Bloomberg latest twist for Jewish voters in 2016

The U.S. presidential race has been high on twists, but the topsy-turvy journey might just be getting started. As voters prepared to cast their first ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire, former New York mayor and Jewish billionaire Michael Bloomberg, whose net worth dwarfs that of Trump, is reportedly considering an independent run for president.

“[Bloomberg] would make an exceptional candidate for a variety of reasons, in particular for the Jewish community. He has always shown himself to be a big supporter of Israel in different ways, such as donating his personal money in various charities,” said Stan Steinreich, president and CEO of Steinreich Communications, a New Jersey-based public relations firm that also has an office in Israel.

During the 2014 Gaza war, Bloomberg made waves for boarding an El Al flight to Tel Aviv in defiance of a Federal Aviation Administration ban on flights to Israel. The ban came after a Hamas rocket fell near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

“This evening, I will be flying on El Al to Tel Aviv to demonstrate that it is safe to fly in and out of Israel,”Bloomberg said at the time. “The flight restrictions are a mistake that hands Hamas an undeserved victory and should be lifted immediately.”

Bloomberg has donated significantly to the Israeli emergency response organization Magen David Adom, whose Jerusalem station is dedicated to his father, William H. Bloomberg. In 2014, Bloomberg was the inaugural recipient of Israel’s Genesis Prize, an award to individuals who can inspire the next generation of Jews worldwide. 

Bloomberg considered running for president it the past, but concluded that running as a third-party candidate would be too difficult. Yet, according to the New York Times, Bloomberg has been “galled” by Trump’s dominance in the Republican field as well as “troubled” by Hillary Clinton’s stumbles and Bernie Sanders’s rise on the Democratic side, leading him to consider a bid for president as an independent this year.