To me, when you say centrality of Israel, I think it’s sort of a feeling that you wake up in the morning and the very first thing you look for when you go online or open the newspaper is what happened in Israel overnight. It’s so much on your consciousness that you feel part and parcel of the lifeblood of Israel.
That feeling, that sense of identity, is absolutely key to what being a Zionist is. It’s not something that you check off a list, it’s something that you feel in your gut.
What in the way of practicalities is Zionist Spring doing to make Zionism vibrant again?
I’ll give you two examples. The first, like I said, is to double the number of American Jews who stand up and say they’re Zionists. In the last World Zionist Congress elections four or five years ago, only 80,000 people participated out of almost six million Jews. That’s a drop in the bucket. So the first goal is to raise people’s awareness and get people excited.
The second thing is the World Zionist Congress elections are supposed to be held throughout the world in early 2015. When that happens we want to have an impact on them. All the decisions on budgets, priorities, the future of the Zionist movement happens at the World Zionist Congress. We want to have a big voice there. We’re ready to shake things up.
But this is crucial: We’re not looking to create a new organization. We view ourselves as a big tent that is trying to do things to revitalize Zionism, and we want to act through existing organizations. We already have four partners and we’re talking with a number of other organizations.
You are helping launch Zionist Spring on a strictly volunteer basis out of love for Israel, but if we can turn to your professional life for a moment: What exactly do you do for American presidential candidates like Rick Perry or Newt Gingrich who come to Israel?
Oh, it’s fascinating stuff. They’re coming as part of their campaign usually to identify with supporting Israel, so they do a lot of media work. They do touring, they do events, they meet with the prime minister, they meet with government officials, and all that kind of stuff. We’re the company that deals with all of the above.
Out of all the recent American politicians on whose behalf you’ve worked, who impressed you the most?
Nobody should ever say this in PR, but I will say it because I really mean it: My personal favorite is Mike Huckabee. I love Mike Huckabee. When I was a student activist, I took off a year of college to work in 1972 in the presidential campaign of Senator [Henry] Scoop Jackson, who was just a wonderful non-Jew who loved Israel and loved the Jewish people. And Mike Huckabee has shown me the same characteristics as Scoop Jackson, so I really, really like him.
You weren’t impressed by any of the other candidates?
Listen, they were all impressive. You don’t get to be a presidential aspirant without being smart, savvy, quick on your feet, good with the press, etc. They were all excellent candidates but I just happen to really relate to Mike Huckabee because he’s such a sincere guy. His knowledge about Israel is amazing. And he’s just got it in his heart.