Trump is booed at Republican Jewish gathering for refusing to back undivided Jerusalem

RE: “The AP is speaking of the RJC openly as the ‘Adelson primary’.” – Weiss

READ THIS AND VOMIT: “Millions at stake, the ‘Adelson primary’ is neck and neck” | by Michael Isikoff | December 2, 2015

[EXCERPTS] It is the biggest financial prize in Republican presidential politics: the endorsement of Sheldon Adelson, the multibillionaire casino magnate legendary for his willingness to spend huge sums to promote the candidates of his choosing.

But this year the bidding to become the winner of what is informally called the “Adelson primary” has gotten complicated. After being wooed by virtually all the major GOP contenders, the 82-year-old Adelson was believed to be close to announcing his backing of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio shortly after the Dec. 15 Republican debate — an event that, conveniently enough, is being held at the Venetian Las Vegas, a hotel Adelson owns.

That scenario, however, has run into resistance from a surprising source: Miriam Adelson, the megadonor’s strong-willed and equally hawkish wife. An Israeli-born physician, Miriam Adelson has become enamored of late with Ted Cruz, according to four Republican sources close to the couple. The Texas senator has impressed her with his unwavering toughness on national security issues, especially his support for Israel, the issue that the couple cares most passionately about.

“He really likes Marco, but she really likes Cruz — and it’s a standoff,” said one well-placed Republican fundraiser familiar with Adelson family dynamics. . .

. . . The behind-the-scenes wooing of the Adelsons has been underway for months — a graphic testament to the outside influence that one or two fabulously wealthy donors can have on the presidential race. According to an account first reported by National Review, Jeb Bush initially fell out of Sheldon Adelson’s favor after one of his foreign policy advisers, former Secretary of State James Baker, spoke at an event sponsored by J Street, an American Jewish “pro-peace” group that supports Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. The appearance prompted the casino magnate to send word that the move cost the former Florida governor “a lot of money,” while associates of Adelson were quoted as saying that Bush was “dead to him.”

Bush scrambled to make amends. One top GOP donor who is close to the Adelsons told Yahoo News that he quickly got a phone call from Bush distancing himself from Baker. Bush “told me that he [Baker] was just on a list and that he’s never called him for any advice,” said the donor, who, like most others interviewed for this story, asked not to be identified publicly. The donor, at Bush’s request, then passed this along to Adelson. It was “helpful,” the donor said, in mollifying Adelson.

Rubio, meanwhile, saw an opportunity and began aggressively courting the Adelsons, reportedly calling the mogul on the phone every two weeks to give him detailed updates on his campaign. The two also had a private dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak DC, a restaurant near Capitol Hill, where they talked for hours about their families and personal lives, according to a Politico account last April that proclaimed Rubio the “frontrunner” in the Adelson primary.

But as in other aspects of his campaign, Cruz — mostly below the radar — has been assiduously courting the Adelsons as well as other conservative Jewish donors, building bridges with his base among evangelical Christians who also support Israel. Last year, Rubio named Nick Muzin, an Orthodox Jew and medical doctor with a law degree from Yale, as his deputy chief of staff. Muzin now also works on the campaign, doing “outreach” with Jewish contributors. With the Adelsons on hand, Cruz was a keynote speaker (along with Rev. John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel and a leading figure in the religious right) last December at the annual gala of the Zionist Organization of America. As can be seen on a YouTube video that has made the rounds in GOP donor circles, Cruz brought down the house by recounting how he stood up to a Christian group that included supporters of Hezbollah, telling them: “If you will not stand with the Jews, I will not stand with you,” prompting the crowd to erupt in chants of “Go, Ted, Go!”

ENTIRE ARTICLE – https://www.yahoo.com/politics/millions-at-stake-the-adelson-primary-is-neck-125553624.html