By: Fern Sidman
On Sunday evening, October 24th, GOP candidate Jay Townsend challenged incumbent Charles Schumer (D) for the coveted US Senate seat in New York in an hour long televised debate sponsored by the cable channel NY1. The debate was held at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY and was carried on the YNN channel for upstate New York viewers.
Jay Townsend is a seasoned political consultant, small business owner from Hudson Valley and a decidedly pro-Israel candidate. In a July 2010 interview, Townsend told Israel National News, “I don’t believe that Israeli settlements are an obstacle to peace in the Middle East. That is patently ridiculous. I don’t believe that the creation of a Palestinian state will bring peace to this war torn region and I vehemently oppose the creation of a state that would represent an existential threat to Israel’s security. I would certainly support Israel’s right to defend herself against the Iranian nuclear threat because that is in America’s best interest. Over the last six months, Senator Schumer has held press conferences on such inane issues as airline baggage fees, the increase of salt in cheeseburgers, sunscreen and Facebook, but he won’t utter a word of protest regarding the President’s treatment of Israel. His silence on the pressure Israel is facing from this administration and his silence on the Iranian nuclear threat has been deafening. Senators can make noise and they are indeed in a unique position to make such noise and I plan to do just that.”
During the head to head matchup, Townsend repeatedly ripped into the Democratic incumbent who is running for his third term in the Senate, saying Schumer’s record has been a disaster for New York. They took on hot button issues including the stimulus bill, financial regulation of Wall Street and the healthcare reform bill.
“The stimulus bill was a lie and a fraud and a farce upon the American people. Senator Schumer, you sound like the sixth grader who keeps telling his teacher that his dog ate his homework,” Townsend said during the debate. He also charged Schumer with working in tandem with the Obama administration and selling out New York for the “Obama-Pelosi-Schumer agenda.” He said that Schumer was “so blinded by dreams of becoming Senate leader” that he voted for an early version of the healthcare bill that shortchanged New York state by $1 billion so he could “curry favor” with fellow Democrats, “who will then vote for him to become majority leader.”
Townsend also kept hammering away at the “Obamacare” healthcare reform bill that he said would “bankrupt the country.”
According to an October 12th report on the “Israel Matzav” blog, Senator Schumer is campaigning for Joe Sestak, a senatorial candidate from Pennsylvania who, according to the blog, “Took money from Soros Street (which wrote Richard Goldstone’s defense case and escorted him around Capitol Hill) and from CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) which the Democrats’ leader-in-waiting has deemed to have terrorist ties. Sestak may already be a dead duck. But what is Chuck Schumer, the great friend of Israel, doing with this guy? Schumer has had it both ways of late. He’s made heartfelt speeches to AIPAC and grumbled about Obama in the Jewish media, but when it comes to the national Democratic stage, he seems to jettison all those concerns. At some point, Schumer’s pro-Israel supporters may want a more consistent advocate for their cause.”
INN recently met with Jay Townsend who said of his support of Israel, “I look forward to working with those in New York State who also defend Israel’s right to exist and who realize that the security of the United States is dependent on Israel’s security. As an United States senator representing the great people of the state of New York, I consider this to be an issue of paramount importance and if I’m elected, I will make it a top priority while in the Senate.”
According to the latest Marist poll, Schumer leads Townsend by 28 percentage points among likely voters. The Townsend campaign has called on the entire electorate of New York State to come out to the polls on November 2nd to make their voices heard.
There aren’t enough intelligent people in New York State yet to elect Mr. Townsend, which is a crying shame. Those intelligent people who are there certainly deserve better than Mr. Shumer.
At the very least, the Israeli situation needs to be addressed. For starters, it’s beyond me why “peace in the Middle East” – an ephemeral goal if ever there was one – is our responsibility. I spent 30 years watching Arafat come up with one roadblock after the next to explain why he and the Jordanian exiles (who insist on being called Palestinians) wouldn’t participate in any deal to stop the fighting. Townsend’s right; if new settlements are stopped there will be some new reason why peace won’t be at hand. As far as I’m concerned, Israel should feel free to do whatever it wishes to do within the boundaries of its sovereign territory just as everry other country in the world is free to do. Furthermore, every country outside of the Middle Eastern nations should agree to adopt a hands-off policy, and let the Arabs and Jews fight it out once and for all. All we have done is postpone the inevitable – or, in Shumer’s case, do his level best to sabotage it.
This – not Vietnam – is where George Aiken’s solution should have been implemented.