Israel's 'Most Beautiful' Lawmakers
By Nathan Burstein
Israel is in constant political gridlock, but at least the country’s lawmakers are good-looking.
So say readers of Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos. They ranked four Israeli politicians among the world’s 54 most beautiful in an online poll published this week. Current Knesset members Orli Levy, Ruhama Avraham Balila and Anastassia Michaeli were joined by former Knesset member Penina Rosenblum on the list, with Levy ranking highest at 14th overall.
Just one country, Spain, placed more politicians on the list, with Israel matching the United States and Mexico with its four. The rankings were restricted to female politicians, and also included former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko (#8), former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (#24) and former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal (#36). Peruvian congresswoman Luciana Leon topped the list, while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earned the distinction of being its oldest member, coming in 34th at age 61.
Of Israel’s representatives on the list, three are former models, with only Avraham Balila not drawing upon her looks as a previous source of income.
The four Israelis represent a limited range of the political spectrum: Levy and Michaeli hail from the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu, while Avraham Balila and Rosenblum first served in the Knesset as members of Likud. Avraham Balila, the outgoing tourism minister, is now a member of the centrist Kadima party.
Twenty-one of the 120 members of the incoming Knesset are women.
Obama Plays the Purim Card
By Daniel Treiman
A week ago, Media Bistro’s TVNewser blog reported that the Clinton campaign may have objected to the possible scheduling of a debate on the first night of Passover (although the blog was tentative on this point, suggested other possible motives and issued an update that the holiday’s first night was only one of the nights under consideration).
Meanwhile, Barack Obama is casting his lot with Purim (which, as the JTA notes, is “a holiday that has rarely if ever been commemorated by any other candidate or Congress member.”)
Yesterday, Obama issued the following statement:
Sly's for Sderot
By Daniel Treiman
The stars came out to support for Sderot this week. The L.A. Jewish Journal’s Dikla Kadosh was at the “Live For Sderot” concert/fundraiser at the Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills. Also in attendance, she reported, were Sylvester Stallone, Mayim Bialik, Maria Conchita Alonzo, Valerie Harper and Hollywood’s No. 1 Judeophile, Jon Voight.
(Ha’aretz has video from interviews with Stallone and other participants here.)
But politics were also a part of the mix. Kadosh reports:
Obama, Farrakhan, Russert and Us
By Daniel Treiman
I confess, as a Jew, I was left squirming in my seat as I watched Tim Russert grill Barack Obama last night about what one TV commentator later casually referred to as “the Jewish issue.” How did Jews wind up being a campaign “issue”?
In part, it’s Russert’s fault. The “Meet the Press” host and debate moderator tossed out the issue of antisemitism before a national audience — and he did so clumsily. His line of questioning conflated a number of issues, mixing together Louis Farrakhan’s antisemitism, Obama’s pastor’s own kooky views and Jewish anxieties about Israel.
At one point, Russert correctly noted that Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has said that Farrakhan “epitomizes greatness” and has traveled to Libya with the Nation of Islam leader to meet Colonel Muammar Qaddafi. Then Russert proceeded to fire off the following muddled mess of a question: “What do you do to assure Jewish Americans that, whether it’s Farrakhan support or the activities of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, your pastor, you are consistent with issues regarding Israel and not in any way suggesting that Farrakhan ‘epitomizes greatness.’”
February 27, 2008, 3:37pm
JPod Says Kaddish for Hillary
By Daniel Treiman
Commentary editor-in-waiting John Podhoretz did some lively live-blogging of last night’s Democratic debate. His theme: The debate marked Hillary Clinton’s political funeral. And so Podhoretz said Kaddish and played “Taps” for her.
February 22, 2008, 2:06am
Hillary Wins Israel
By Daniel Treiman
Hillary Clinton may be losing primaries and caucuses left and right, but she apparently has a small reservoir of support among Democrats living in Israel.
Democrats Abroad has released the results of its “Global Presidential Primary,” and in Israel, Clinton managed to edge out Obama, with 190 votes to his 159.
Unfortunately for Clinton, Israel was more the exception than the rule. In fact, Obama won 65.6% of the 22,755 votes cast worldwide to Clinton’s 32.7%. Indeed, of the countries with at least a dozen people voting, the only other ones where Clinton triumphed over Obama were the Dominican Republic (where she did get a whopping 90.3% of the vote) and the Philippines.
According to Democrats Abroad:
These results determine the allocation of 4.5 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention. Senator Obama won 2.5 delegate votes, and Senator Clinton 2 delegate votes. A further 2.5 votes will be determined at the Democrats Abroad Global Convention in April. In addition, Democrats Abroad holds 4 superdelegate votes. A total of 22 delegates, each with a half vote, will attend the Convention.
The Democrats Abroad Global Primary was conducted February 5-12, 2008. Balloting took place at voting centers in over 30 countries, by mail and fax, and for the first time, on the Internet through a secure online voting system. Online ballots were cast from 164 countries and territories, from Antarctica to Zambia.
For the full results from the “Global Primary,” download this PDF file.
Hat tip: Politico’s Ben Smith
February 6, 2008, 2:04pm
Clinton, Obama Split Connecticut’s Lieberman Dems
By Daniel Treiman
Plenty of folks are wondering where fans of Joseph Lieberman will end up politically now that the Connecticut senator has crossed the aisle to endorse the presidential bid of his Republican Senate colleague John McCain.
It’s a hard question to answer, but exit polls from the Connecticut’s closed Democratic primary shed a little light.
The 32% of Connecticut Democratic primary-goers who said they had a favorable opinion of Lieberman split almost evenly among Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton received 50% of their votes, while Obama got 47%.
Unsurprisingly, among the 74% of Connecticut Republican primary goers who had a favorable view of Lieberman, McCain was the winner, taking 57% of their vote to 33% for Mitt Romney.
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