Republican Jewish Coalition conference evokes politicians' concerns over Middle East policies

Buoyed by GOP victories, the Republican Jewish Coalition leadership conference — a key stop for potential 2024 presidential candidates and other party luminaries — held in Las Vegas over the weekend offered a model for the party’s midterm strategy.

“This is an incredible day, an amazing turnout, incredible amount of energy,” RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks told reporters. “The results from Tuesday, it’s got everybody excited… And we’re thrilled to be able to bring people together to continue… to build on the increasing support for the Republican Party within the Jewish community.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) addresses R.J.C. conf.

Among the popular speakers at the conference — garnering the most and loudest applause — were former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Ted Cruz and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Sen. Cruz praised Pres.Trump but emphasized his own role in some of the former president’s signature foreign policy moves — relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and pulling out of the Iran deal, decisions that are highly popular with the RJC crowd.

The Texas senator said that some officials in the Trump administration opposed both moves, but he helped convince the former president to ignore those who disagreed.

“I engaged actively, directly and repeatedly with the president,” Cruz said of his advocacy on the embassy issue. “I urged the president, I said, ‘Look, if we want to see peace, nothing produces peace more than clarity, than absolute clarity.’” (source: Jewish Insider)

Sen. Ted Cruz explains the problems with this Democrat administration's approach towards MidEast peace. The Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting hosted Republican leaders at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

We ask Sen. Cruz why does the Biden administration strive to undo MidEast peace and Trump era de-nuclearizing of Islamist Iran? Is the Biden Democrat administration just undoing Trump administration accomplishments or intentionally empowering Iran over Israel as the regional hegemon, forcing Israel to defy Washington's imposed limitations?

  

On the Iran deal, Cruz stressed his role in supporting the withdrawal from the 2015 agreement. “Once again I repeatedly went to the president in the Oval Office saying sending billions of dollars to the Ayatollah Khamenei who chants ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ is a recipe for destruction and death,” Cruz said.  (Journalist Marc Rod contributed to this article).

Pay-to-Prey: Muslim influence in Democrat gov't & policies: What are the ulterior motives?

Wikileaks' emails about the Obama / Clinton hidden operations have distracted the public from the issues of the spreading Islamist revolutions taking place through the Middle East (and Turkey) via military and politics- and through Europe and North America via radicalization of existing Muslims (and converts), hijrah (immigrant invasion), and socio-political influence (lobbying and public relations). Americans must elect an American administration willing to take this on.

The emails feature a list of foreign agents that the Clinton campaign was worried about possibly excluding from fundraising, including people lobbying on behalf of Somalia, United Arab Emirates, Kurdistan, the Transitional Government of Libya, and the Republic of Iraq, among others.- from ‘Take The Money!!’: Emails Show How Clinton Campaign Manages Lobbyist Donations

(Photo: Truthfeed)

Hillary Clinton, whose family's Clinton Foundation has been beneficiary of tens of millions (via Huma Abedin's Muslim and Arab connections and Dennis Cheng's salesmanship) of Muslim countries (and their political and business leaders') donations in exchange for favors such as State Dept. approval of US weapons sales.

Many of the contributions that make up the Clinton Foundation’s $250 million endowment came from foreign governments. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman donations,” which range from $12 to $35 million, “went to the endowment drive.” from Wikileaks Clinton Bombshell — ‘Foreign Govt Donors: All the Money Is In’ Breitbart.com

Worrisome is the Clinton family indebtedness (past, present, and future) to deliver for their Muslim patrons. 

The Obama Administration has been accused of of appointing potentially-Islamist (or Islamist-connected) advisers to a range of posts. Huma Abedin is the best known, while Mohamed Elbiary senior member of DHS’ Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) came under fire in June '14  for tweeting about the “inevitable” return of the Muslim “caliphate.” His tweets were later praised by affiliates of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and potentially used to recruit extremist followers.  He argued that the Muslim Brotherhood poses no threat to the United States.  (Adam Kredo in Free Beacon 9/15/14).There are also a number of Islamists who have not officially been connected to the Obama administration, but who have had a significant influence on Obama's thinking over the course of his life.  (See Islamist Infiltration of the Obama Administration).   

The Obama administration forwarded to John Podesta a list of Muslims vetted to work in Mrs. Clinton's prospective administration. (See "Obama's White House Kept List of Muslims For Top Jobs" by Elliot Friedland, Clarion Project Oct 26, '16)

Donald Trump is more nationalistic in his approach to combating radical Islam and resisting Islamization of America via immigration- which the Democrat campaign has attempted to label as racist.

