It’s rather kind of the Republican Jewish Coalition to invite Sam Brownback, along with the other Big Four (Giuliani, McCain, Romney and Thompson). The woman introducing him notes that his home state, Kansas, is 0.7 percent Jewish. He tells the crowd, “If any of you would like to move to my state, please do.” He notes that when he was growing up, the Kansas Jewish Republican Committee was one guy named Bernie Goldstein.

He notes that Arlen Specter is from Kansas; he said his family moved from Kansas when his sister became of marriagable age, and they moved away because they didn’t believe in incest. He reminds the crowd that the joke is Specter’s, not his.

I didn’t realize Brownback was the second member of Congress to speak before the Knesset.

Brownback’s social issues riff gets a sympathetic ear from this crowd: “We’ve got to rebuild our family structure. 56 percent of childrenborn in the District of Columbia are born out of wedlock… The best place to raise a child is between a mom and a dad… I don’t say that with any animosity. And the debate of whether it takes a family or a village to raise a child is beside the point, we need as many responsible adults around a child as possible.”

Brownback goes on to an amusing story about having eight families sharing a phone line when he was growing up in rural Kansas; now his family has eight phones in one house.

“America is a faith-based experiment. We shouldn’t drive faith out of the public square. We should be able to say ‘one nation under God’ in our flag salute without worrying about a lawsuit.”

“I was staying at a hotel in Jerusalem, and I was looking out the window at the Old City. I saw the flag of Israel with the star of David. And I thought, God keeps his promises. That flag hadn’t flown for nearly 2,000 years, and it’s back, and it’s back in my time frame. Most people, when they’re dispossed of their land, they don’t come back.”