Kingmakers Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban are suddenly reduced to begging for crumbs from their respective political parties. This is the message of John Bolton’s failed candidacy for the State Department, Keith Ellison’s survival as frontrunner for the Democratic Party chair, and Trump’s elevation of extremist David Friedman as his ambassador to Israel. These are all signs of the new nationalism we are going to be seeing in the Trump administration: Jews can have Israel and Palestine, but America is for Americans.

Donald Trump was “wise” when he said that he refused to demonize Putin and wouldn’t it be great if Russia and the US could cooperate not fight, Stephen Cohen says on WNYC. And Paul Krugman slurs Trump as a Kremlin agent and thereby stigmatizes dissenting views of the new Cold War.

Peter Beinart says Steve Bannon can be accused of misogyny, racism and Islamophobia, not anti-Semitism during an open argument among pro-Israel Jews on CNN, a signal of more and more public disagreement.

Chemi Shalev and Jeremy Ben-Ami say that if Keith Ellison is defeated for Democratic Party chair, there will be a backlash against the organized Jewish community that has opposed a rising star; and that is bad for Jews. Ellison is shaking up the discussion of US policy.

David Brooks is angry about the non-interventionists who have taken over the Republican Party. These populists “hate journalists,” he says. He ought to reflect on his support for the Iraq war, which paved the way for the political revolution on the right.

During his round of interviewing potential job applicants, Donald Trump had one meeting with a…

“I paid a military security price every day as a commander of CENTCOM because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel,” said James Mattis, the retired Marine general Donald Trump has suggested will be his Defense Secretary.

Phil Weiss says that Jewish status is changing with the Trump election, but comparisons to the Holocaust are overblown and self-involved: “I can’t diminish that reaction, but no one with any influence is talking about a registry for Jewish names, as they are for Muslims. Or restrictions on Jewish emigration, as they do for Muslims. Or talking about the problems in the Jewish religion– as the new national security adviser and top strategist Bannon do. We misread history if we think that is coming to the US. Other dangers are much closer.”

Trump’s foreign policy is up for grabs and neoconservatives are desperately cultivating him for hawkish, pro-Israel ends. Even Bill Kristol of the Never Trump camp says Trump could be Reagan or Truman!