A poll released Monday by the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) indicates that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, leads former President Donald Trump by a wide margin among American Jewish voters, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The survey conducted by GBAO shows 68% of Jewish voters planning to support Harris, compared to 25% for Trump.

The poll, which has a 3.5 percentage-point margin of error, suggests that recent campaigning and heated exchanges between the parties have not significantly shifted the Jewish electorate. It also indicates that Republican efforts to attract more Jewish voters following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel have not substantially altered voting intentions.

"The survey shows Jewish voters favoring the Democratic candidate in slightly greater numbers than they did in April, when President Joe Biden was the presumptive nominee," the JTA reports. An earlier poll conducted by the JDCA-affiliated Jewish Electorate Institute found Biden leading Trump 64% to 24% among Jewish voters.

The latest survey also reveals strong support for the Biden administration's efforts to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, with 87% of American Jewish voters backing attempts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

From the GBAO Strategies-JDCA poll of Jewish voters:

83% of Orthodox voters support Trump, while only 17% will vote for Harris.

For Orthodox, Israel is ranked 4th on the list of the most important issue in the election. Economy and antisemitism top that. pic.twitter.com/8WsKimRL4I

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) September 9, 2024

Both major parties have intensified their outreach to Jewish voters as the November 5 election approaches. The campaigns have engaged in increasingly sharp rhetoric, with a recent JDCA ad linking Trump to Adolf Hitler, while Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition that Jews "will never survive" if Harris is elected.

Despite the heightened focus on Israel-related issues following the October 7 attack, the survey found that Israel ranked ninth when respondents were asked to select their top two issues of concern. The future of democracy and abortion rights were the top-ranked issues among Jewish voters.

83% of Orthodox voters support Trump, while only 17% will vote for Harris. For Orthodox Jews, Israel is ranked 4th on the list of the most important issues in the election. Economy and antisemitism top Israel.

The overall poll also indicated high levels of concern about antisemitism, with 91% of respondents expressing worry about the issue. Additionally, Jewish voters appear highly motivated to participate in the upcoming election, with 82% rating themselves at the highest level on a motivation scale.

The survey reached 800 voters between August 27 and September 1 via text-to-web polling, a method in which potential respondents are contacted by text message and directed to an internet poll.

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"Oh, Joe."

That gasp, from patrons at a Chicago bar when President Joe Biden first stumbled verbally in his debate with Donald Trump, spoke for a lot of Americans on Thursday night.

In watch parties, bars, a bowling alley and other venues where people across the country gathered to tune in, Trump supporters, happily, and Biden supporters, in their angst if not dread, seemed to largely agree they had witnessed a lopsided showdown.

By the end of the 90-plus minutes, some Democrats were saying what partisans say to put the best face on things: It's still early. One debate doesn't necessarily sway the United States. Judge him by what he's done and wants to do, not by how he says things.

But many were let down.

Biden "just didn't have the spark that we needed tonight," Rosemarie DeAngelus, a Democrat from South Portland, Maine, said from her watch party at Broadway Bowl. Trump, she said, showed "more spunk or more vigor" even if, in her view, he was telling a pack of lies.

Fellow Biden supporter and bowling alley attendee Lynn Miller, from nearby Old Orchard Beach, said: "It's like somebody gave Trump an Adderall and I don't think they gave Joe one." (The drug is used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.)

"I've never seen Trump seem so coherent," Miller said. "And I hate to say this, but Joe seemed a little bit off. But I still support him over Trump because Trump lied about every single thing that happened."

Trump supporters certainly agreed that the difference in energy and coherence between the candidates was striking. Wearing her red MAGA hat at a festive pro-Trump party in the Detroit suburb of Novi, Bonnie Call said of Biden: "He just cannot think on his feet at all. President Trump is just on."

In McAllen, Texas, near the Mexico border, London's Bar & Grill is normally loud on a day close to the weekend, but many patrons were quiet as they absorbed the debate from TV screens. Here, Biden supporters, Trump supporters and undecided voters mingled.

Among them, Vance Gonzales, 40, a moderate Democrat, said the debate convinced him that "we need another Democratic candidate, to be honest, because this is not competitive." He said of Biden: "He's not on point with anything. I think it's disappointing."

Marco Perez, 53, voted for Biden in the last election and voiced frustration with what he was hearing and seeing. "I want to hear more facts, more action as opposed to more finger-pointing, more accusations or false accusations," he said.

