NEWT AND SHELDON: Newt Gingrich has close ties to both casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Forward notes.
CANTOR VS. BOEHNER: Politico looks at tensions between the speaker of the House and the majority leader.
OBAMA SAYS ASK OSAMA: As Republican candidates at yesterday’s Republican Jewish Coalition accused him at the of “appeasement” toward radical Muslims, President Obama suggests that Osama Bin-Laden would beg to differ.
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MIDEAST HARD LINE: Politico traces the hard line of Republican candidates on the Middle East as articulated at the RJC forum.
CAP VS. POLITICO: The Center for American Progress takes issue with Politico’s report on its orientation toward Israel.
NEWT AND BOLTON: While some suggested that Newt Gingrich’s vow at yesterday’s RJC forum to offer uber-hawk John Bolton the job of secretary of state may have run afoul of federal law, legal scholars suggest the candidate need not worry.
NEWT VS. CHRISTMAS: Politico has a source who says that as House speaker Newt Gingrich apparently had the Capitol Christmas Tree rechristened as a “Holiday Tree.” Apparently, it was Rep. Eric Cantor – the House GOP’s only Jew — who a decade later pushed to get it changed back.
KVELLING OVER OSAWATOMIE: Former labor secretary Robert Reich loved President Obama’s Tuesday speech in Osawatomie, Kan., calling it “the most important economic speech of his presidency.”
SALIVATING OVER NEWT: Historian Michael Kazin salivates over the prospect of an Obama-Gingrich matchup, explaining that it would crystallize the differences between liberal and conservative ideologies — and likely end in the president’s favor.
DEFENDING GUTMAN: The Forward’s J.J. Goldberg argues that the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, shouldn’t be attacked for trying to explain anti-Semitism.
HITTING GUTMAN: Contentions’ Omri Ceren slams Gutman for using the word “understandably” to describe the Palestinians’ decision to pursue “short-term tactical victories” (i.e., their U.N. statehood-recognition push).
HANUKKAH COMES EARLY FOR GILLIBRAND: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is being honored at Yeshiva University’s annual Hanukkah dinner this Sunday at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
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