The recent clamor over Howard Dean\’s demand for U.S. \”evenhandedness\” in the Middle East was sweet music to the ears of Jewish Republicans, who hope 2004 will be a watershed in their long but frustrating effort to rally Jewish voters to their cause.
The crowd in front of the Jewish Republicans\’ booth didn\’t approach the size of those at some of the better food stands at the Israel\’s Independence Day celebration at Woodley Park in the San Fernando Valley. Still, it was big enough to interest me after having watched the GOP\’s long courtship of Jews; for years, it\’s been a romance that sometimes reached the engagement party but usually fell short of the chuppah.
Opponents of the recently released Mideast "road map" are reassuring themselves that presidential politics will keep the Bush administration from pressuring Israel too hard to accept the plan, which proposes a diplomatic sprint to the creation of a Palestinian state by
2005.
In the hotly contested battle, each has accused the other of, among other things, lying, playing dirty and being beholden to special interests. Smith says Korenstein is tied to the unions, while Korenstein says Smith is hand-in-hand with developers.
Amram Mitzna\’s decision to abdicate the leadership of the Labor Party after just months on the job seems to signal the lowest ebb for a party that dominated Israeli life for decades.
Omar Baransi, a 71-year-old retired building contractor with a lined, leathery face, brags that he won\’t be voting in Israel\’s general election on Jan. 28. \”We don\’t trust anyone these days,\” he said, \”not even the Arab candidates. We\’ve been citizens for 55 years and nothing has changed.\”
The Republicans ran on terrorism and the Democrats ran on the economy. The Republicans won.
This is the first in a multipart series looking at the Jewish community and Valley secession. Let us know what you think about secession by taking part in our secession forum at www.jewishjournal.com/forum.
If the people of the San Fernando Valley want to vote to become their own independent city and it is not going to take any money away from the rest of the city, then why should any among us feel we have the right to deny them that right?
Who\’s the big winner in Tuesday\’s Los Angeles mayoral election? My bet is real estate developer Steve Soboroff. James Kenneth Hahn may be an old-line Democrat, but he benefited mightily from the silence maintained by the wealthy Republican businessman, who had come in third in the April primary.
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