Apostates and counter-jihad experts at the "Islam and Western Civilization: Can they Co-Exist?" Conference presented first-hand information on the Muslim social and political influence in the Democrat U.S. administration. The American Freedom Alliance organized this conference in Los Angeles at the end of August.


Our first article from the event addressed two of speakers we filmed, Amb. John Bolton assesses state-of-Islamism-resistance, and the alarming message Dr. Wafa Sultan emerges from 5-year silence to warn us.  You may enjoy hearing from some of the other speakers we heard and spoke with there.

Patriotic analysts, Daniel Greenfield (US) and
 Guy Milliere (France) spoke at the Co-Exist conference

The keynoter, Ambassador John Bolton led other speakers (alphabetically): Andrew Bostom, Stephen Coughlin, Nonie Darwish, Bosch Fawstin, Frank Gaffney, Daniel Greenfield, Pete Hoekstra, Pamela Geller, Philippe Karsenty, Morton Klein, Trevor Loudon, Admiral James "Ace" Lyons, Guy Milliere, Elisabeth Wolff, James Simpson, Robert Spencer, and Wafa Sultan.


Outside the conference room, Democracy Broadcasting spoke with speakers: Amb. John Bolton, Dr. Andrew Bostom, Guy Milliere, Daniel Greenfield, Major Stephen Coughlin.

Amb. John Bolton: How West can resist radical Islamism? Interviewer: Dr. Karen Siegemund, Exec. Director, American Freedom Alliance.


Dr. Andrew Bostom: How many Muslims (inside and whom Democrats will import to the West) believe in Sharia ABOVE national laws?

Will real-world Americans overcome Hillary-activist mainstream journalists & pollsters?

Donald Trump speaks during the presidential town-hall debate
 with Hillary Clinton at Washington University in St. Louis, MO
October 9, 2016.(Reuters / Saul Loeb)

At last night's US presidential candidates' debate, Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump's charges regarding her emails were untrue, adding that she sees it a good thing that someone with Donald's temperament is not in charge of the law in U.S.

Mr. Trump turned it around, "Because you'd be in jail!"
"A brilliant unwitting defense of Trump" by Ruthie Blum in Israel Hayom, Wed Oct 5, 2016

In his "Global View" column on Monday, Stephens -- a prominent conservative, who announced in May that he was backing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton because "the stain of a [Republican presidential nominee Donald] Trump administration would cripple the conservative cause for a generation" -- turned a parody of a speech that The Donald supposedly would be delivering in Arizona into a powerful argument in favor of the candidate.

The Apology of Donald J. Trump 

To those who don’t get why Clinton isn’t ahead by 50 points—here’s the answer. Wall St. Journal Oct. 3, 2016

ENLARGE

The GOP nominee at a campaign stop in Herndon, Va., Oct. 3. PHOTO: REUTERS

By  BRET STEPHENS Oct. 3, 2016 

What follows is a draft of a speech Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver Tuesday, Oct. 4 in Prescott Valley, Ariz. We haven’t confirmed its authenticity because, like the rest of the corrupt media, we’re totally dishonest.

Thank you, everybody, thank you. It’s good to be back in Arizona. And you know we’re going to win, right? The polls say we’re going to win in Arizona, and we will.

The polls also say we’d lose the general election if it were held today. But they’re wrong. So wrong. You know how pollsters work? They guess who will show up to vote on election day, and then they poll these “likely voters.”

But let me tell you something. The pollsters have no clue. None. They don’t have a clue who the electorate is, and they don’t have a clue of what’s going on in America. Believe me, folks, on election day they’re going to find out.

DemoCast original video: As Disneyland-area cops stand-down, Latinos antagonize Trump-rally'ers en route to cars 

For 10-years of serving you to continue producing original video like this with a no-advertising policy, donors to Democracy Broadcasting get blessings (especially around Yom Kippur) for funding DemoCast's replacement-equipment drive to continue to illuminate the darkness.

Rubio & Kasich's own state primaries vital on route from R.J.C. to A.I.P.A.C.

The campaigns of Republican presidential candidates Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio face ironic challenges- to win among their own state constituents- in the March 15th primaries. 

Kasich confident after strong finish in Michigan, by Jim Provance, Toledo Blade March 9.