His friend Virginia Lopez, sitting with him, came away still not knowing whom she will support in November. She heard snappy but unsatisfying answers from the Republican. "Trump is just deflecting in all the answers and he's just lying," she said. "It doesn't feel like a real debate."

Biden? "I just feel like he's too old," she said.

Sitting up at the bar, Hector Mercado, 72, a veteran wearing a U.S. military beret, was a distinctive patron as he listened intently to the debate. Although he was a Democrat for several years, he switched parties under Ronald Reagan, a Republican.

Mercado heard Biden accuse Trump of making derogatory comments about veterans, but it didn't sway his support for Trump. "Yeah, he said a few things bad about veterans at one point back in the early days," he said of Trump. "But now he's saying, 'No, I back up the veterans and I never had any problems with him. I got a raise in my VA disability when Trump was president."

Biden's performance left him cold. "I think Trump is stronger," he said, "and Biden is a little weak."

In a Tijuana migrant shelter over the border in Mexico, people mainly from southern Mexico who are hoping to apply for asylum in the U.S. watched the debate in folding chairs in front of a screen on the wall.

The migrants, most of whom have been waiting for months for their appointments in that process, stared blankly at the screen as a Spanish-translated version of the debate played on. They watched an American democratic ritual in motion.

Andrea, who did not give her last name due to threats of violence back home, has lived at the shelter for nine months. Her debate takeaway: "Well, I feel that the people of the United States don't love Mexicans now."

At Hula Hula, a tiki bar in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, patrons cheered wildly as their city got a mention from Trump — even if it came up when the Republican was complaining about lawlessness. Biden supporter Amy Pottinger of Seattle said the Democratic president did best when Trump made him angry.

"Once he started talking about Roe v. Wade, it was like Biden woke up and was here," she said.

At the same Chicago bar where patrons exclaimed about Biden's stumbles — the M Lounge in the South Loop — the president scored with this zinger to Trump: "You have the morals of an alley cat."

"Whoa!" the viewers there said.

But at a Democratic watch party in downtown Atlanta, it was a night of jitters.

"I'm so nervous, I feel like my kid is going onstage," Georgia state Sen. Nikki Merritt said early on, patting her stomach as if she had butterflies.

Technicians struggled with sound and video. During one outage, the crowd chanted "Let's Go Joe!"

"I want to hear Joe Biden talking to the voters and ignoring the crazy man in the room," said Matthew Wilson, the Georgia Democratic Party's vice chairman.

But there was no ignoring the man they called crazy.

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Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN and one of the prominent voices on the American Right, says Israel should ignore the restrictions that President Joe Biden is imposing on it regarding the war in Gaza. Instead, in her view, the fighting should continue until Hamas is eliminated.

Video: Excerpts from Nikki Haley's interview with Israel Hayom / Credit: Moshe Ben Simchon

In an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom, as part of her first tour of the country since the outbreak of the war, Haley attacked Biden and said, "You can't hold back weapons from an ally. So if we want to be a friend to Israel, the best thing America can do is let Israel do its job and just support we shouldn't be preaching to Israel, we shouldn't be telling them how to win the war, we shouldn't tell them what they can or can't do. We should just be saying, what else do you need? Bottom line? That's it. That's what I want to see America do is be a friend, a true friend, and make sure all the other countries that are aligned with us are a true friend with Israel too."

Q: But the administration has not been doing that. Rather, it has been telling us what to do. For example, 'Don't enter Rafah, bring more and more humanitarian aid' – which goes to Hamas – and so on. What, then, should Israel do? Abide by what the administration says or choose the path of war as we see fit.

"Israel needs to tune out the noise and finish the job. We know that they have to go into Rafah. I know they have to go into Rafa because that's so much where the Hamas movement still is. For them not to go into Rafa is to lead the terrorists still in power. I also know that a lot of the aid that is going into Gaza is feeding Hamas, fueling Hamas using they're using it, and the Palestinians really aren't getting much of it. But this goes back to the fact that if the Palestinians want a better life, they need to get rid of Hamas. They need to change leadership; they need to understand that they are in this situation because of the leaders around them. This is not Israel's job to save the Palestinians, the Palestinians should want to save themselves by getting rid of the terrorists who are trying to control them who are using them as human shields."

