U.S. midterms: AIPAC lauds re-election of pro-Israel stalwarts

J Street and AIPAC Trade Barbs Over Midterms
Washington Jewish Week reports: “Why does Josh Block - a self-proclaimed ‘partisan Democrat’ - seem to be relishing the defeat of pro-Israel, pro-peace Democratic Candidates?” That’s what J Street wants to know following the former AIPAC spokesperson’s scathing attack on J Street earlier today. Speaking in Commentary earlier today, Block launched a verbal assault, claiming that J Street is a political liability to Democrats (in spite of J Street&...

Israeli Occupation Awareness Week comes to Brandeis
Brandeis University, America’s only non-sectarian Jewish University, has long been a hotbed of Controversy on matters related to the conflict in Israel-Palestine. In contrast to conventional wisdom, the Student body does not fall lock step in line with AIPAC, the ADL, and other un-nuanced approaches to the State of Israel and the Palestinian people. We do not support the increasingly Racist policies of the State of Israel towards its own citizens, nor do we support the occupation of the We...

What The Midterms Mean for the Jews
Douglas Schoen is a Democratic pollster whose latest book, co-written with Scott Rasmussen (of the eponymous polling outfit), is Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System. I called him up to get his thoughts on Tuesday’s results. Which races did you work on, and were you pleased with the outcomes? The only race I worked on was Andrew Cuomo’s [for Governor of New York]. I was pleased with how we did. I was not particularly pleased with how ...

Neocons didnt gain traction with Jewish voters. Hmmm
Hawkish Astroturf groups such as the Emergency Committee for Israel did their best to make the Iranian “Existential Threat” an issue in yesterday’s Midterm Elections.  ECI— which has derived plenty of negative attention in the blogosphere for its links (first mentioned here) to the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI)—did achieve moderate success last night in winning three out of the five House and Senate races where it endorsed Candidates. However a clo...

Israel Ortega: Hispanic conservatives triumph in Tuesday's election
It seems like the political obituaries describing the demise of conservative support among Hispanics need to put on hold after this year's Midterm Elections. Republicans scored a trifecta by securing victories in Florida by electing Marco Rubio to the U.S. Senate, and in Nevada and New Mexico by sending Alberto Sandoval and Susana Martinez, respectively, to the governors' mansions. Perhaps most surprisingly, Republicans can now count on three prominent Hispanics holding statewide offices while...

U.S. midterms: AIPAC lauds re-election of pro-Israel stalwarts
America's largest pro-Israel lobby group on Wednesday hailed the results of Midterm Elections in the U.S. which saw staunch supporters re-elected to Congress on both sides of the party political divide. "Many of the strongest friends and supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship were reelected on Tuesday," the group said in a statement. These included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Reps. John Boehner (R-OH), widely tipped to be named Republican Majority Leader in the lower House ...

A tale of two ghettoes
Kalle Lasn, National Post · Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010 Why is Shoppers Drug Mart pulling 3,500 copies of Adbusters, my magazine, off its shelves? A week ago, in the National Post, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) accused Adbusters of Anti-Semitism for publishing side-by-side photographs of the Gaza and Warsaw ghettos ( "Anti-Semitism on your magazine rack -- courtesy of Adbusters," Oct. 23). The CJC has since successfully lobbied senior management at Shoppers Drug Mart into pulling ...

Post 2010 Midterm Elections Agenda - C-SPAN Video Library
David Hawkings moderated a discussion of the agenda for Congress after the 2010 Midterm Elections. "What’s the Agenda?" was the second session of the CQ Roll Call Group's Biennial Election Impact Conference, held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. David Hawkings moderated a discussion of the agenda for Congress after the 2010 Midterm Elections. "What’s the Agenda?" was the second session of the CQ Roll Call Group's Biennial Election Impact Conference, held...

Huge midterm turnover makes House more of an everyman's roost
To see how Tuesday's Midterm rout will change the face of Congress, look no farther than The Bible Belt of southwest Missouri. Voters there replaced Rep. Roy Blunt, a savvy insider, with Billy Long, a smack-talking auctioneer with no college degree but a pithy slogan: "Fed Up." This Story Obama: It 'feels bad' seeing Democrats lose Looking ahead to 2012, Republicans sense opportunity Low turnout by young voters hurts Democrats in Midterm Elections For Tea Party, victories may trigge...

What the election means for foreign policy (yawn) (UPDATED)
I'm sure you political junkies out there are busy chewing over last night's Election results, and I admit I spent a bit too much time last night reading 538.com and monitoring what was happening in various races. I like a three-ring circus as much as anyone, and it's hard to take one's eyes off a train-wreck too.    Of course, the really critical race to watch was for the County Board of DeKalb County, Illinois. The race in District 6 pitted Incumbent Republican Steve Walt agains...

Three of Four Openly Gay Reps. Are Jews
Rep.-elect David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island). In an report that AIPAC was pleased with yesterday’s results (it helps when, as an Israeli Embassy spokesperson accurately put it, “Support for Israel at the Congress is strong and Bipartisan”), Haaretz notes that Rep.-elect David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) “becomes the fourth Openly Gay member of Congress—and third Jewish Gay member of Congress.” It’s true! The four Openly Gay congresspersons (there are no op...

Rubios First Stop After Election Win: Israel
Rubio is the future of the GOP… (Ynet)- First they took Washington, now they’ll take Jerusalem? With victory in the congressional Elections less than a day old, Florida Senator Marco Rubio (Rep.) who considers himself a ‘Tea Party’ member, is set to arrive in Israel on Sunday . Rubio’s visit so soon after the election win is a move that strengthens assessments that the Congress in its current form will continue where it left off - at least where Israel is conce...

