Party fields Trump as Knesset candidate

US President Donald Trump is busy with his own reelection campaign in America, but a political party in Israel submitted his name as a Knesset candidate in the March 2 election. The Red and White Party, headed by businessman Ami Feinstein, placed Trump eighth on his list of candidates and the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, ninth on the list. Feinstein submitted the list on Wednesday to the head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Neil Hendel. Hendel will disqualify Trump because he is not a citizen of Israel and Schneerson because he is neither a citizen nor alive, which are both qualifications in order to run. Red and White is not expected to cross the electoral threshold. Feinstein said he included Trump and Schneerson as part of an agreement with Rabbi Ephraim Kapara of Rehovot, who believes Schneerson will be the Messiah and that Trump has helped the people of Israel more than anyone else in the last century. Asked about why he wrote them down as candidates if they are not eligible, Feinstein said “I submitted them and whatever the state decides, it will decide.” He said his party stands for “helping the average citizen, for cannabis legalization and for minimum wage for soldiers.” The top immigrant candidates from English-speaking countries with a chance of getting elected are Toronto-born MK Sharren Haskel, who is 30th on the Likud list; Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, who was born in Haifa to immigrants from San Francisco; UTJ's eighth candidate, former MK Yitzhak Pindrus, who was born in Jerusalem to immigrants from Cleveland and Boston; and Blue and White MK and 12th candidate Chili Tropper, who was born in Jerusalem to parents from New York. Likud MK Yoav Kisch, who is 24th on the list, gave up his British citizenship when he was elected in 2015. Blue and White MK Asaf Zamir, who is 19th on the list, renounced his American citizenship when he was first elected in April. It briefly looked like Blue and White would give a realistic slot on Wednesday to former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler's daughter, attorney Michal Cotler-Wunsh. Cotler-Wunsh was born in Jerusalem, served as a lone soldier in the IDF and obtained law degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and McGill University in Montreal, where she has lived much of her life, as she alternated back and forth between Israel and Canada. Three of her four children were born and went to school in Montreal. When Blue and White MK Gadi Yevarkan, who was 33rd on the list that won 33 seats in September, jumped ship to Likud, Blue and White initially decided to give the slot to Cotler-Wunsh, who was the next candidate on the list of Moshe Ya'alon's Telem party, which is part of Blue and White. But Blue and White leaders decided to promote a Russian speaker over an English speaker and gave the slot to the party's Russian campaign spokesman Andrey Kozinov. Cotler-Wunsh, who lives in Ra'anana and contributes to The Jerusalem Post, rose from 46th on the list to 36th, which she said is realistic. “I believe that my placement will indeed prove realistic, and I am excited by the prospect that it will enable me to represent religious and secular, new and old Olim, who's Jewish and democratic values coexist in harmony,” Cotler-Wunsh said. “I am committed to advancing core issues and creating holistic, long term policies surrounding absorption of new immigrants; Israel-Diaspora relations and Israel's standing in the international arena, focusing on the imperative for Israel to 'rise from the docket of the accused' in order to address current and future challenges; and to do so while advancing, upholding and protecting basic human rights of the voiceless, be they the deceased soldiers and civilians held hostage by Hamas, or innocent civilians on both sides of the Gaza border.” Among the Anglos running in new parties is the London-born leader of the Lev Yehudi party and Eli Yosef and New York-born Elana Maryles Sztokman, who is fourth on the list of the new women's party, Kol Hanashim. She made aliyah in 1993 and is vice chair of Democrats Abroad Israel. She would have to leave that post if elected to Knesset.

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