Republicans seek Trump presidency votes
in Israel
Send a link to a friend
[August 16, 2016]
By Ori Lewis
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli branch of
the U.S. Republican party began a campaign on Monday to get American
voters living in Israel to cast absentee ballots in favor of Donald
Trump.
According to the Israeli chapter of the Republican party, around 300,000
Americans are eligible to vote in the November presidential elections.
They live in Israel or in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East
Jerusalem.
Marc Zell, the head of Republicans Overseas Israel branch, said the
campaign aimed to rekindle interest in U.S. politics among second- and
third-generation citizens, many of whom have children who will be
eligible to vote for the first time.
"We want to try to attract new voters who perhaps in the past had no
special interest in voting in the U.S. elections," Zell told Reuters.
Tzvika Brot, who is heading the campaign, estimated that about
three-quarters of American-Israelis would support the Republican party.
A Democratic party representative in Israel disputed that estimate,
telling Israel Radio the majority of Israeli and U.S. Jewish voters had
always preferred the Democrats.
A poll of Jewish Israelis conducted in May found 40 percent of
respondents backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and 31 percent
supported Trump. The poll didn't specify whether those who responded
were eligible to vote in the U.S. election.
The pro-Trump drive opened at a shopping mall in the central Israeli
town of Modiin and will focus on areas with high concentrations of
American-Israelis. Brot said he hoped the new votes being sought might
help tip the balance in swing states.
Trump, who has accused the administration of President Barack Obama of
lacklustre support for Israel, won his party's nomination for the
presidency last month. He has rejected last year's nuclear deal with
Iran and called for more investment in missile defense in Europe.
[to top of second column] |

A member of the U.S. Republican party's election campaign team in
Israel wears a badge of Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald
Trump during a campaign aimed at potential American voters living in
Israel, near a mall in Modi'in, Israel August 15, 2016. REUTERS/Baz
Ratner

His views, including a vow to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico
border and a proposal to impose a temporary ban on Muslims seeking
to enter the country, have polarized the Republican party and caused
widespread consternation.
Trump has also been criticized for his lack of foreign policy
knowledge. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said last
month he would put at risk U.S. and world security with his
"politics of fear and isolation".
(Writing by Ori Lewis,; editing by Luke Baker)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |