Trump American Jews Loathe Him
Steve Bannon, Trump’s Strategic Direct, ex-CEO of Breitbart News, a far-Right Islamaphobic and anti-Semitic site |
In March Politico
Magazine ran a story, Why
Israel Loves Donald Trump. Why
indeed? Well it’s not hard to discover
why. Trump is an anti-Muslim bigot. He hates all things Muslim. He also loves Israel since Israel knows how
to deal with those Muslims and above all he admires Israel’s military strength
and willinness to use it. Gregg Carlstrom described how, a recent poll ‘found
Trump was by far Israel’s favorite GOP candidate, and the second-most popular
overall. A plurality even thought he would be best at “representing Israel’s
interests,” better than Hillary Clinton, with her decades of advocacy at the
highest levels of government.’ Strange
that because Trump has also been a hero to America’s White Supremacists whose
support he has consistently refused to disavow.
‘Netanyahu
hails Donald Trump as a ‘true friend’ of Israel. We read that Israel’s far-Right, in the form
of Education Minister Naftali Bennett for the religious settler party, HaBayit
HaYehudi (Jewish Home) is in ectasy.
Trump’s election is an ‘opportunity’ to scuttle Palestinian statehood’ It is ‘“Trump’s victory is an opportunity for
Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center
of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause,” Bennett said in
a statement.
Hilary Clinton – a creature of Wall Street she had nothing to offer bar the fact that she is a woman – Democratic National Committee rigged the contest against Bernie Sanders |
Party was no less effusive. Herzog
extended ‘warm congratulations to the president of the strongest and most
powerful nation in the world: Donald J. Trump,” in a Facebook post published
shortly after Trump celebrated his victory. ‘
Herzog went on to say that ‘“The American democracy today chose to place
at its forefront an American leader who taught the analysts and doubters that
we are in a new era of change and a replacement of the old ruling elites! You
did the unexpected against all the odds, the polls, and the research, and the
prophets of the old era,” he said. “I am sure that the defense and economic
cooperation with our strongest and most important ally will continue even more
so during your presidency.”
Trump you might savour the full effect of Herzog’s absurd statement. But it is a different matter in the Jewish diaspora
. Trump has just appointed an anti-Semite,
ex-Breitbart CEO Steve
Bannon, to the post of his chief strategist.
How is this possible? Well dear
reader it’s very simple. Despite the
nonsense that Zionists indulge in, accusing their opponents of ‘anti-Semitism’,
in fact the best friends of Zionism have always been anti-Semites – from Edoard
Drumont, the leader of the anti-Dreyfussards to Alfred Rosenberg and Adolf Eichmann. Today it is the far-Right – Pastor John
Hagee, Glen Beck, Marine Le Pen, Nick Griffin – who are the best friends of Israel.
explained this very well in a lecture to the Union of Jewish students, which
was reprinted in the Aliyah Edition of the Jewish Chronicle on 22nd
January 1982: Yehoshua has no time for
the lies of hasbara, the make believe propaganda that most Zionists indulge
in. He says it as it is and the whole
lecture is well worth reading. In it he
said that:
A B Yehoshua’s lecture to Zionist students – he explained to their naive ears that Zionism and anti-Semitism had always been best of friends. |
contrary, the Gentiles have always encouraged Zionism, hoping that it would
help to rid them of the Jews in their midst. Even today, in a perverse way, a
real antisemite must be a Zionist.
contradiction between not liking Jews and wanting to be rid of them and being a
Zionist – in fact it is rather a advantage to be an anti-Semite if you are a Zionist.
are in shock because of the appointment of Steve Bannon, Breitbart is about as nasty a site as you can
get. The overtly Zionist Anti-Defamation League in the United States,
which itself has covered for anti-Semites likes Pastor John Hagee in the past,
has described Breitbart as ‘as “the premier website of the alt-right”
representing “white nationalists and
unabashed anti-Semites and racists.”
Ha’aretz. See also a perceptive article in Mondoweiss Trump
is bad because Israeli Jews will love him and US Jews will see it which
sees the phenomenon of Trump, ardent Zionist and anti-Semite as increasing the
gulf between America’s liberal Jews and Israel’ love of all things right-wing
and fascist.
Jews have transformed virtually overnight from insiders to outsiders; the
appointment of ex-Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, an accused anti-Semite, as chief
strategist, is bound to exacerbate the tensions.
2016.Evan Vucci, AP
these may be the worst of times. That’s the way most American Jews must feel as
they wake up with a massive hangover from the shock election results and the
reality that Donald Trump will soon be President of the United States.
