gave $30 million to Mitt Romney last year and millions more to Newt Gingrich, in an effort to stop the peace process.

The Jerusalem Post describes huge delegations accompanying the governors, who spoke at the same water conference:

Traveling alongside Perry to [Water Technology conference] were two separate delegations from his state – one from the Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce and another sponsored by the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange.

Not to be outshone, Sandoval also told participants of the welcome partnerships they would find in Nevada.

He, too, arrived with a 50-member delegation of Nevadans eager to hear about the Israeli water industry – the first such Nevadan trade mission to Israel, he said.

I didn’t know there was a Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce. As for the AJC’s Project Interchange, it is designed to build connections between Israel and world leaders.

Speaking of world leaders, John Kerry is spending a lot of time placating Netanyahu this week. “Kerry reassures Israel” on Iran is the Times headline.

Yesterday the State Department’s first order of business at the briefing was about an Israeli delegation.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the daily briefing. I have a couple things at the top, and then I’m happy to open it up for questions.

The first: Today at the State Department, we are hosting the U.S.-Israel Strategic Dialogue, the highest level regularly scheduled diplomatic meeting between the two countries. … Deputy Secretary Burns is leading the U.S. delegation. He is joined by several other U.S. officials who will be discussing a wide range of issues with their Israeli counterparts. The Israeli delegation is led by Minister for Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Responsible for International Relations Yuval Steinitz. …

F

14 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Let the clown show begin anew…

Why does our government continue this gruesome caca? Yuval Steinitz is a slobbering and horrible racist. The excrement that he wrote in the NYT recently should have precluded any meeting with our State Dept……..but I guess we really, really like to “dialogue” with scum.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/opinion/how-palestinian-hate-prevents-peace.html?_r=0

The road to Washington goes through Tel Aviv.

“2 Republican presidential hopefuls bump into each other in… Israel”

Lock up the donkeys.

Gov. Perry is working with Israel and Texas A. and M. to establish a branch of his alma mater in an Israeli university.

That will surely get him Zionist big bucks for his Presidential run.

RE: “I didn’t know there was a Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce.” ~ Weiss

MY COMMENT: Not to mention the Texas Israel Agricultural Research Foundation which is endeavoring to breed a “perfect red heifer”! ! !*

* SEE: “Pastor Strangelove”, by Sarah Posner, American Prospect, 05/21/06

[EXCERPTS] . . . Besides his million-dollar compensation package, [John] Hagee has a portfolio of other ventures, including a cattle ranch in south Texas that may have religious significance. Many evangelicals believe that the arrival of a “perfect red heifer” will signal the end times. In the Old Testament, burning a red heifer and sprinkling its ashes is described as a purification ritual for priests entering the temple. Ultra-orthodox Jews believe that the birth of a modern perfect red heifer will herald the arrival of the messiah, leading to a confrontation with Muslims over the Temple Mount, where Jews believe the Temple will be rebuilt. Some evangelicals likewise regard the red heifer as a harbinger of the ultimate showdown at the Temple Mount, which they believe will be the site of the Second Coming. And they believe that time is near.
To many other observers, the advent of the red heifer threatens to provoke a violent struggle for control of the Temple Mount, with worldwide repercussions. In the late 1990s, a group of unidentified Texas ranchers reportedly bred a perfect red heifer, which generated excitement in evangelical circles until the animal sprouted some black hairs.
Six years ago, the John C. Hagee Royalty Trust paid more than $5.5 million for a 7,600-acre ranch in Brackettville, Texas, where cattle are raised in a venture with the Texas Israel Agricultural Research Foundation, a nonprofit outfit operated by the pastor. . . Earl [David Earl, Hagee’s lobbyist] said that Hagee wants to share information to improve the production of livestock, particularly cattle, with an Israeli research project, but otherwise claimed to be unsure of the particulars. Dr. Scott Farhart, an obstetrician and trustee of the John C. Hagee Royalty Trust (and an elder at Hagee’s church), did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the director of the ranch. . .

ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://prospect.org/article/pastor-strangelove