Schumer backs Muslim Anti-Israel lawmaker for top Democratic Party post

Ellison, who has indicated he would be interested in the post but has yet to declare, has been a sharp critic of Israel, but also has reached out to pro-Israel groups.

Two top Jewish figures associated with the Democratic Party, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, are backing the candidacy of a Muslim, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, for the party chair.

Schumer, of New York, in line to be the next party leader in the Senate, is backing Ellison’s candidacy, according to anonymously sourced reports Friday in Politico and by NBC.

Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who this year became the first Jewish candidate to win major party nominating contests in his unsuccessful bid to win the Democratic presidential nomination, is also supporting Ellison, according to The Hill, which quoted Minnesota Public Radio.

On board for Ellison as well is Ilya Sheyman, the executive director of the liberal activist group MoveOn and a Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union, who emailed a statement of support to reporters.

Ellison, who has indicated he would be interested in the post but has yet to declare, has been a sharp critic of Israel, but also has reached out to pro-Israel groups.

He has organized letters urging pressure on Israel, and was an advocate of drawing lessons from the U.N. Goldstone Report following the 2009 Gaza War – a report Israel dismissed as irredeemably flawed and biased.

Visiting Gaza after the 2009 war with another Congress member, Ellison continued on his own to Israel so he could survey the cost of Palestinian attacks on Israelis. He has pressed Hamas, the terrorist group controlling Gaza, to release the bodies of slain Israeli soldiers at the behest of their families. He has a close working relationship with the Jewish community in Minneapolis.

Sanders named Ellison to the Democrats’ platform drafting committee this summer after the senator lost the party nomination to Hillary Clinton, who went on to lose the presidency to Donald Trump. Ellison and two other Sanders appointees argued forcefully for language that would criticize Israel for its West Bank occupation but were rebuffed.

Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, would replace Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who resigned this summer under pressure after stolen DNC emails were published revealing the animus at top party levels against Sanders’ candidacy. Until then, she had been the top Jewish official in the party.

Wasserman Schultz was replaced temporarily by Donna Brazile, a longtime party activist.

“The Rebbe’s (Lubavitch) blessing worked and the Satmar endorsement didn’t.”

In the blue sea of New York City, where Hillary Clinton crushed Donald J. Trump in the election on Tuesday, there were still some districts — working-class areas in the southeast Bronx, Mr. Trump’s childhood neighborhood in Jamaica Estates, Queens, and most of Staten Island — that did not go Mrs. Clinton’s way.

But of all the outlying pockets of Trump supporters in New York, perhaps the most distinct lay six miles south of the Clinton campaign headquarters: the Orthodox Jewish community of Borough Park, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that would seem to have little in common with Middle America, where Mr. Trump drew most of his support.

With its Judaica stores, kosher pizza shops, men in traditional black coats and hats and women with long skirts, Borough Park is home to thousands of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, belonging to a range of sects, including Bobover, Belz, Satmar, Ger and Viznitz.

The vast majority of voters in the neighborhood are registered Democrats, but they often vote Republican, and this year was no different. In Brooklyn’s 48th Assembly District, which encompasses most of Borough Park, Mr. Trump got 69 percent of the vote, while Mrs. Clinton got 27 percent.

The "lying" New York Times, begs readers to give it another chance

Trump warns Obama: Don't force solution on Israel

President-elect Donald Trump's aides reportedly warned President Barack Obama not to "even think about" trying to push for progress on the Israeli-Arab conflict between now and January 20.

Politico quoted a "national security adviser" of Trump's as saying Obama "shouldn't go seeking new adventures or pushing through policies that clearly don't match Trump's positions." This includes "efforts to bring peace to the Israelis and the Palestinians - even if those initiatives are symbolic at best...[Trump] has made it very clear he will support Israel and its preferences."

Several times, concerns were raised about how Obama would act after elections, and if he would push anti-Israel UN resolutions after he no longer had to worry about their effect on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign.

On Friday, Trump expressed hopes he would be able to create "the ultimate deal" that would end the "war that never ends" between Israel and the terrorist bodies within its borders. However, he also said any deal would need to be achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has consistently refused to negotiate with Israel until all of his preconditions are met, though he refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish countryand insists international bodies pressure Israel to give in to all PA demands.

The PA also claims to have a "right" to award those who kill Israeli civilians.

Republicans Dominated The Senate Races, Except The Ones Who Dumped Trump

Republicans had excellent results in Tuesday’s high-stakes Senate races, winning numerous tough battles to preserve their majority in the chamber for the next two years.

 But THE DAILY CALLER points out that Tuesday’s results revealed an interesting dynamic: 

The Republican Senate candidates who rejected President-elect Donald Trump and tried to go it alone were the only ones who ended up losing their races.

Overall, there were eight Republican-held seats and one Democrat-held seat that were competitive going into Tuesday night: Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. 

