Alexander ‘Shabbos’ Kestenbaum — Jewish activist who was given a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention and a front row seat to a Donald Trump speech just last week — is now at the Democratic National Convention touting himself as a “pro-Israel Democrat” seeking to “restore the soul” of what he calls “our party.”
The self-confessed former Bernie Sanders voter criticized the Democrats at the RNC and said he was “proud to support President Trump‘s policies,” adding: “Let’s elect a president who will instill patriotism in our schools once again. Let’s elect a president who will confront terrorism and its supporters once again. Let’s elect a president who recognizes that, although Harvard and the Ivy Leagues have long abandoned the United States of America, the Jewish people never will, because Jewish values are American values, and American values are Jewish values!”
Tellingly, however, he did not explicitly state that this president should be Donald Trump, despite his cheering GOP audience inferring that this was his view. Kestenbaum was even invited by Trump’s campaign team to sit in the front row at an event with the 45th President just last week.
Tonight, I was invited to sit front row as President Trump laid out a new policy: colleges that violate federal law by discriminating against Jewish students will immediately lose their accreditation. This is a bipartisan, common-sense idea that both candidates should endorse pic.twitter.com/LAuRzJ6flP
— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) August 16, 2024
Now, it appears they were hoodwinked, with Kestenbaum posting a picture of himself at the Democratic National Convention wearing an “I’m a pro-Israel Democrat” badge.
“Let me also add that as a visibly Jewish person crying as I was recording this, numerous delegates came up to me after, saying they stand with the Jewish people,” Kestenbaum wrote under the picture, referring to a recording of some DNC attendees chanting “Bring them home” in reference to Jewish-American hostages in Gaza. “I have had serious disillusionments with Dems, but am confident we can one day restore the soul of our party together,” he added.
— Mel (@Villgecrazylady) August 22, 2024
FOREWARNED.
The GOP officials who invited Kestenbaum to speak at the RNC should have known he was using them, as he made his intentions clear prior to his RNC appearance in an interview with Jewish news outlet The Forward.
“I don’t support the Republican Party. There are progressive policy positions that I really believe in, like the Green New Deal, like a $15 minimum wage, like universal health care. These are certainly positions that are contrary to the Republican Party,” he said.
“I don’t support the Republican Party, but if they’re going to provide me a platform and an opportunity to speak about my lived experiences, then of course I will take it,” he added.
At the time, he claimed the Democratic Party “has become ideologically poisoned, and it is this poison, it is this corruption, that is infecting far too many young Americans… Far left antisemitic extremism has no virtue, and the radicalism on our campuses and on our streets has no moral legitimacy.”
Now, Kestenbaum claims: “I have had serious disillusionments with Dems, but am confident we can one day restore the soul of our party together.”
The RNC was organised by the Republican National Committee’s executive branch in Washington, D.C., led by Chris LaCivita and Michael Whatley.
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