Candidates at the R.J.C. Forum - impressions from two conservative analysts, one Gentile, one Jewish

by Scott Jacobs, Senior EditorAt its Annual Leadership Meeting in November, the Republican Jewish Coalition presented an opportunity for prospective donors to acquaint themselves with the prospective candidates for state and national office.

Sen. Ted Cruz confers with attendees, including Franco-American journalist Guy Milliere (pictured left of Cruz), at Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas

We chronicled the assessment of two socio-political analysts, Guy Milliere, an expat French political and legal scholar who writes about the threats to Western Civilization in Gatestone Institute. Also, Kenneth Abramowitz, an American biotech market analyst with expertise in global socio-political affairs. 

Guy Milliere interview video

Guy Milliere: I think it was a great event especially now because we start to have hope after the nightmare of the elections of 2020. I could see that many Republican politicians have real hope and they are right. I think that in 2022 it could be a landslide for for Republicans because Biden is creating disasters everywhere inside of the United States, in Afghanistan, in the Middle East with what he is doing about Iran, and I think that it's very scary to see what he is doing. And personally, I'm afraid of what he still can do before the election of 2022! And I could say that there were great speeches - the best speech (according to me) was a Ted Cruz speech because he was very powerful and he explained the situation in the Middle East very well.

He explained, too, why Donald Trump was bold, courageous to do what he did - because he had many obstacles in front of him - but he decided to do it anyway. And he explained very clearly that it was Donald Trump himself (against many other people in his administration) who decided to withdraw from the Iran Deal and who decided to install the American Embassy into Jerusalem!  And he explained very well that doing that pushed Arab countries to decide to have a better relations with Israel. 

So, it was the elements that led to the Abraham Accords so it was a very good speech! I would say that this morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a good speech, too. He spoke about what he did in Florida and he did many good things!  I think that he's one of the best - maybe the best governor in the United States right now! He also spoke about the Middle East but he spoke mostly about what he did and I think that it's becoming- you have the election of 2024 very soon.

Kenneth Abramowitz

 

Question: The Republican Jewish Coalition is having its first conference since the passing of benefactor, Sheldon Adelson. There were tributes to him here, but the Jewish community is still divided. In fact if anything, it's adversarial between the left and the right. What took place here that was encouraging to you?

Ken Abramowitz: Well, it was encouraging to see almost 700 people come together after CoVid -  and trying to leave CoVid behind - it was a relatively uniform, flat base of people. We, remember about 30 percent of Jews are Republicans so only that 30 showed up the other 70 percent who are Democrats did not show up. Therefore, it was a unity of purpose for a Republicans and it was great to see.

Question: You mentioned 30 are Republicans (or at least is how the vote for the presidential election went). Yes, that's the number that I saw in the newspaper of the percentage who voted for President Trump. Now, I heard in Virginia it went up 10 points to closer to 40 percent for Youngkin that in Florida. At the last election for President Trump, it was around 45 percent. 

I keep watching the number to see if it gets over 50 it should actually be the opposite and the Jews should be voting 70 for republicans / 30 for democrats so that should flip over time because that's roughly what the percentage is in Israel and so we in America should approach the 70 / 30 split between what's called right-wing. I just call it normal versus left-wing which I call abnormal. 

Question:  Were there highlights of this conference to you in terms of takeaway and the the impact that it might have on either the Jewish vote or the disproportionate Jewish donation to the Republican cause:

Abramowitz: Well, we all have to become more educated in a democracy. Democracies function based on people who are educated who make who elect people who can represent them well. So we collectively just had a good education for 700 people who can now go home to their children grandchildren to their relatives to their friends and be better communicators than they could have been before! 

Question: There didn't seem to be a groundswell of support for a Trump re-election at this convention. What was your sense of it? Well, the Trump issue didn't come up that much because Trump wasn't here. Hhe was here by video but not here in person and the speakers really didn't address that sensitive issue of were they pro-Trump, sort of pro-Trump, not pro-Trump and so it didn't come up as an issue really. I think if people didn't want it to come up as an issue, personally, it should have been more of an issue but - again as as the Republicans want to appeal to a broader base of Independents. 

I think there's anxiety by the politicians that if they become too pro pro-Trump so to speak then independents might they might lose some independence so it's a political game that's played.

Former Vice-President Mike Pence spoke here. He has been out of the public eye largely - and made a strong showing in a way that might have positioned him for a possible primary run for president in 2024. 

Question: What was your sense of that well we had a number of potential candidates for president and of course the biggest issue is President Trump going to run. And then, the secondary issue is if he doesn't run, who will he anoint or appoint or bless so to speak - and the two best candidates are Ron DeSantis, who was here, and former Sec'y of State Mike Pompeo, who is not here.

And then there's a whole variety of  other candidates who want to have the blessing of Trump or not the blessing of trump and want to run so pompeo would be in that category along with Nikki Haley would be in that category of people who are on the outs with Trump because they they misunderstood January 6th and they blame Trump for January 6 when it was really Nancy Pelosi who should be blamed for January 6. 

The insurrection was not an insurrection it was the demonstration but but the the chaos that did result was due to the FBI working with the Capitol Police working with Nancy Pelosi to create chaos and then blame President Trump.

(Continues in video)

 

Question: If people wanted to follow more of your writings or thinking, where would they find you? 

 

Abramowitz: I have two websites two public service websites: https://SaveTheWest.com which gives a full understanding of national security challenges and Citizens for National Security which gives a military-focused analysis of our challenges. Both of them will are designed to educate the public about issues. They're really educational organizations to help Americans learn what they're not going to learn on biased television news shows.