Haley stressed that Israel must make sure to finish the job the lest Hamas resurges and do the same atrocities it committed on Oct. 7. "The best way to make sure it doesn't happen again is to do it right the first time. And we know that as long as Hamas exists, it can happen again. That's why I've said from the very beginning you need to finish them once and for all."

Haley recently announced she was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, having surprised many by finishing second in the states she contested. In an interview with Israel Hayom, she addressed her political future and explained, among other things, why she will vote for Trump in November despite the harsh criticism she leveled against him on the stump. Additionally, she called for imposing American sanctions on the international courts at The Hague and demanded that the Biden administration use its veto to protect Israel at the UN. Haley emphasized that the US faces a threat from terrorism by extreme Islam and noted that the treatment of Israel is a test for the Western world.

"I want Israelis to know you're doing the right thing. Don't let anybody make you feel wrong because Israel is not wrong in this. There are a lot of countries in the world that are wrong because they're siding with the terrorists, and that needs to end. And we need to acknowledge the fact that the last thing Israel needs is for us to go stab them in the back when they when they're already down."

Her visit to the country was organized by MK Danny Danon, the former Israeli ambassador to the UN. The two have been close friends since serving together at the UN as representatives of their countries. The conversation with her was held in the office of the mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi, who hosted her Tuesday in the city as part of a tour of the southern communities hit by the Oct. 7 terrorists.

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A message posted to Facebook on Friday by the Oklahoma Republican Party drew swift condemnation for likening the situation of unvaccinated Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic to the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews during WWII.

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The post, urging Republicans to challenge vaccine mandates, features a yellow Star of David.

Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Oklahoma, told FOX23 that "It is irresponsible and wrong to compare a vaccine... to the horrors of the Holocaust. People should have the liberty to choose if they take the vaccine, but we should never compare the unvaccinated to the victims of the Holocaust."

The party's vice chairman, Shane Jemison, said he wasn't certain who created the post, but called it "beyond abhorrent."

I'd rather be posting about the olympics tonight … pic.twitter.com/zRiRk3rm9J

— Shane Jemison (@sjemisonok) July 31, 2021

The Jewish Federation of Tulsa condemned the comparison in a Facebook post.

"This form of appropriation by the Oklahoma Republican Party is hugely inappropriate and offensive. Using this symbol trivializes the 6 million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust. It is simply wrong to compare the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust to that of anti-vaxxers," the federation's statement read.

"Those interested in pushing their social or political agenda about the pandemic should be able to find another way without trivializing the memory of the 6 million Jews that were murdered and the survivors of the Holocaust," it continued.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley slammed former President Donald Trump for his conduct after the 2020 presidential elections.

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"We need to acknowledge he let us down," Haley told Politico in an interview published Friday.

"He went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again," she said, referring to the deadly riot at the US Capitol on Jan. 6.

While Trump has managed to obtain support within the Republican Party, to the point where scores of ex-Republicans reportedly weigh forming an alternative center-right party, the former South Carolina governor asserted that Trump had no future in the GOP.

"He's not going to run for federal office again. I don't think he's going to be in the picture," Haley stressed.

Haley, a popular figure within Republican quarters, and who is considered a strong candidate for the 2024 presidential race, has voiced a slightly different tune on Jan. 25 when speaking to Fox News, saying the former president should have "absolutely not" been impeached.

Trump, who has repeatedly claimed election fraud during the 2020 November elections, was facing an unprecedented second impeachment trial – despite ending his term at the White House – for allegedly "inciting insurrection" that led to the Capitol Hill events.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Even though President Trump has yet to concede defeat to Democrat President-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and despite the fact that he has launched suits challenging vote counts in several states, there are signs that he is at least willing to consider the option of moving on.

According to a report from the Axios news website, Trump told his advisers that he is considering running for president again in the 2024 election.

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The US Constitution allows one person to be president twice, although the two terms do not have to be consecutive. This means Trump can become president again. The only president in history to serve two non-consecutive terms was President Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd and 24th president.

Naturally, many in the Republican Party are vary of another Trump election, as it could stop fundraising and ambitions for other Republican presidential contenders, and it denies the party the ability to move on, all the while Trump himself will have to deal with a host of legal issues.

If the president does indeed make another run for the White House in 2024, he could remain a formidable candidate in a Republican primary even four years after leaving the party, as despite losing five states to Biden that he won in 2016, he has managed to pile up more total votes than he won in 2016, which has given him some clout within the GOP despite the loss.

