Comments

You have commented 358 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Home Front: Politix

Shabbos Kestenbaum, high-profile campus antisemitism critic, endorses Trump at Republican Jewish Coalition convention

2024-09-07

[IsraelTimes] Plaintiff in Harvard discrimination suit, a former Bernie Sanders supporter, says Democrats won’t do enough to protect Jewish students

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish Harvard alumnus who is suing the school over its response to antisemitism, announced on Thursday that he has broken with the Democratic Party and will be voting for Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
Kestenbaum made the declaration during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual convention, saying that he had become disillusioned with Democratic leaders and their policies during his push for action against campus antisemitism.

"I did not support Trump in 2016, I did not support Trump in 2020. Hell, I did not support Trump six months ago. Nobody’s perfect," said Kestenbaum, a registered Democrat.

"The Democratic party has taken the Jewish vote and Jewish voters for granted for far too long," he said. "I will be supporting, I will be endorsing, I will be voting for President Trump."

Kestenbaum’s party switch isn’t a complete surprise: He addressed the Republican National Convention in July, an experience, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time, that felt "lonely" but that was warmly received by the crowd. In that speech, he talked about his vote in November — but did not specify which candidate he would support.

"Let’s elect a president who will instill patriotism in our schools once again," he said from the convention podium. "Let’s elect a president who will confront terrorism and its supporters once again."

The next month, he attended but did not speak at the Democratic convention, an experience he also portrayed positively on the social network X, where he posted a photo of a button reading, "I’m a pro-Israel Democrat."

He also posted a video of the crowd applauding the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
on October 7. In 2016, he attended the Democratic convention as a supporter of Bernie Sanders

...The ~~only~~ first openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated out of it by Hillary Clinton, then went back to being an Independent socialist, waiting for 2020 to roll around...
"Let me also add that as a visibly Jewish person crying as I was recording this, numerous delegates came up to me after, saying they stand with the Jewish people," he wrote from the Democratic convention on August 21. "I have had serious disillusionments with Dems, but am confident we can one day restore the soul of our party together."

Two weeks later, he was onstage at the RJC confab, speaking alongside two other Democratic voters who have switched their party allegiance. He said Republicans had been more responsive to his efforts in combating antisemitism.

Republican leaders such as House Speaker Mike Johnson and the chairman of the House Boodle Central, Rep. Jason Smith, had actively sought out Kestenbaum and other Jewish students, he said, adding that Democratic party leaders have not done the same.

He also lashed Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
such as Reps. Alexandria Boom Boom Ocasio-Cortez
Dem Congressgirl from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details. She was the inventor of the Green New Deal, though she doesn't talk about it much anymore
and Jamaal Firebug Bowman
Jamaal <q>Firebug</q> Bowman

...sleazy Dem politician and educator, U.S. representative for New York's safe 16th congressional district since 2021. On September 30, 2023, while House Dems were desperately attempting to delay a vote that avoided shutting the government down so they could blame it on the Pubs, Bowman pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, causing the building to be evacuated. Bowman told reporters he thought it was a doorknob or something. Capitol Police released a statement saying they were investigating the fire alarm incident, and maybe a few rubes somewhere expected something to come of it. Republicans introduced a motion to expel Bowman from the House but that evaporated too. Bowman issued a statement saying they were Nazis. Bowman is a member of The Squad, a faction of like-minded subversives...
, members of the hardline left-wing "Squad," for supporting anti-Israel campus protesters, and mentioned other instances in which he felt Democratic officials hadn’t taken campus antisemitism seriously enough. He feels the Democratic Party has also not articulated policies for protecting Jewish students.

"The Trump campaign invited me and other college students to sit, front row, as President Trump not only condemned antisemitism but clearly articulated the policies he would implement to combat it," Kestenbaum said. "The Harris campaign delivered no such promises."

In his speech, Kestenbaum advocated for measures including deporting non-American students "who abuse the foreign visa system," echoing the 2024 Republican platform, which called for "revoking Visas of Foreign Nationals who support terrorism and jihadism."

He also called for withholding federal funding from universities that violate the civil rights of students, including Jews, and for taking a stance against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.

"These common-sense, once bipartisan policies are not a hallmark of the Harris campaign. They are not featured on any campaign platform," Kestenbaum said.

He said that he had initially refrained from condemning Democrats, instead trying to change the party from within. He was disappointed with party leaders’ statements at the Democratic convention about anti-Israel protests and campus policies, but said he will still support his Democratic congressman, pro-Israel stalwart Ritchie Torres, and backs other Democratic policies including minimum wage legislation and pro-environmental measures.

"I wanted to show my party, the Democratic party, that they could and they should support Jewish students, however, elections are binary choices," Kestenbaum said. "For the first time since I started voting, I cannot support the Democratic nominee for president."

He added, "I did not abandon the Democratic party. The Democratic party abandoned me."

Posted by:trailing wife

00:00