Las Vegas – The outspoken governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, apologized to casino magnate and major political donor Sheldon Adelson over the weekend for using the term “occupied territories” during a speech to Jewish Republicans, the US news site Politico reported on Sunday.
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The controversy erupted when Christie recalled a 2012 trip to Israel in remarks before the assembled crowd at the Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas on Saturday.
“I took a helicopter ride from the occupied territories across and just felt personally how extraordinary that was to understand, the military risk that Israel faces every day,” the Republican governor, who is believed to be eyeing a run to the White House in 2016, was quoted as saying by Politico.
Christie’s use of the term “occupied territories” raised eyebrows among the assembled donors, prompting Zionist Organization of America chief Morton Klein, an Adelson ally, to confront the governor, according to Politico.
Klein implored Christie that “at a minimum you should call it disputed territories.”
After the event, Christie met privately with Adelson and offered an explanation and apology, which were accepted.
The New Jersey governor “clarified in the strongest terms possible that his remarks today were not meant to be a statement of policy,” a source told Politico.
Adelson, a confidante of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the owner of the popular freebie newspaper Israel Hayom, is one of the most powerful figures in American politics by virtue of the massive donations he doles out to Republican candidates. His hawkish positions on Middle East issues, and Israel in particular, have been articulated in the past.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
That is the least of the Christies problems.
Apology not required. Gov. Christie can not be expected to go beyond the official policy of the Zionist government that these are indeed “Occupied Territories”.
Sheldon is the egg shell that all of the republicans walk on to see the future without durable consumption of higher living. Sheldon today, mix up tomorrow.
He has his hands full. If he continues to the GOP primaries he will have coaches telling him what vocabulary to use and what words to avoid.
They are occupied territories. They were conquered in the 1967 war, and not annexed. That makes Judea, Samaria, and Gaza occupied territories, whether Smelly Shelly Adelson likes it or not.
Christie was an idiot to apologize to this rectal orifice. Better he apologize to the people of New Jersey for vindictively and illegally causing a 4-day traffic jam on the GW Bridge.
Why, Gov. Christie, are you apologizing to Adelman? Your apology should have gone to Israel and Israelis. Unless your entire apology was just a way to get Adelman to cough up funds for your war chest.
The man keeps self-destructing
Christie is not presidential material. That is clear now to even the biggest supporter of his. Let him run, and you’ll see how fast the democrats beat him easily.