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Dr. Samuel Kliger, director of Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the American Jewish Committee, explains that Russian Jews comprise "the core of Russian immigration to America."

"They [Jews] make up 35-40%, but they have been here the longest and are the strongest and most influential, and the rest of the Russian-speaking immigrants gather around them, learn from them, and take in their political views," Kliger says.

Kliger is also founder and president of the Research Institute for New Americans and tracks voting patterns among Russian Americans.

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"My research shows that in the past 20 years, at least 70-75%, sometimes 80%, of this group vote for the Republican candidate, which is the complete opposite of how non-Russian speaking Jewish Americans tend to vote. We'll see the same thing this time, too."

Alec Brook-Krasny, who immigrated to the US from Moscow in 1989 and spent nine years in the lower house of the New York State Assembly, says the same. When he was elected in 2007, he became the first Soviet immigrant politician to be elected to such a key role. Although he is a member of the Democratic Party, Brook-Krasny has no doubt about the preference of voters from his community.

"There are three reasons why Russian Americans support [President] Trump," he says. "First, there is his strong stance in support of Israel. I am not a great admirer of Trump as a person, but what he, his family, and his advisors are doing for Israel is more important to me."

Two other factors that push Russian Americans to back Trump are their dissatisfaction with the protests by Black Americans and their loathing of anything that carries a whiff of socialism.

"Russian speakers think that the wave of protests that has erupted in cities across the US should be stopped, and only a president who represents values of law and order, as Trump does in their eyes, will do that. The growing strength of the far-left wing of the Democratic Party, and the stronger voices there, frighten immigrants from the former USSR and run them off," he observes.

Tipping the scales

Are Russian Americans an additional power base for the Republican camp? Given the electoral process in the US, that's not an easy question to answer. On one hand, Russian Americans are scattered throughout the various states, and have especially large communities in New York and California – both blue states where there won't be much of a fight, with Democratic candidates almost guaranteed victory. This should mark the end of their electoral influence.

But there is another side to the coin: There are sizable communities of Russian speakers in a few swing states, where every vote matters.

"In the past decade, the Russian-speaking population has grown rapidly in Florida. I'm convinced that contributed to Republican victories there – for the president in 2016, for the gubernatorial election, and for the midterm election in 2018," Kliger said. "It is certainly possible that Russian speakers' votes will determine the election this time, too."

And it's not just Florida and Pennsylvania. The considerable numbers of Russian American voters in Cleveland and Cincinnati could affect the results in Ohio, where the battle between Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden is expected to be close. Another key city is Denver, the biggest city in Colorado, which is home to plenty of immigrants from the FSU. The Russian American population is growing in North Carolina, too, which could influence voting there come November.

As if that weren't enough, a few predictions in recent months have said that the race-based protests could turn New York itself into a swing state this time around. "There's not much chance of that," Kliger says, "But if it happens, Russian speaking voters will be a major factor in the change."

Nevertheless, astonishingly enough, neither candidate is investing much effort in courting the Russian vote. Kliger says that's because the Russian speakers' political leaning is clear, and well-known: Republicans think they're already in their pocket, and the Democrats saw them as a lost cause from the start.

Past results would seem to justify that approach. In 2012, for example, under 2.5% of Russian-speaking Jewish voters in New York were registered as Democrats, and twice as many Russian-speaking Jews were registered as Republicans than non-Russian speaking Jews in New York. Within the parties, too, Russian speakers lean to the Right. In the Democratic primaries, immigrants from the FSU preferred Hillary Clinton rather than Bernie Sanders, and in the Republican primaries most supported Trump. At the Republican Party branch office in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, which is known as "Little Odessa," Trump won 84% of the vote.

The influence of the schools

In the reality of a divided America that is at bitter war with itself, small groups – ones that might not necessarily attract attention – can decide who will become president. In the current situation, the small minority of Russian speakers in the US could have far-reaching implications. If Trump manages to drive his opponent into a close battle in key states, it's not inconceivable that the Russian vote will sway the election.

However, Kliger thinks that younger Russian Americans are more supportive of the Democrats.

"A lot of the young people are being brainwashed at college. They don't really know what they want, and certainly don't understand where their parents came from and what they went through. Sometimes the inter-generational rift splits families apart. My family is a good example: my older son is leaning toward voting for Biden, and the rest of the family support Trump," he says.

