Ron Kampeas is the former Washington bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Ron Kampeas
By Ron Kampeas
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News How Barack Obama Won Over Jewish Voters — While Irking Pro-Israel Establishment
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Fraught record on issues of race and anti-Semitism? Check. Much-hyped meeting to get Benjamin Netanyahu’s hechsher? Check. Stirring speech at AIPAC to quiet the naysayers? Check. Jewish validators galore? Check. Administration top-loaded with Jewish staffers? Check. Welcome to Inauguration Day 2009. President-elect Barack Obama walked into the White House eight years ago…
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Fast Forward Obama Trumpets ‘Steadfast’ Defense of Israel on Iran Deal Anniversary
WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama said his administration had remained “steadfast” in countering Iranian threats to Israel in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal. Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, in their final week in office, marked the anniversary Monday of the implementation of the deal reached between Iran and six…
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Fast Forward James Mattis, Trump’s Pick as Defense Secretary, Calls Tel Aviv Capital of Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of defense said at confirmation hearings that Tel Aviv is Israel’s capital — apparently at odds with the president-elect, who has said he intends to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. “The capital of Israel that I go to, sir, is Tel Aviv, sir, because that’s where…
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Fast Forward Ivanka Trump Takes Leave of Absence To Settle Family in Washington
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ivanka Trump said she will take a leave of absence from the Trump Organization and her branding business to settle her family into Washington as her father assumes the presidency and her husband takes on a senior White House role. “When my father takes office as the 45th President of the United…
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News Barack Obama’s Emotional Farewell to Americans — and Israelis
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Barack Obama got his kishkes back. The president, whose alleged aloofness was the signature flaw cited by his rivals, his critics and at times his friends, ended his presidency with an impassioned appeal for the preservation of democracy — his lower lip trembling, a tear streaking his cheek. For sure, Obama could be…
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Fast Forward DC Rabbis Urge Trump To ‘Reframe Your Agenda’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Dozens of Washington-area rabbis urged President-elect Donald Trump to “reconsider” his campaign’s rhetoric and extend his agenda to all Americans. The full-page ad appearing in Tuesday’s Express, a subway giveaway newspaper published by the Washington Post, welcomes the incoming administration “to our great city.” “We expect that, first and foremost, your victory…
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Fast Forward Evangelicals Fly to DC to Push Israel Agenda Ahead of Trump Inauguration
(JTA) — Leaders of the country’s largest evangelical pro-Israel lobby are flying in to Washington, D.C., to back bills that slam the recent U.N. anti-settlements resolution and force the president to move the Israeli Embassy to Jerusalem. Some 260 members of Christians United for Israel are coming from 49 states to push the measures Wednesday…
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Fast Forward Obama: ‘No Basis’ to Accusations US Orchestrated UN Vote
(JTA) — Accusations that the United States orchestrated last month’s U.N. Security Council anti-settlements resolution have no basis in fact, President Barack Obama said. In one of his final interviews as president, Obama spoke to Ilana Dayan, the reporter for Israel’s Channel 2, who has interviewed him in the past. The interview is to be broadcast…
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