Jewish & World News

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev criticized Mitt Romney for his characterization of Russia as the United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe," insisting his description of the current U.S.-Russia relationship was based more on "Hollywood" than on reality. "Regarding ideological clichés, every time this or that side uses phrases like 'enemy No. 1,' this always alarms me, this smells of Hollywood and certain times [of the past]," Medvedev said in a press availability at the conclusion of a nuclear security summit in South Korea, according to Reuters. The outgoing Russian leader advised Romney and other presidential contenders to "do at least two things."

While presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is the pick of the Republican Jewish establishment, Rick Santorum enjoys notable support among Orthodox Jews — a phenomenon that could become more visible with the approach of primaries in states that have large Orthodox populations. Romney, the front-runner in the Republican primary race, has raised millions from prominent Republican Jews. Though Santorum has fewer Jewish ties, he has Orthodox fans and is planning to appeal to them in New York and in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum cursed at New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny on Sunday while campaigning in Wisconsin, saying, “Quit distorting my words. It’s bulls---.” Monday morning, the presidential candidate explained that he was just acting the way a Republican should.

Mitt Romney is projected to win the Illinois primary Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press, padding his delegate lead and once again forcing his Republican opponents to find another moment to mount a guerrilla challenge to his campaign. Romney led in every poll in the run-up to today’s vote. A Public Policy Polling survey released Sunday even showed him with a 15-point lead over Rick Santorum. While Santorum campaigned in the state and spent money there, an adviser to his campaign acknowledged before the polls had even closed that the state was likely lost to Romney.

Rick Santorum’s campaign and super PAC have been outspent by a margin of 7 to 1 in the Illinois primary, with forces supporting Mitt Romney shelling out a total of about $3.7 million on the airwaves, according to a GOP media-buying source. Romney’s campaign has spent $1,117,704 million in Illinois while the super PAC Restore Our Future has put in $2.556,353 million. The Santorum campaign spent a comparatively modest $219,961 and the super PAC backing Santorum, the Red White and Blue Fund, put in $312,150.

Billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson has given another "substantial" contribution to an independent group supporting Republican Newt Gingrich, helping the group launch new TV ads in seven states where the former House speaker hopes to resurrect his struggling presidential campaign. The super PAC Winning Our Future received a donation from the Las Vegas billionaire similar to two separate $5 million contributions Adelson and his family donated previously, according to a person familiar with the contribution. The person was not authorized to discuss the donations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

An analysis of 20 debates by ThinkProgress shows that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul did not attack rival Mitt Romney once during those televised face-offs. That’s in comparison to Paul attacking Romney’s rivals — like former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — a total of 39 times during those debates, the report said. ThinkProgress reported that Paul attacked Santorum 22 times and Gingrich 8 times in the debates. He attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain four times each and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann one time while they were in the race.

A group of New York Orthodox Jews have formed a group, “Jews Pick Rick,” supporting presidential candidate Rick Santorum in his quest for the White House, they announced in a statement this morning. “What started as three men in a small room has grown into a larger operation as many Jews have emailed or communicated to us their interest in helping Santorum,” David Shor, the spokesman for the organization, said in the release.

Republican presidential nominee contendor Rick Santorum may be gaining broad support from the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States. “He’s always been tough on the issues of importance,” said a spokesman for Jewspickrick.com, a website organized by members of the Orthodox Jewish community in New York and New Jersey that outlines Santorum’s social issues and foreign policy and attempts to gain further Jewish support.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should not meet with Republican presidential candidates during his upcoming trip to Washington so as not to be perceived as taking sides in the campaign, Nathan Diament, director of public policy for the Orthodox Union (OU), said this week. Netanyahu will be addressing the annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington a week from Monday, the same day Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich is scheduled to address the gathering. A source in the Prime Minister’s Office said that while no final decision had been made on whether Netanyahu would meet the Republican presidential candidates, it was not likely he would meet with one if could not meet with all four – Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul – which was an unlikely occurrence.