This trend among the young Russian Americans appears likely to cancel any possibility of Russian-speaking Jews balancing the established Jewish community's bias toward liberal views. Russian speakers might account for about one-sixth of American Jews, but their values don't set the public tone of American Jewry.

Q: Do the leanings of the younger generation herald the disappearance of the Russian-speaking Jewish community in America, and its unique voting pattern?

"I think that's the way things are headed. The members of the community who were born in the US or came here as small children see American society through the lens of the worldview forced on them in schools. They are inculcated with values that go against the traditional mentality of Russian-speaking Jews. At best, these young people will be neutral.

"In the last election, I focused my studies on how the 18-30 age group among Russian-speaking Americans voted, and I saw that they split almost 50:50. This time, I expect that Biden will have the edge among this group."

Q: Immigrants from the former Soviet Union are very involved in American politics as voters. Why can't they create political representation at the state or federal level?

"Their time will come. If the US voted for party lists, I'm sure that we already could have seen a few Russian-speaking congressional representatives. The division into voting districts, which is done intentionally by local political leaders with vested interest, takes most of the power away from Russian Americans. The huge concentration of Russian speakers in south Brooklyn isn't reflected because it is split between three different districts.

"As a result, Russian speaking Jews in that area can't unite behind a candidate of their choice, like Black or Italian voters in those districts do."

In the meantime, Brook-Krasny is one of the only members of the Russian American community to break the political glass ceiling for immigrants from the FSU. There was also David Storobin, who served in the New York State Senate.

"In my district there were twice as many African Americans as immigrants from the FSU, and to win the primaries I enlisted the support of members of other communities in addition to my natural base of support," he explains.

"In addition, I explain to Russian speakers, who mostly support the Republicans, that it's important for them to register as Democrats and win the right to vote in the Democratic primaries in order to influence the choice of candidate and block the radical Left," he adds.

Either way, the political power of immigrants from the FSU is far from being fully realized, and Brook-Krasny, the founder of the Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations (an umbrella organization that united nearly 50 Russian-speaking groups), understands that. He is already planning to run for the New York City Council, and in that campaign, the Russian-speaking vote will certainly play a major role.

"They could serve as a counter-weight against the trend of radicalization in the Democratic Party, especially if they understand the rules of the game in the city and register as Democrats. That's the only way. In north Brooklyn, candidates from the radical socialist wing, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, regularly win, and that's the way things are going. If Russian speakers flock to the intra-party arena, it might save us from sliding to the Left," he says.

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Only 46% of Americans who identify as Republicans say the country is on the right track, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week. It is the first time that number has fallen so low since August 2017, when a rally organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia led to violent clashes with counter-protesters.

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As recently as early March, before the novel coronavirus forced widespread shutdowns across the country, about 70% of Republicans said they were optimistic about the country's direction.

Trump's approval rating remains resilient at around 40%, with a large majority of Republicans still approving of his overall performance.

But sustained pessimism among Trump's supporters could portend potential weakness ahead of November's election, when he will face Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, experts said.

Thirty-seven percent of Republicans said the country is on the wrong track; 17% of those said they would vote for Biden if the election were held now, while 63% still plan to cast ballots for Trump.

In an election most analysts believe will come down to a handful of closely divided states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, even minor defections or a dip in turnout among the Republican ranks could imperil Trump's chances.

"It probably should be concerning for the president, even though it's reasonable to say he still maintains strong support among Republicans," said Kyle Kondik, an elections analyst at the University of Virginia.

Republicans believe an economic rebound in the fall would bolster his prospects. Friday's jobs report showed more than 2.5 million jobs were added last month during the thick of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump touted the gains as the "greatest comeback in American history."

His re-election campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the poll findings.

The pessimism among all Americans has grown since the end of February, when the pandemic began accelerating. But unlike Republicans, large majorities of Democrats and independents already felt the country was on the wrong track; fewer than 7% of Democrats and 19% of independents feel the country is headed in the right direction, down slightly from March, the poll showed.

Matthew Knight, a 48-year-old resident in North Carolina who supported Trump in 2016, said he has been disappointed with Trump's response to the crises.

"Just think with everything going on, and Trump not helping matters, that things are definitely wrong," Knight wrote in an email to Reuters. "I was going to vote for Trump, but if things don't get better, I may have to rethink that."

