JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Political tidbits: Jones for NSA, Rahm more of a dove?

By Eric Fingerhut · November 21, 2008

• Retired Marine Gen. James Jones is the leading candidate to be Barack Obama's national security adviser, reports ABC News and others.
• Former AIPACer Steve Rosen, still awaiting trial, doesn't appear to be a fan of Jones, calling him harshly critical of Israel and noting this article in Haaretz about a report he wrote taking Israel to task.
• Obama has been getting advice from Bush I national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, whose realist foreign policy views make him unpopular in some pro-Israel circles.
• Will a possibly more conservative Republican Party be able to attract Jews? The Jerusalem Post's Hilary Leila Krieger talks to some political scientists about that.
• Rahm Emanuel is more "dovish" on the Israeli-Palestinian issue than he has been portrayed, writes Nathan Guttman in the Forward.
• A Mormon American Jewish Congress official who publicly backed Proposition 8 in California (the gay marriage ban) is getting heat from California Jews, reports the Forward.
• The Jewish Council for Public Affairs congratulates Obama and looks forward to working with the president-elect to build a "nation where all people and communities are respected and strengthened."
• It's down to 136 votes between Al Franken and Norm Coleman in Minnesota, with almost half the ballots recounted.