PhillyVoice is reporting that a Penn student who is head of the Marco Rubio campaign on campus is undertaking the unsavory work of trying to get John Kasich removed from the Pennsylvania ballot for the April 26 primary. Michael Tanenbaum reports (emphasis mine):
Nathaniel Rome, a Penn sophomore and chairman of the Pennsylvania Students for Rubio network… could not immediately be reached for comment. In addition to receiving campaign management training from the Republican National Committee, he is an elected representative on Penn’s Undergraduate Assembly and serves as both director of Academic Affairs and political director of the Penn-Israel Public Affairs Committee.
From the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee bio for Rome:
He has worked in a legislative office, on several political campaigns, and at a political consulting firm. When Nathaniel is not advancing the US-Israel relationship, you can probably find him catching up on the Walking Dead or Game of Thrones. Nathaniel is looking forward to a great year supporting and promoting the US-Israel relationship!
Yes this is just a blip, but it’s further evidence that Marco Rubio has become the neoconservative favorite in the election, their desperate hope to knock off Donald Trump.
And it’s evidence that the political Establishment is pro-Israel: the establishment candidates prove they’re establishment by showing they are most pro-Israel, as Rubio does when he vows to tear up the Iran deal and support Israel thick and thin, and the other candidates are pretty silent on these politics, even the anti-establishment ones. Donald Trump has shown political courage by saying he would be neutral in the conflict, before adding that he is very pro-Israel, too.
As for Bernie Sanders, he boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress a year ago but has refused to make this an issue visavis Hillary Clinton, who has vowed to invite Netanyahu to the White House in her first month in office. You’d think that would be a golden opportunity for Sanders to make strides among African-American voters. But no. He would rather talk about Clinton’s friendship with yesterday’s bad guy, Henry Kissinger.
In the end Bernie is merely Hillary’s sheep dog.
Perhaps we could reframe the question to Bernie as: “You’ve talked about the influence of mega-donors on domestic issues, especially Wall Street donors on American Economic policies. Could you talk about the influence of mega-donors on American Foreign Policy — especially Democrats’ mega donors? Are billionaires buying our Foreign Policy in the Middle East?”
At Antiwar.com, Justin Raimondo has a post up calling Trump’s comments about neutrality a big breakthrough. http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2016/03/06/israel-and-american-politics-the-big-breakthrough/ And he quotes extensively from Chemi Shalev’s piece in Ha’aretz:
“The notion that the Republican Party is a monolithic bastion of support that will withstand the test of time is evaporating. The belief that any Republican president who will follow Obama will be better for Israel is eroding with each passing day. Faced with the Trump phenomenon, Netanyahu’s Fortress GOP strategy is collapsing like a house of cards.”
and
“Every time Cruz and Rubio try to hit Trump over the head with an Israel club and nothing happens, it is Israel’s weakness that is exposed. Every time Trump wins a party primary without challenge from his supporters, another nail is driven into the coffin of the unshakeable alliance between Israel and America’s deep right.”
What has Kasich done to get such a slight? has he been only insanely pro Israel rather than rabidly pro Israel?
Will stand to be corrected but haven`t seen the use of the classic “throwing Israel under a bus” with regards to Trump`s “neutrality” comment on Israel. Get the sense perhaps that the US Zionist lobby has backed off on this one. After all Trump for all his faults likes throwing verbal punches when people have a go at him and guess what he doesn`t need the Israeli Firsters filthy lucre.