Reuters conducted interviews and email exchanges with more than a dozen Republicans who said the country was headed in the wrong direction, yielding a mix of responses.

Some, such as Bill McMichael, a 62-year-old in politically divided Minnesota who hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in four decades, are considering voting for Biden out of disgust with Trump.

A few admitted some misgivings but still plan to vote for Trump, either because they are more skeptical about Biden or trust Trump to revive the economy. Others blamed Democrats for the country's problems.

"The last week sure shows you the direction the liberals are trying to drive this country," said Ken Wilamowski, 68, a retired General Motors engineer in Clarkston, Michigan, adding that Democratic governors have been too unwilling to confront protesters. "Pacifism is going to lose to anarchy every time."

Trump has urged governors to "dominate" the streets and claimed that far-left radicals are primarily responsible for the violence. Protesters again gathered in Washington for a big demonstration on Saturday.

"In normal political circumstances, having a 40% favorability would be terrible, but that's just not the world we live in right now," said Terry Sullivan, a Republican strategist who served as Senator Marco Rubio's presidential campaign manager in 2016. "The numbers really haven't moved in the last 3-1/2 years."

Tom Singer, a 57-year-old probation officer in Riverside, California, said Trump's presidency has been "dysfunctional." Nevertheless, he said he would still likely vote for him in November because he trusts Trump will deliver where it matters most: on the economy.

"I'm not happy with either candidate, but I have to look at the one who's going to have the greatest impact on me," he said.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States and gathered responses from 1,113 American adults. It had a credibility interval of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) issued an "unequivocal apology" to congressional Democrats on Saturday over a Facebook ad slamming the "radicals" in the party as anti-Semites.

The ad in question, paid for by AIPAC, said that they were "pushing their anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli policies" down Americans' throats.

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The organization apologized and said that it deeply appreciated the support for Israel in the ranks of the Democratic Party and regretted the poor wording of a message that, however, "alluded to a genuine concern of many pro-Israel Democrats about a small but growing group ... working to erode the bipartisan consensus."

The matter of US-Israeli relations is one of the divisive issues in the current political debate in the Democratic Party, with some of the candidates in the Democratic presidential nomination contest – Bernie Sanders, Elisabeth Warren and Tom Steyer – hinting they were open to limiting US aid to Israel.

The restrictions would kick in should Israel push forth with the settlements, thus turning the aid into a point of leverage.

Warren also said she was willing to skip this year's AIPAC conference when responding to a question that slammed the organization over an alleged "unholy alliance" it is supposedly "forming with Islamophobes and anti-Semites and white nationalists."

Joe Biden, however, said that the idea of limiting or conditioning US military aid to Israel was "absolutely outrageous."

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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In Israel there is a consensus that he has been the best president for Israel in American history, whereas our brothers in America see things in the opposite light. Only 20% of US Jews voted for him in 2016 and intend to do so again. The vast majority supports the Democratic Party and loathe the best president the Jewish people have ever seen with every fiber of their being. A stiff-necked people, if you will, updated for the 2000s.

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The Jewish establishment, as well as the American media – where Jews are hardly underrepresented – is hostile to Trump and he is unable to understand why.

"So many of you voted for people in the last administration. Someday, you'll have to explain that to me, because I don't think they liked Israel too much, I'm sorry," he told the Israeli American Conference earlier this month.

Trump then went on to discuss the Jewish community's efforts to block the appointment of the current US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who has played a key role in many of the historic steps Trump has taken.

"We have to get the people of our country, of this country, to love Israel more … Because you have people that are Jewish people, that are great people – they don't love Israel enough," Trump said, bringing the audience to its feet.

Trump already knew that later that same week, he would issue an executive order on battling on-campus anti-Semitism, as violence against Jews in America is something that can no longer be ignored: Eleven people were murdered at a Pittsburgh synagogue last year. A woman was murdered and three others wounded in the shooting at a Chabad synagogue in Poway, California in April. Between the two deadly attacks there was a string of physical and verbal assaults on Jewish people and institutions throughout the US.

From hatred to partnership

Trump's speech at the IAC was a watershed moment for both the Jewish community in the US and his presidency.