The Midterms: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward
Have an intelligent message, and fight for your right to be heard. Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 Midterm Elections, it’s slowly becoming clear just how monumental the results really are. We saw an extreme Left-wing agenda suffer a crushing defeat. At the Ballot Box, voters took ObamaCare and the stimulus and wrapped them right around the necks of those same House members and senators who had arrogantly dismissed the concerns voiced in countless town halls and Tea Party rallies ...

Local News - Washington Jewish Week - Online Edition - Rockville, MD
As the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs gear up to launch a Multimillion-dollar joint initiative to combat anti-Israel campaigns, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington has been preparing for its own Israel advocacy center. In 1996, Montgomery County had an eyesore on its hands at 13300 Arctic Ave., in Rockville's Aspen Hill neighborhood. The former Peary High School building, vacant since 1988, had become a haven for petty crim...

Ladies and Gentlemen: The new chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Ros-Lehtinen has been a force on the committee for years as the vocal, passionate, sometimes combative ranking Republican. A Cuban-American lawmaker from a heavily Jewish district, Ros-Lehtinen has staked out firm positions on several issues that stand in contrast to now outgoing chairman Howard Berman (D-CA). Her ascendancy as chairwoman will change the tone and agenda of the committee and will pose new challenges for the Obama Administration's efforts to advance its Foreign-policy agenda. Over...

No loyalty to apartheid
On October 10, 2010, the Israeli government proposed a bill obligating non-Jewish naturalized citizens to swear loyalty to a "Jewish and democratic State." The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) deplores this attempt to demand recognition of Israel as a Jewish State - a state whose existence is premised on the removal of the indigenous people of Palestine. In response to this bill, members of the Zionist "Left" in Israel issued a "Declaration of Independence from fascism." Announce...

David Horowitzs Archives: Why Israel Is The Victim And The Arabs Are The Indefensible Aggressors In the Middle East
This article first appeared in FrontPage Magazine on January 9, 2002 . 1. The Jewish Problem and Its “Solution” Zionism is a national liberation movement, identical in most ways to other liberation movements that leftists and Progressives the world over — and in virtually every case but this one — fervently support. This exceptionalism is also visible at the reverse end of the political spectrum: In every other instance, right-wingers like Patrick Buchanan oppose nati...

Not For Just For The Agenda It Stops, But For The Agenda It Pushes
In the aftermath of the election, prognostications and analysis about the various races is being replaced with more prognostication and analysis--now about how the Republican win will affect US Policy, both at home and abroad. One immediate focus is the effect the reconstituted Congress will have on US policy towards the moribund Mideast Peace Talks in general and towards Israel in particular. there is one clear bottom line from this election: Obama emerges from it a weakened president. And that...

The View From China
Via James Fallows, a slice of Chinese Media perspective on the Midterms: Global Times/Huanqiu Shibao (Daily, circ. 1.5 mil) [ 环球时报 - "Global Times," an influential but fairly raw-meat nationalist paper] The U.S. looks for a scapegoat for its decline (pg1) Quote: The world Media believes that Americans did not take into serious consideration the current administration’s policy adjustments but abruptly hoped their leader would instantly bring them back to the golden time a

A tale of two ghettos
The images above are raising some hackles, especially the comparison between the Warsaw ghetto and Gaza today. They are from the current issue of Adbusters magazine, which had 3,500 copies taken off the racks of Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada's largest drugstore chain, after the CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Bernie M. Farber, called them anti-Semitic in the National Post. From Farber's article Anti-Semitism on your magazine rack--courtesy of Adbusters: In the current edition, Adbust...

GOP Jumps on Obama Hint on Taxes - Washington Wire - WSJ
By Elizabeth Williamson Since Democrats’ thumping in Tuesday Elections, President Barack Obama has offered a tree-full of olive branches to the business community. Today, reporters were ushered into a Cabinet meeting at the White House to hear Mr. Obama lead a set-piece discussion of how the administration would respond to Tuesday’s Midterm Elections. The president ticked off a list of economic issues that need to be addressed in Congress during the Lame Duck session, including an extension of ..

Sarah Palin: "This is Our Moment"
Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee is out with a New video, "Together," celebrating victories by the Candidates Palin supports in yesterday's Midterm Elections. The video includes shots of South Carolina Governor-elect Nikki Haley, New Hampshire senator-elect Kelly Ayotte, Florida Senator-Elect Marco Rubio, and Kentucky Senator-Elect Rand Paul and others. "I'm confident and I am hopeful because this is our movement, this is our moment, this is our morning in America," Palin can be heard...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Post Election Address at Heritage Foundation
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talked about the recent Midterm Election and the GOP agenda moving forward during a discussion at the Heritage Foundation. The Republicans gained control of the U.S House while Democrats maintained control in the Senate following the November 2 Election....

"There Will Be Change Awfully Soon": Prop 19 Reax III
A reader writes: As a California resident, I have personally been exposed to many of the Prop 19 reactions you have been posting. However, the prospect of some kid rotting in jail the rest of his live because of a pot bust in California just ain't gonna happen, due to Schwarzeneggar's signing of the decriminalization law last month. I think that took wind out of the sails of Prop 19, and made it easier for many folks (parents of young kids especially) to Vote against it.  Another...

Return of the Midwestern battleground
By Nicholas Beaudrot Hello, Kleiniacs! I'm an accidental political observer who's still doing penance for not voting in 2000. Since I have a head for numbers, my point of entry into the political arena is usually through polls and results; when I started paying attention in 2003, it seemed more socially useful than Baseball. Longtime Ezra readers may remember me as part of his weekend guest-blogging crew in the 2005-07 era. Visual learners may be interested in a series of maps I made during t...