Voicing confidence after his good finish in Michigan on Tuesday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s presidential aspirations now rest on his home state on March 15. He hopes to carry Ohio’s 66 delegates as a badge of honor into remaining primary states, and perhaps a contested Cleveland convention. Read more

John Kasich and Marco Rubio face Judgment Day in their home states on March 15. Both are losing. By Peter W. Stevenson, Washington Post, 4 March 2016

Florida and Ohio are almost always two of the most hotly contested states in American presidential politics — in November, not in March. Or at least, not until March 2016, when Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio desperately need to win their home states in order to stay in the race to the GOP nomination.

We hearken back to the Republican Jewish Coalition Spring gathering where, for the past 2 years, John Kasich and Marco Rubio where introduced to Jewish Republicans (among other candidates) for support.

Israeli election special: Experts endorse Netanyahu's concerns about Obama trying to unseat him for exposing Islamist threat to Israel and the world

How do Israeli elections result in a government?    

Israel's electoral system uses proportional representation - voters don't vote for a local Parliamentarian, they vote for a party. Then the party makes up a list of preferred candidates, and allocate them seats in parliament, the number of which is determined by the percentage of the vote the party receives.

(Filmed Election Night in Jerusalem, 2009 at The Israel Project).
Because of the sheer number of parties, no one ever wins an outright majority, so the government is made up coalitions. In practice, this means that governments rarely ever last a full four-year term.

The prime minister is usually the leader of the party that can form the first coalition which has a majority. Now, after the votes comes the haggling for the coalition. 

Seldom has a foreign election been so significant to the free world. While Israelis consider their distressed pocketbooks, they bear the weight of the free world upon their shoulders. They must elect a leader who'll defend them (and by proxy, the West) against the Iranian Islamist revolution- enabled by the Obama and John Kerry administration. The Iranian threat against the Gulf oil states and Israel is acknowledged. But Obama's threat to indirectly endanger Israel (and the West) to Islamism is hidden by the mainstream media in both the West and Israel. Will Israel be governed by a center-right coalition headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, or a center-left coalition, headed by Isaac Herzog? Israeli political thinker, Caroline Glick, analyzes the election quandry in perspective 

Column One: Israel’s next 22 months by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post March 12

... Since taking office, Obama has used the US’s intelligence ties with Israel to harm Israel’s national security.

Caroline Glick of JPost.com

He has also used diplomacy to harm Israel. Last summer, Obama sought a diplomatic settlement of Hamas’s war with Israel that would have granted Hamas all of its war goals, including its demand for open borders and access to the international financial system.

Now of course, he is running roughshod over his bipartisan opposition, and the opposition of Israel and the Sunni Arab states, in the hopes of concluding a nuclear deal with Iran that will pave the way for the ayatollahs to develop nuclear weapons and expand their hegemonic control over the Middle East.

Amid of this, and facing 22 months of ever more hostility as Obama pursues his goal of ending the US-Israel alliance, Israelis are called on to elect a new government.

Israeli party leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog

This week the consortium of former security brass that has banded together to elect a leftist government led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni accused Netanyahu of destroying Israel’s relations with the US. The implication was that a government led by Herzog and Livni will restore Israel’s ties to America.

Yet as Obama has made clear both throughout his tenure in office, and, over the past week through Malley’s appointment and Menendez’s indictment, Obama holds sole responsibility for the deterioration of our ties with our primary ally. And as his actions have also made clear, Herzog and Livni at the helm will receive no respite in US pressure. Their willingness to make concessions to the Palestinians that Netanyahu refuses to make will merely cause Obama to move the goalposts further down the field. Given his goal of abandoning the US alliance with Israel, no concession that Israel will deliver will suffice.

And so we need to ask ourselves, which leader will do a better job of limiting the danger and waiting Obama out while maintaining sufficient overall US support for Israel to rebuild the alliance after Obama has left the White House.

The answer, it seems, is self-evident.

The Left’s campaign to blame Netanyahu for Obama’s hostility will make it all but impossible for a Herzog-Livni government to withstand US pressure that they say will disappear the moment Netanyahu leaves office.  (Read it all in a new window) 

Knowledgable individuals we recorded in Washington and Nashville agreed with Mr. Netanyahu's exposing the Obama administration's strategy to not stop Israel's enemy Iran from continuing to amass refined uranium for 10-years. And these experts also objected to Obama pressuring Netanyahu and Democrats interested to listen to him- while former Obama campaign organizers operated an election campaign in Israel to defeat Mr. Netanyahu.