When a US president goes directly from a meeting of NATO leaders in London to a Florida resort solely to speak at the largest organization of Israelis living abroad, it shows that the Oval Office is home to the first "Jewish" president – perhaps not in terms of his ethnicity, but certainly in terms of his thinking and his openness to the Jewish lifestyle.

True, there was nothing new or dramatic in his speech, but for Trump, it's never been about content – American voters realized that long ago, while the Democrats and much of the media were still insisting on treating Trump like a babbling child instead of looking at his overall message.

Not only did Trump speak directly to the participants in an event organized by a group that defines itself as a "living bridge" between Israel and American Jewry, mere days later he signed the executive order banning BDS activity on college campuses that receive federal funding. There is a reason he is listening to and embracing the Jews.

Yes, these gestures could serve his own interests, but above all, they shows us that Trump isn't like other US presidents, who saw Israel and the Jews through a political or religious prism. For Trump, the Jews are part of his family. Trump's words last week show the change he has undergone in the past three years, from a candidate who looked suspiciously on Jews and Israel as opponents to a president who sees them as partners in every sense.

America's second capital

So Trump took advantage of the second anniversary of his recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel to declare (if not explicitly) Jerusalem America's second capital. By signing the executive order, he has changed the federal definition of Jewishness from a religion to a nationality.

How important is it to Trump to make these gestures? Very – because he needs to reinvent himself and he cannot depend on the goodwill of the voters and the flourishing economy.

Trump is heading into the most fateful year of his life. He will have to get himself reelected on his own merits and not as a vote against the previous administration. His speech to the IAC and the executive order, which also defines anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, will serve him well at the voting booths, especially with Florida Jewish voters in a position to tip the scales in his favor and give him the state's 29 electoral votes.

"The Jewish state has never had a better friend in the White House than your president, Donald J. Trump," he told the IAC, making it clear that while American Jews might have the Jewish state, their president was in Washington.

These words fit in well with a letter then-President George Washington wrote to the Jews, in which he told them that "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

Not 'me,' but rather 'you'

The path that has taken Trump to such intense identification with Israel and the Jewish people started off somewhat differently. When he announced his candidacy in 2015, many thought he was getting into the race as a media gimmick or to use the campaign to boost his business affairs. Whether he really wanted to run for president or not, Trump was surprised by his sudden popularity with the unseen America. He realized that his strength lay with constantly campaigning, because the president had to give people a good reason to get out of bed in the morning and feel hope and pride.

The people also realized something the media refused to: it's not enough to talk to the voters – candidates have to talk about the voters. Instead of focusing on "I," Trump focused on "you" – and won. Indeed, even those who detest Trump would agree that he is an iconic president, one who symbolizes a change in the times as well as a change in outlook.

Trump rebranded the Republican Party from one that was known as a friend of corporations and the wealthy into a party that looks after the ordinary worker. Trump took the party from supporting free trade at any price to one that does not hesitate to apply sanctions and tariffs on its big rival, China.

Trump also managed to build a new coalition of voters that includes not only his Republican base, but also independent and anti-establishment voters who were charmed by the fact that he didn't play by the rules and was not hampered by political correctness, like the Democrats. But Trump can't assume that his coalition of voters will remain strong. Polls are showing him in a precarious position in certain key states, especially if Joe Biden wins the Democratic primaries.

The first 'Jewish' president

The war on BDS that Trump declared last week could have ramifications for the direction in which the US federal government is heading, as well as the US Constitution. On one hand, Trump and the Republicans will argue that freedom of speech is also freedom not to support speech that does not serve the federal government's interest. On the other, Democrats – led by Congresswomen Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) – will insist that the First Amendment forbids the government from placing conditions on resources and intervening in content that is taught and promoted at public universities and colleges.

Trump is betting that the Supreme Court will side with him. The court will say that while the First Amendment allows a free market of opinions and that every citizen has a right to express his or her own opinion, no matter how scandalous, the First Amendment does not require the government to remain neutral.

His decision to change the rules and turn the Republican Party into one that fights for minorities in general and Jews in particular, could be another sign that Trump is trying to "steal" one of the characteristics most identified with the Democrats.

Whether he wins or loses the battle for hearts and minds, Trump has laid down the basic outline for his campaign. The battle for the American spirit began in Florida. The first "Jewish" president has put his full weight behind branding the Republican Party as the most pro-Zionist since Harry Truman's campaign in 1948. He hopes it will serve him, and the nation, well on Nov. 3.

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