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Jewish Journal

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March 21, 2016

Trump names foreign policy team led by Alabama senator

Leave a Comment / Election 2016, United States /

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Monday unveiled a partial list of his foreign policy advisers in an interview with the Washington Post, after saying last week that he mostly consults himself on international affairs. 

The advisory team includes terrorism expert Walid Phares, energy industry executive Carter Page, international energy lawyer George Papadopoulos, former Pentagon inspector general Joe Schmitz, and former Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Trump told the Post in an on-the-record editorial board meeting.

He said he would soon name more people who are helping him shape his foreign policies as part of the team, led by U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama who endorsed Trump last month. 

Most of those named by Trump are not well known in foreign policy academic or expert circles, and he eschewed the traditional candidate's practice of having his campaign issue a full list of his foreign policy team's members.

Trump, the leader of the three remaining Republican presidential candidates, has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks to say who advises him on foreign and security matters.

One hundred and twenty Republican national security experts who have served in past presidential administrations have signed a letter saying they cannot support Trump and will work to ensure he is not elected.

Phares told Reuters he began advising Trump on Friday. He previously had served as a national security adviser to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has roundly criticizedTrump. 

Phares said in an email he has not met Trump in person since last year.

Others named by Trump could not be immediately reached to confirm their role with Trump's campaign. 

Schmitz was Pentagon inspector general under President George W. Bush and has worked for Blackwater Worldwide, a now-defunct private U.S. security firm whose personnel were involved in a deadly shooting that killed Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Kellogg has considerable military experience, having served as the chief operating officer of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-run provisional government imposed on Iraq after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion under Bush. He has worked at CACI International, a Virginia-based intelligence and information technology consulting firm.

Trump has vigorously criticized the invasion. Asked at a news conference about his decision to choose Kellogg despite his role in Iraq, Trump said: “I don't have to agree with them but I have to hear different opinions.”

According to the Post, Papadopoulos previously advised Trump's former rival Ben Carson, who has now backed Trump. The London Center of International Law Practice's Center website lists him as the head of its Center for International Energy and Natural Resources Law & Security.

Page serves as a managing partner of Global Energy Capital, a private energy services company, the Post said.

“I have not interacted with any of the team he named. On the positive side, none evokes negative reactions,” said Doug Paal, a former White House staffer under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I am glad he has a team, and I hope he uses them to earn respect abroad.”

Sessions, who in February became the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Trump, is also not seen as an influential foreign policy or national security player in the U.S. Congress. He does not serve on the influential Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, although he is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Last week, Trump said in a television interview on MSNBC, which had been pressing him to name his foreign advisory team, that he relies on his own instinct.

“I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain,” he told MSNBC. “I know what I'm doing. … My primary consultant is myself.”

Trump names foreign policy team led by Alabama senator Read More »

Clinton gave a masterful AIPAC speech. That is, if you believe her…

Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel, Rosner's Domain, Rosners Domain-mobile, United States, Worldwide /

1.

Hillary Clinton was the first Presidential candidate to address the AIPAC2016 conference, and, just as expected, she was the second most interesting. The Donald show (Monday evening) casts a shadows over all other AIPAC presidential speeches – so he will be the most interesting. The Sanders no-show is third.

2.

What was the most interesting question about her speech? Not whether she would distance herself from Trump – but whether she would distance herself from the policies of President Obama that are not quite popular among AIPAC rank and file.

So she did. Carefully. Masterfully. Not once did she directly confront President Obama. Not once did she specifically disparage any of his policies. And yet, her massage was clear: I will not be like President Obama. You can trust me. You can vote for me without much hesitation. Sitting among the delegates, I got the feeling that many of them craved that assurance. They were an easy crowd to please. They want to vote for her and needed her to give them something to make them feel secure that their vote is a vote that strengthens the US-Israel alliance.

Clinton left no room for doubt. That is, if you believe that she means what she says.

3.

How did Clinton ensure the crowd that she will not be like Obama? By doing the following:

Hinting that she will not question the need to keep Israel’s qualitative military edge (as Obama did, according to the Jeff Goldberg story from last week).

Saying that she would “vigorously oppose any attempts by outside parties to impose a solution – including by the UN Security Council.”