Sean Hannity: Obama puts Israel's existence in jeopardy; Iran 'evil needing eradicating' 


Lt. Col. Allen West: 'Obama 'shamefully" seeking to defeat Netanyahu for exposing Iran threat' 

CPAC integrates Mark Levin and Brent Bozell points; Global security on new CPAC leaders' agenda

Mark Levin accepts Citizens United,'s Defender of the 1st Amendment Award

The American Conservative Union (ACU) and its signature event, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) are heading in a more conservative direction, ACU's new chairman Matt Schlapp told Matthew Boyle of Breitbart News.

The primary theme for CPAC 2015 is “Conservative Action Starts Here.” He referenced how Breitbart News and other conservatives held, at CPAC 2013 and CPAC 2014, panels called “The Uninvited”and “The Uninvited II,” because of a lack of focus on social and national security issues at CPAC those years. 

The divide wasn’t just found at those Uninvited panels, though–conservatives inside CPAC raised their concerns with leaders like Citizens United’s Dave Bossie, the Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell, and others speaking up about the concerns in the building. Because of those struggles in recent years, and concerted efforts by the ACU to listen to grassroots concerns about the direction of the landmark conference, the organization is now emerging as stronger, more conservative and more united. (Matthew Boyle in Breitbart News, Feb. 16, 2015)

Democracy Broadcasting News attended the 2014 CPAC and brings you original photo and video excerpts of those issues. The Washington Times presented "Idol Live,"a professional review competition for young political journalists, such as Emily Hoosier (pictured) at the 2014 event.

True conservative principles- Media Research Center's founder L. Brent Bozell III presents his views at Citizens Union's inaugural, "Andrew Breitbart, Defender of the 1st Amendment Award"


Mark Levin speaks accepts the "Andrew Breitbart, Defender of the 1st Amendment Award" from Citizens Union

We asked Mark Levin to clarify his position on Brent Bozell's claim that the Conservative Party does not seek secularist members.


Clare Lopez: 'Putin and Iran pawn Obama (weak to enemies, tough to allies and critics) at the spin-off "The Uninvited" Conference - which addressed issues of security policy.



Also on the slate for the Feb 26th weekend, CPAC show:

“Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, will be given the First Amendment Award after defending his Christian beliefs on homosexuality and other topics, resulting in his brief suspension from the reality show. (Washington Times)

Most, if not all, potential GOP presidential candidates will be speaking at CPAC this year. They include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY), former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, real estate magnate Donald Trump, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Dr. Ben Carson, 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. (Breitbart News)

Did the Obama administration exploit the IRS to tie-up Republican groups to ensure his re-election?

Just how accurate is President Obama’s claim that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” in the IRS targeting scandal ? The chart’s most startling figure shows how of the 298 groups whose applications for tax exempt status were delayed, a whopping 83% were right-leaning organizations.

The other revelations – conservative groups having to answer more than 3 times as many questions as liberal groups and being approved for non-profit status 45% of the time versus 70% of the time for liberal groups – buoy the position that the IRS did in fact target conservative groups.
(Graphic courtesy Reason.com )

The IRS' stalling of the applications has cost some groups thousands in donations and grants, while other groups have not been able to survive. A communications director for a Texas-based conservative group told The Christian Post earlier that the IRS's stalling cost his group $80,000 in donations and grants. (Juan Leon in IJReview)

See Will 'Lost' IRS Emails Reveal a Corrupt White House? IBD Editorial

Talk-radio hosts debate Americans' issues in-person at live, L.A. theater event

Panelists (L-R) Elisha Krauss, Brian Wittman, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager,
Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Katie Pavlich

Commentators about politics and culture featured on Salem Radio, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, and Katie Pavlich debate before an audience of their fans and detractors. 

The debate was moderated by Brian Wittman and Elisha Krauss of The Morning Answer team on 870 KRLA The Answer in Los Angeles. 


News excerpt from political commentators' debate on October 19, 2014 at the Alex Theater in Glendale, California.

KRLA's Morning Answer team, Elisa Krauss, Brian Wittman and Ben Shapiro

Diversity of speakers and artists guide public how to survive Obama era of racism-mongering at premiere TruthFest Conference in L.A.

Black conservative speakers, Mason Weaver and Pastor Eddie Cage of St. Louis were among the conservative speakers who educated and inspired attendees of the first,  annual TruthFest in Los Angeles on October 11, 2014.