Of the nine Republicans in these competitive races, six of them stood by Trump or, in the case of Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, didn’t reject him. 

Three of them, though, explicitly rejected Trump: Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, Mark Kirk in Illinois, and Joe Heck in Nevada.

The final results are telling: 

The three candidates who rejected Trump all lost, while the rest triumphed.

The unbearable smugness of the press

The mood in the Washington press corps is bleak, and deservedly so.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that, with a few exceptions, we were all tacitly or explicitly #WithHer, which has led to a certain anguish in the face of Donald Trump’s victory. More than that and more importantly, we also missed the story, after having spent months mocking the people who had a better sense of what was going on.

This is all symptomatic of modern journalism’s great moral and intellectual failing: its unbearable smugness. Had Hillary Clinton won, there’s be a winking “we did it” feeling in the press, a sense that we were brave and called Trump a liar and saved the republic.

So much for that. The audience for our glib analysis and contempt for much of the electorate, it turned out, was rather limited. This was particularly true when it came to voters, the ones who turned out by the millions to deliver not only a rebuke to the political system but also the people who cover it. Trump knew what he was doingwhen he invited his crowds to jeer and hiss the reporters covering him. They hate us, and have for some time.

And can you blame them? Journalists love mocking Trump supporters. We insult their appearances. We dismiss them as racists and sexists. We emote on Twitter about how this or that comment or policy makes us feel one way or the other, and yet we reject their feelings as invalid.

Reform Jews suffered a bitter blow with Trump's election

Shas leader and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri welcomed the results of the American elections Thursday and said that the Reform Jews in America had suffered a "bitter blow".

"It is too early to discuss the possible repercussions of Trumps' election as president," said Interior Minister Deri, "but there is no doubt that we should thank God that all the desecrators of the covenant and impersonators of Judaism who wished to take control of the Land of Israel and introduce their destructive reforms- received a significant blow.

"Their influence and threat came from their connection to the administration in America, they realize that they have lost this power and we can, God willing, continue to strengthen the traditional religion which we received from previous generations.

"Many Jews said over the last few days that if such a miracle happens, it must be the days prior to the advent of the Messiah. We must truly be in Messianic times when everything will turn out favorably for the people of Israel."

'Trump does not view Jewish settlement as an obstacle to peace'

Jason Greenblatt, one of US President-elect Donald Trump’s close advisors, spoke with Army Radio this morning about Trump’s future stances with respect to the Jewish State.

In the interview, Greenblatt said that Trump “does not view the settlements as being an obstacle to peace. I think he would show [the expulsion of Jewish communities in Gaza, which didn’t bring peace] as proof of that. The two sides are going to have to decide how to deal with that region, but it is certainly not Mr. Trump’s view that settlement activity should be condemned and that it is an obstacle for peace - because it is not the obstacle for peace.”

Greenblatt said that Trump would not impose a “peace process” on Israel. “He thinks that Israel is in a very tough situation and needs to [do what it has to in order] to defend itself. He is not going to impose any solution on Israel. He thinks that the peace has to come from the parties themselves.”

When asked how he knew that Trump would keep his word on moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, Greenblatt noted: “He said that he’s going to do it. He’s different for Israel than any recent President has been and I think that he’s a man who keeps his word. He recognizes the historical significance of the Jewish people to Jerusalem unlike, let’s say, UNESCO.”

New York magazine's Disgusting Cover of Trump!

The "Loser" seems to be New York Magazine, with its premature cover, thinking Hillary would win! 

Newsweek misfires with Clinton cover

I thought they were out of business!!!!

A national recall went out Wednesday for the special “Madame President” issue of Newsweek that was prematurely shipped to stores and newsstands across the country.

At the same time, the publisher of the magazine will rush the “President Trump” version of the commemorative issue to press on Thursday — so it will get to stores next week.

“Like everybody else, we got it wrong,” said Tony Romando, CEO of Topix Media, the Newsweek partner which produces special issues under the popular brand.

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Both a Clinton and a Trump commemorative issue were designed and laid out in advance, but Topix Media, believing late last week that Clinton was likely to win, shipped only the Clinton issue.

The magazine hit stores Tuesday. While retailers were told not to put issues on sale prior to the election, a handful did.

Romando claims only 17 Clinton magazines were sold — out of 125,000 printed and shipped.

“All wholesalers and retailers have been asked to return any issues they have as we need to clear room for [150,000 copies of] the President Trump issue,” Romando said. “We expect it to sell very well as there is obviously a great demand.”

The Barnes & Noble on Union Square that was selling “Madam President” issues Tuesday had none on their shelves Wednesday, according to a clerk in the magazine section, who told The Post he didn’t know if they sold out or were pulled.

Romando said he plans to print more copies of the Trump version because the upset victory would lead to bigger sales.