Obama over the Iran nuclear deal and Middle East peace, they’ve never had a
president who was more in tune with their Jewish and liberal essence.
multicultural society, a dream come true for a generation of civil rights
activists. He promoted and embodied the liberal ideals that American Jews are
more attached to than any other religious group in America. And he was more
knowledgeable about American Jewish culture and Yiddishkeit than any previous
president, bar none. Even when they disagreed with him, most American Jews,
with the exception of the vocal minority that hated his guts, viewed Obama as a
mensch.
American Jews reached a pinnacle of social and cultural acceptance. Being
American Jews was hip. It was cool. It was the thing to be. From Jon Stewart to
Jerry Seinfeld, from Joe Lieberman to Bernie Sanders, Jews seemed to be more
entrenched than ever before in the American mainstream.
Priebus and Bannon are the two most senior members of Trump’s staff |
loved and most admired religious group in all of America. Mashiach-zeit, old
timers would say, but with a note of caution, because if Jewish history teaches
anything, it is that all things must pass.
all across the board. Although one must give the president-elect the benefit of
the doubt that he is not an anti-Semite himself, he has frequently promoted
disparaging Jewish stereotypes in his personal statements.
Bannon as chief strategist in the White House is bound to exacerbate Jewish
tensions. He is considered the standard bearer for the racist, anti-immigrant
alt-right movement and has been accused of harboring anti-Semitic sentiments
himself.
supremacist tweets. His campaign has used anti-Semitic symbols that Trump has
failed to disown even when advised of their offensive content. He has distanced
himself from his neo-Nazi supporters only under duress. And under his wings,
America has seen an unprecedented outburst of blunt and naked hatred of Jews,
which has only gotten worse since his election.
other public critics of Trump have been harassed by anti-Semites on social
media, in their mail at home and, in some cases, in close physical contact.
Swastikas have been painted at schools. Jewish students have been threatened,
taunted, told that Adolf Hitler was right all along. Along with Muslims,
Hispanics, and African Americans, they are being targeted as the sworn enemies
of the America First Weltanschauung that Trump is bringing with him to the
White House.
making. In recent years, the American Jewish establishment has willingly
enlisted in the Israeli government’s effort to depict ever-widening circles of
anti-Israeli agitation on the left as anti-Semitism. The fight against BDS and
the efforts to portray it as hatred of Jews in another form has consumed the
time, energy and resources of the American Jewish leadership, with the possible
exception of the Anti-Defamation League.
under the radical right’s surface was virtually ignored, concealed by the
mainstream right-wing’s overwhelming support for Israel. Even mentioning it was
considered to be an anti-Israeli provocation.
Jews. His reluctance to tackle manifestations of racism and white supremacism
among his supporters has energized and empowered it. If he and his advisers
don’t take assertive steps soon, anti-Jewish agitators will feel they have a
license from the White House to do as they please. They will get bolder, grow
stronger, recruit new adherents and increasingly resort to violence: we’ve seen
it before.
down by themselves, there is no denying that Jews have transformed virtually
overnight from insiders to outsiders. Not only did they vote overwhelmingly for
Hillary Clinton, prominent conservative Jews who could have allayed their
concerns are the ones who have distanced themselves from Trump over the course
of the campaign and will play no role in his administration.
their own government in way they’ve never felt before. Most of the values,
goals and policy objectives of the Trump administration, even if they turn out
to be a paler and more palatable version of his campaign rhetoric, are
diametrically opposed to those of most American Jews. They support immigration,
pluralism, multiculturalism, social reform, government intervention, separation
of church and state, gay marriage, abortion rights and on and on. It is easy to
see, in fact, why so many of Trump’s radical supporters would view the Jews as
their mortal enemies.
Trump may ultimately divide Israeli and American Jews. But the reason for that
is not limited, as Rosner asserts, to the yet to be proven assumption that
American Jews will resent their Israeli counterparts for liking Trump because
he is pro-Israel. It is because Trump’s core message, his reactionary,
nativist, chauvinistic, anti-foreigner, anti-immigrant and mainly anti-Muslim
worldview is shared by far too many, though far from all Israelis, and is
embraced by its ruling coalition. And because many Israeli Jews are indifferent
to right-wing anti-Semitism and indeed share right-wing disdain toward the
liberalism of American Jews.
the anti-Semitism on his radical fringe with increasing vigor. Possibly his
policies will be less offensive to American Jews. Perhaps the American Jewish
establishment will produce a leadership capable of meeting these trying times.
Who knows, maybe some American Jews will finally realize they should support
Israeli Jews who share their worldview rather than a government that doesn’t.
liberal American Jews will always have Israel itself. Moderate, liberal Israelis, beleaguered and
on the point of despair, will flock to the airport to welcome them with open
arms. Mashiach-zeit, they will tell themselves, in awe.