Democracy Broadcasting brings you video commentary from author John Hancock, ("Liberty Inherited: the untold story of American Exceptionalism"), Mason Weaver, Pastor Eddie Cage, conservative podcast host John Matthews, Counterjihad Coalition-activist Steve Amundson, and political guerilla artist Sabo, noted for his recent Obama-Drone caricature series. 

Election Special: L.A. candidates for U.S. House challenging incumbents over failing urban and Mid-East policies

The candidates DemoCast interviewed are seeking to improve on the policies of incumbent Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Henry Waxman (District 33) is retiring, opening the race to both Elan Carr and Ted Lieu, whom we interviewed at the annual convention of the Jewish National Fund.  The other candidates, Adam King (District 37) and John Wood (Dist. 43), are challenging Karen Bass and Maxine Waters whom we interviewed at the California Republican Convention, along with a couple of urban community activists seeking alternatives to the incumbents weak delivery to urban communities.

Elan Carr, candidate for House of Representatives from U.S. 33rd Congressional District.
Deputy District Attorney, Elan Carr, a criminal gang prosecutor, served as a military attorney in Iraq, and still serves in the Army reserves today. At the Jewish National Fund annual convention in September, he fields questions on his positions on U.S. Middle East policies.



Ted Lieu, candidate for House of Representatives from U.S. 33rd Congressional District.
California State Sen. Ted Lieu, co-sponsored a bill to divest California funds from the Iran and companies doing business with her. At the Jewish National Fund's annual convention in September, he fields questions on his positions on U.S. Middle East policies.



John Wood, candidate for House of Representatives from 43rd Congressional District. 
John Wood discusses his positions to replace Rep. Maxine Waters in L.A.'s 43rd Congressional District in the November 4th, 2014 election. John Wood, grandson of the founder of Dot Records, is running on a platform of improving education and increasing jobs in the urban community. 



How Obama-supportive Democrats harm African-American voters- Dr. Herbert Baker.
Community-activist, Dr. Herbert Baker reaches-out with a group of unemployed African-American young people to elect new-blood to replace the incumbent, black Democrat machine- through alternative candidates, many running under the Republican category.. Backed-up by under-employed  young adults from his community, Robert Atkins, Tommy Jones, and Venesha Allman.



Community activist, Shirley Husar of Urban Game Changers.
Urban Game Changer's Shirley Husar stands with kids and their grandma Tanya t explain Calif GOP's issues in urban communities. An inebriated, Neil Kashkari-defender from San Diego forgets her civility, gets reminded.



Adam King, candidate for House of Representatives from U.S. 37th Congressional District. Candidate Adam King, (running for election to the House from L.A.'s District 37) discusses the White House policies which affect those concerned with Israel and the Muslim world. He is running for the seat occupied by Rep. Karen Bass (D).

Congressional competitors convey views at gathering organized by Persian-Jewish civic group

Candidates Wendy Greuel and Elan Carr share a moment

30 Years After held its 7th Annual Pre-Election Mixer to introduce the civic group to candidates for both L.A.'s 3rd Supervisoral District and L.A.'s 33rd Congressional District, to succeed the retiring congressman Rep. Henry Waxman. The supervisoral candidates attending were Bobby Shriver (former Santa Monica Mayor and City Council member) and John Duran (West Hollywood City Councilmember and former Mayor).


The presenting congressional candidates: Elan Carr (deputy District Attorney prosecutor of gang-crimes), Wendy Greuel (former LA City Controller), Matt Miller (liberal radio host and author), and Ted Lieu (Calif. State Senator representing the city of Torrance).  The other major candidate, Marianne Williamson, did not attend.

The primary election will be held on Tuesday, June 3rd.  No particular party registration is required for you to vote for any candidate. The two candidates that receive the most votes will face each other in November.




DemoCast was on-scene to convey the candidates' views to the general public. 


Sam Yebri: 'Why 30 Years After mixes with the candidates.'



Wendy Greuel on the issues for L.A.'s 33rd District in Congress and her experience for Washington office.



Elan Carr for Congress: 'How my justice expertise internationally will benefit L.A., America, and the Middle East.



Calif. State Sen. Ted Lieu stumps on his anti-Iran, pro-Israel record.



Political-office newcomer, Matt Miller, a center-left radio commentator explains his perspectives for reforming education and the GOP-dominated House of Representatives.



Former City Controller, Wendy Greuel, conveys her affinity for Persian-Jewish issues for the June 3rd election.



