California Shooting: ‘We are at a time of war’ – Republican Ted Cruz

Donald Trump drew a few rare boos toward the end of his appearance at Thursday’s Republican Jewish Coalition candidate forum, after refusing to say that Jerusalem should be the undivided and recognized capital of Israel.

“I have a real question as to whether or not both sides want to make it”, Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. GOP presidential candidates and members of Congress have rallied around Netanyahu this year as he unsuccessfully fought the U.S.-led nuclear deal with Iran, a country viewed by Israel as an existential threat. But I’m sure they were on the minds of Rubio and Cruz in particular: According to a report yesterday from Yahoo’s Michael Isikoff, Sheldon’s leaning toward an endorsement of the Floridian while Miriam’s enchanted with the Texan. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, married a Jew and converted, and the billionaire’s grandchildren are Jewish.

On the eve of the gathering, Trump declared himself a “big, big fan” of Israel in the interview with AP, and said chances for a lasting peace depend on the Jewish state.

“In this case he is speaking to a group of Jewish Republicans, a significant portion of whom are business people”.

He said the best way to deal with such plots were to disrupt them. “This room negotiates them”. “Probably more than any room I’ve ever spoken in”.

The comments were largely met with laughter and smirks, and RJC spokesman Mark McNulty downplayed suggestions that Trump’s comments pointed to Jewish stereotypes.

“We have to be engaged in this in a meaningful way”, Bush said, “and our friends need to know we have their back”.

“You don’t like to, as a dealmaker, give away a lot of cards by talking about how I feel about this or that”, he said.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson read what felt like a term paper on Middle Eastern politics. Sen. Miranda said he was sick of hearing “the obligatory, ‘move the embassy to Israel, ‘” and emphasized that he’s not just a single-issue voter.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz repeatedly compared Obama to Jimmy Carter and himself to Ronald Reagan in arguing “the next election will be an election like 1980 that we will win by painting in bold colors and not pale pastels”. He was a study in discipline and offered the audience no spontaneity. “They need strength, they need real power behind that”, Trump said. So the Trump strategy is still working for him.

Jeb Bush is struggling in the GOP race, but he and his family are still held in high esteem among many GOP elites.

Trump backtracked on comments that he made Wednesday in which he suggested that Israelis could sacrifice more than they had already for the sake of peace. “I’ve got a damn good brother”.

Cruz, speaking first in the day, warned against U.S.-spurred regime change and spoke out against the Obama administration seeking to remove Assad. Isikoff reports that Miriam Adelson, a physician, has gravitated recently toward Ted Cruz, mostly because of the Texas senator’s hawkish national security stance and unwavering support for Israel. Cruz and Rubio will have to live up to expectations. “I am convinced that was a terrorist attack”. And he got the crowd especially exercised when he attacked Secretary of State John Kerry for his suggestion that Israel risked becoming an “apartheid” state. Lindsey Graham, who departed from his prepared remarks to blast Cruz, along with Sen. But his low standing has freed him to do the unexpected.

Carson was mocked in The New York Times for his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, notably a continued inability to pronounce the radical group Hamas: It came out sounding like hummus.