Jon Huntsman called for the rise of a third party on Thursday as he argued the remaining GOP presidential candidates lack big ideas. The comments from the former Utah governor, who dropped out of the race in January after a disappointing showing in New Hampshire’s primary, were striking given his support for Mitt Romney, one of the four remaining GOP candidates for president.

Wilshire Boulevard, which collides with many enclaves as it wends through Los Angeles, is the perfect thoroughfare for a presidential aspirant looking to woo niche voters. Newt Gingrich made his pitch Thursday to two distinctly different groups along Wilshire: Asian American business leaders in Koreatown, and Jewish voters who paid to lunch and pose for photos with the former House speaker in an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills.

As good as Rick Santorum's night was Tuesday in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Mitt Romney's was that bad, and worse. In all three states Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, won fewer voters than he did in 2008, signaling that he hasn't been able to hold onto those who turned out to pull the lever for him last time.

Mitt Romney was glitter-bombed on Tuesday after a speech in Denver, the second time in a week that someone has thrown glitter at the candidate. Last week, the glitter-bomber was more successful: Romney joked then that he had glitter in his hair, but said it was confetti to celebrate his victory in the Florida primary.

The second-richest Jew in the world is once again in the spotlight. Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miri have together donated $10 million to Winning Our Future, the political action committee supporting Newt Gingrich's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, and the pundits are asking how one man and his wife can be allowed to sway an election with the weight of their money. Whether this princely sum and the television ads it has bought will be sufficient to sway enough GOP voters away from Mitt Romney and secure Gingrich the nomination is still highly debatable. But the media's reaction to the Adelson gift has not focused only on the role of big money in presidential politics. Just about every report and column written on the subject ascribes Gingrich's positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Adelson's central motive for backing him.

Major Republican donor and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife did not push for a special Saturday evening Nevada Republican caucus for orthodox Jews, a spokesman for Adelson said in a note to reporters Monday evening. “In short, they had no involvement,” spokesman Ron Reese said in his memo. Last week, the Clark County Republican Party approved an evening caucus for Jews and Seventh-day Adventists. Speculation soon swirled that Adelson, a high-profile Jew and strong supporter of Newt Gingrich, was involved in pushing for the special caucus.

Mitt Romney’s supporters have been putting on last-minute events to shore up votes among South Florida ’s small but determined group of Jewish Republicans ahead of Tuesday’s primary. Mr. Romney’s Jewish allies in the Sunshine State are pushing back against efforts by Newt Gingrich’s supporters to court Jewish Republican voters and donors. The Gingrich allies have been touting the former House speaker’s strong support of Israel , according to several Jewish American fund-raisers in Florida who have been approached on Mr. Gingrich’s behalf.

A special non-Sabbath voting session for observant Jews and Seventh Day Adventists in the GOP primaries will be held Saturday evening at an educational center built by Sheldon Adelson, who backs Newt Gingrich, and challengers are upset. The voting is scheduled for the Sabbath, but Adelson, a casino magnate who made billions in Las Vegas and elsewhere, voiced his concern that Jews observing the Sabbath – and who presumably back Gingrich – would not be able to vote. Seventh Day Adventists also observe the Sabbath on Saturday.

At his first rally of the morning, Newt Gingrich rolled out a new attack line: Mitt Romney took kosher food away from elderly Jewish people. "He eliminated serving kosher food for elderly Jewish residents under Medicare," Gingrich said. "I did not know this, it just came out yesterday.  The more we dig in, I understand why George Soros in Europe yesterday said it makes no difference if it's Romney or Obama, we can live with either one."

Newt Gingrich describes the Palestinians as an invented people and seeks covert action against Iran , while Mitt Romney accuses President Barack Obama of throwing Israel under a bus. But the Republican presidential candidates' tough talk on the Middle East in Florida before Tuesday's primary is doing little to sway the state's large Jewish population from its longstanding support for the Democrats.