Promising to go back to a no daylight policy – Israel’s enemies should never assume that they can take advantage of a growing distance between the countries.

4.

She also hit Trump hard. She will not be “neutral” today and who knows what tomorrow. She does not think everything is negotiable. She would like to remind the crowd that a steady hand is what Israel needs.

And of course, she is right about all of these.

5.

Clinton got cheered when she promised to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House. That is quite strange: inviting Israel’s PM to the White House is a very low bar of accommodation and a standard procedure. But the AIPAC crowd needed her to utter the name Netanyahu without her seeming angry or disapproving or reluctant. They needed her to tell them that with all the baggage she has, and despite the leaks, the emails, the harsh conversations, the phone calls, the history – she is able to work with him with no hard feelings.

Clinton said she’d invite him – and that was that. Cheers.

6.

Sam Schulman retweetted me during the speech. I said she wants us to remember that she isn’t Obama or Trump, and he responded by writing: “And I'm not Hillary 2008-2012. Especially forget her. And forget @maxBlumenthal. And forget Morsi.”

Yes – Clinton wanted the AIPAC crowd to erase from memory all sorts of things about her. Things she did on behalf of the Obama administration. Things that some of her loyal advisors wanted her to do. And surely, one of Clinton’s great weaknesses in the US political arena is her image as a dishonest leader. Americans of all walks of life – as was proved time and again in exit polls in the past couple of months – do not see her as trustworthy.

Yet today at AIPAC she was convincing, and the delegates – well, I can only speak for a small section of delegates that were sitting beside me, but judging by the cheers I think other delegates in other sections had the same response – seemed to believe her. Some of them believed her because they do think she is trustworthy. And some of them believed her because her speech convinced them that on this matter she is trustworthy. And many of them also believed her because, to be honest, with Trump as her prospective opponent, they see no other choice.

 

Full disclosure: I'm attending the 2016 policy conference in Washington as a speaker and as AIPAC's guest.

Clinton gave a masterful AIPAC speech. That is, if you believe her… Read More »

Kasich to offer alternative pro-Israel policy at AIPAC, take dig at Trump

Leave a Comment / Election 2016, United States /

The U.S. cannot be “neutral” in defending our allies, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich is expected to tell the 18,000 attendees at AIPAC’s annual policy conference at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

“We cannot be ‘neutral’ in defending our allies,” Kasich is expected to say, according to an initial draft of the speech. “We must be counted on to stand by and invest in our friends, instead of abusing them and currying favor with our enemies.”

“The American friends of Israel are not fair weather friends. They recognize the strategic hinge with Israel, and that America’s and Israel’s interests are tightly intertwined – despite our inevitable disagreements from time to time,” he added.

Kasich is expected to present himself as the candidate in this presidential race with the deepest and most far-reaching foreign policy and national security experience.

Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Republican presidential hopeful will say that if the Palestinians truly want peace with Israel, they “cannot continue to promote a culture of hatred and death, and “We must make it clear that we will not tolerate such behavior.”

According to Kasich, there is no prospect for a permanent peace until the Palestinian Authority “and their friends Hamas and Hezbollah” are prepared to take real steps to live in peace with Israel and “recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.” He will also promise not to force “a sovereign nation – our friend Israel – to do damage to its own vital national interests. And I am not going to let outside pressure dictate U.S. national security policy either.”

Kasich will also reiterate his most recent call to “suspend” the Iran nuclear deal, following Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests. “These tests were both a violation of the spirit of the nuclear deal and provocations that can no longer be ignored,” the Ohio Governor will say. “You can be assured that, in a Kasich Administration, there will be no delusional agreements with self-declared enemies.”

Kasich will pledge to reach a bipartisan national security policy that “will incorporate Israel as the bedrock partner for our mutual security in the Middle East” and that together, “we will combat violence incited in Israel itself, and in its eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

“I want you to know that the U.S. partnership with our ally Israel will not only endure, but will flourish once again as a result of what we will say and what we will do in my Administration,” he is expected to assure the pro-Israel crowd.

Kasich to offer alternative pro-Israel policy at AIPAC, take dig at Trump Read More »

AIPAC Day 1: The Union for Reform Judaism’s Rick Jacobs and Jonah Dov Pesner discuss Donald Trump

Leave a Comment / Tribal, United States /