How is Elan Carr oriented towards preserving California against nefarious elements? Communications Director, John van Winkle:



Why community leader, Dr. James Elist opened his home to invite L.A. political candidates to meet Persian-American Jewish youth.



Former Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad explains the new, Persian-Jewish, civic activism.

Prospective Republican candidates woo Jews; Israel in Gov. Chris Christie's remarks results in imbroglio

Sheldon Adelson at RJC Spring (Ethan Miller Times of Israel)

Jewish Republicans gathered to meet and evaluate potential candidates at the Republican Jewish Coalition's Spring Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas during the last weekend in March. 

This DemoCast-exclusive video features Ohio Gov. John Kasich addressing the gathering, as did Gov. Scott Walker, Amb. John Bolton, and Gov. Chris Christie. We filmed reactions to the gathering from R.J.C. Executive Director Matthew Brooks, Commentary Magazine Editor John Podhoretz, and Morton Klein, Exec. Dir. of the Zionist Organization of America.



In this DemoCast-exclusive, video interview, Zionist Organization of America's Executive Director, Morton Klein recounts his reaction to (and subsequent follow-up with) New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's remarks that Judea and Samaria are "occupied (by Israel) territories."



Richard Miniter writes in Forbes Magazine, "Did Chris Christie "bully" Sheldon Adelson's friend?"

The more the donors learn about Gov. Christie—the more they are questioning his fitness for higher office.

“He hurt himself with that group. No doubt about it,” said Morton Klein, president of Zionist Organization of America. He was in the front row for Christie’s talk on Saturday and spoke to me on Tuesday morning. Klein is hugely influential in  pro-Israel circles and phones his longtime friend, Sheldon Adelson, every week or so to talk about Israel and American politics. Klein described his private encounter with Christie (described below) as “really unpleasant, condescending, rude, dismissive. [Christie] was bullying me. I’ve never had a politician speak to me that way.”

Klein talked to many of the major donors in the room and, he said, nearly every one had the same reaction. “They said ‘I never realized that Christie wasn’t a friend on Israel,’ it was a shock, a surprise.”

The media missed important aspects of the story—the very elements that are absorbing the attention of many Republican donors. While they were leaning toward Gov. Christie before his Saturday speech, now they are questioning his grasp of key issues, his stands and, most tellingly, his temperament and his character.

Christie’s Prepared Remarks Didn’t Mention Israel. Gov. Christie’s prepared remarks to a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting didn’t include any significant mention of Israel. Imagine a politician speaking to an African-American audience and not planning to mention civil rights or a chamber of commerce and not writing in a few lines about the economy.

Still, the speech has a hit and should have positioned the tough-talking former prosecutor for a presidential run in 2016. His speech even had a pitch-perfect sound bite: “We cannot have a world where our friends are unsure of whether we’ll be with them, and our enemies are unsure of whether we’ll be against them.”

The crowd thundered its approval. But that’s not the line that any one will remember.

Since the prepared speech was silent on Israel, it was the natural topic of questions from the audience. And that’s when Gov. Christie said the words that got him in trouble: “I took a helicopter ride from the occupied territories across and just felt personally how extraordinary that was to understand, the military risk that Israel faces every day.”

That phrase—“occupied territories”—set off murmurs in the crowd. “There was a buzz throughout the room,” Klein said.

“Most of the several hundred people in attendance noticeably gasped when Gov. Christie used the language of Israel’s enemies,” Klein told me. “Saying that territory captured in a defensive war [in 1967] in which its enemies sought its extinction is ‘occupied’ is designed solely to delegitimize the Jewish state’s claims to that land.”

The crowd’s reaction was predictable. “Occupied Territories” is not a neutral term for the land West of Jordan River, but a phrase used by radical Palestinian activists and others opposed to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state. The term doesn’t come from international law, but from partisan screeds. It is phrase that takes a side, not one that describes a place.  That’s why American diplomats, leaders and journalists generally avoid it. Instead they say “West Bank” or “Judea and Samaria” or similarly neutral formulations.

By using it, Klein said, Christie was signaling that he either was opposed to Israel or didn’t care enough to avoid the coded language of the anti-Israel crowd.

There is a third possibility that Klein didn’t consider. Like most state-wide office seekers, Christie has actively campaigned for votes among the growing Arab population of Passaic County, New Jersey (one of the largest in the country) and appointed prominent Muslim jurists to state government posts there. Among circles of Arab attorneys, the term “occupied territories” is widely used. Christie may have unconsciously picked it up among his supporters in Paterson, New Jersey.