Ambivalent on Trump, GOP Jews gush over Pence

By Ben Sales/(JTA) – The Republican Jewish Coalition’s (RJC) relationship with Donald Trump is … complicated. But they’re having no trouble getting behind the presidential nominee’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence. When he spoke to the RJC in 2015, Trump raised eyebrows by calling the crowd “negotiators” and by saying, “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money,” appearing to play into antisemitic stereotypes.

So after Trump captured the Republican nomination in early May, the RJC put out a less-than-full-throated statement that mentioned Trump only once. Much of the statement focuses on the need to defeat Hillary Clinton, Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent, and stresses the importance of having a Republican Congress:

“The Republican Jewish Coalition congratulates Donald Trump on being the presumptive Presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Throughout the course of this long campaign among Republicans there has been unity in the belief that Hillary Clinton is the worst possible choice for a commander in chief. … Along with the Presidential race, the RJC will be working hard to hold on to our majorities in the Senate and the House. It is critical that these majorities be preserved. …”

Compare that with the group’s effusive statement congratulating Pence, which stated in part: “Not only has Governor Pence been a terrific governor in Indiana but he has also been a critical leader and important voice regarding Israel during his time in the House and as governor … Governor Pence is a welcomed addition to the GOP team in 2016.”

Pence has taken a lead on pro-Israel legislation throughout his career in the House and the Indiana governor’s mansion, endearing him to the RJC. Trump, by contrast, has sounded different notes on Israel and a range of other issues core to the group’s mission.

Possible Clinton VP pick, an ex-NATO chief, has close Israel ties

(JTA) — A former NATO commander being considered as a running mate for Hillary Clinton has called for a formal U.S.-Israel defense treaty and was sharply critical of the Iran nuclear deal. James Stavridis, a retired four-star admiral, is being vetted by Clinton’s campaign to join the former secretary of state as she accepts the Democratic Party nomination later this month, The New York Times reported last week.

In his 2009-13 term as NATO commander and as U.S. European commander, Stavridis met frequently with Israelis and forged close ties with the Israeli security establishment. During that time he received a top award from the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a conservative pro-Israel group.

Stavridis retired in 2013 and became a dean at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and has slammed the Iran sanctions relief for nuclear rollback deal. In 2015, writing in Foreign Policy, he called for a defense treaty with Israel, citing what he said were the weaknesses in the Iran plan.“We have to think through the execution of the agreement and what steps we can take to mitigate the ill effects of the plan,” he wrote. “At the top of the list should be seriously considering a formal alliance with Israel.”

Israel has resisted past U.S. overtures for a defense treaty, preferring independence when it comes to making security decisions.

Last summer, at the height of the battle led by AIPAC to kill the Iran deal in Congress, Stavridis was the keynote speaker at an AIPAC fundraiser in Boston.

Trump pledges to reverse ban on churches endorsing candidates

(JTA) — Donald Trump pledged that if elected president he would repeal a law that keeps tax-exempt nonprofits, including houses of worship, from endorsing candidates.

Trump, delivering a 28-minute speech in New York on July 16 that was ostensibly an introduction of his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, veered to an array of other topics. One was concerns by evangelicals about their political activities.

“You are absolutely shunned if you’re an evangelical if you want to talk religion, you lose your tax-exempt status,” he said, noting that his advisers had shepherded a pledge to repeal the “Johnson amendment” into the Republican Party platform. “We’re going to get rid of that horrible Johnson amendment and we’re going to let evangelicals, we’re going to let Christians and Jews and people of religion talk without being afraid to talk,” he said.

Sponsored by Lyndon Johnson in 1954 when he was a Texas senator, the amendment limits political activities for nonprofits classified as tax-exempt. The law does not apply to individuals. An array of Jewish groups endorses the church-state separations embedded in the law. The thrice-married Trump, a one-time casino magnate who as a celebrity frequently boasted of a prolific romantic life, was perceived at the outset of his campaign as unlikely to draw evangelical support. While many evangelical leaders have shunned him, several are backing him.