The Republican Party is spending millions of dollars in an intensified advertisement campaign in some US states to lure a small number of Zionist Jewish voters away from President Barack Obama.
Focusing on Florida, Ohio and Nevada, the Republican Jewish Coalition, backed mainly by Zionist casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, has begun funneling $6.5 million in a major publicity campaign, using billboards and television advertisements to reach Jewish voters that may consider Obama as untrustworthy with regards to Israel’s security, The New York Times reports Thursday.
Jewish voters in America, who usually vote for Democratic Party candidates, overwhelmingly cast their ballots for Obama in 2008, reportedly with 78 percent of their vote.
The report says Republican groups hope their advertising campaign would further undermine the deep-seated popularity of Obama among Zionist Jewish voters, which, according to polls, has dropped a bit since 2008, by promoting the message: “First Israel and then the economy.”
In the state of Florida, according to the report, 3.4 percent of registered voters are Jewish. However, they represent as much as eight percent of those that actually vote, said Ira M. Sheskin, the director of the Jewish Demography Project at the University of Miami.
That is why the Republican Jewish Coalition is investing so much money on publicity campaigns in battleground state of Florida, Ohio and Nevada, which are not decisively inclined towards either Democratic or Republican presidential candidates.
The coalition has dispatched hundreds of volunteers this month to South Florida and elsewhere to knock on thousands of doors; stuff mailboxes with brochures that exhort, “We need a president that stands with Israel”; and make 55,000 phone calls, according to the Times report.
Meanwhile, adds the report, Jewish Democrats insist that Republican groups are twisting Obama’s record on the Middle East. In fact, they emphasize, “Obama has showered Israel with large amounts of military aid, put in place sanctions against Iran and met with Mr. Netanyahu nine times since taking office.”
Despite their popularity among Zionist Jewish voters, Democrats stress that they are not taking them for granted.
The Democratic Party has conducted phone banks and hosted house parties for Jewish voters to underline Obama’s contributions to the Israeli regime. The Party’s officials have also organized ‘Rabbis for Obama,’ a group of over 600 rabbis that have endorsed the incumbent US president. Moreover, they have dispatched high-profile Democrats across the country to speak out, including former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.
“We are taking very seriously what millions of dollars’ worth of print and radio ads can do in an election,” said Mik Moore, co-founder of the Jewish Council for Education and Research, a “super PAC” that supports Obama and created the “Great Schlep” campaign aimed at increasing Jewish support for him in 2008.
MFB/JR
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