The Anti-Semitism Around Donald Trump

[Behind the Aegis]

President Donald Trump’s visit to Warsaw prior to the G20 summit in Hamburg was a whirlwind affair, tightly scheduled and lasting less than a day. It was so tight, in fact, that he was unable to squeeze in a stop at the monument to the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, sending his daughter Ivanka to lay flowers there instead.

With that decision, Trump became the first U.S. president in nearly 30 years not pay his respects at the monument on his first state visit to Poland. Leaders of the Jewish community there expressed disappointment in his decision to skip it.

Coming just days after the president retweeted a video of himself beating up CNN from an account that turns out to have also trafficked in vicious anti-Semitism (once again), the omission was bound to draw notice and criticism from Jews in Poland as well as the U.S. It was also suspiciously convenient to the political agenda of Poland’s ruling party, Politico’s Annie Karni notes, as the right-wing nationalist Law and Justice party has worked to refocus Poland’s historical memory of the Holocaust on its Polish victims and heroes (of which there were indeed very many), and away from the virtual eradication of the country’s millennium-old Jewish community — much less any Polish complicity in that atrocity, the mere mention of which the ruling party has sought to criminalize.

This is not to suggest that Trump’s travel itineraries reveal anti-Semitic intentions. But it’s part of a pattern of participating in situations and categories of political rhetoric with anti-Jewish undercurrents.

In his Warsaw speech, Trump referred frequently to “the West” and to “our civilization,” going so far as to state grandiosely: “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.” This claim, Peiter Beinart observes at the Atlantic, “only makes sense as a statement of racial and religious paranoia”:

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Too bad most people can't even see the writing on the wall.

[murielm99]

1. I'm more flabbergasted by the day.

I wish the Jewish community had been able to express more than "disappointment." They probably can't get away with anything more strongly worded. We should voice outrage on their behalf.

Yes, references to "the West," and "our civilization" are dog whistles to the people at home. He means white. And Christian.

His daughter is Jewish. How does he reconcile that? What the hell?

[MosheFeingold]

11. Not just his daughter

His son Eric married Lara Yunaska. She is Jewish and raising their children Jewish. (I have no idea if Eric converted, as well.)

But basically all of Trump's grandchildren, except via Donald Jr, are Jewish.

I don't buy the idea that Trump is antisemitic. He's just an idiot.

There is plenty of James-Baker-Pat-Buchanon-antisemitism on the right (and, increasingly, the left -- Linda Sarsour, for example).

No reason to cheapen legitimate claims with weak ones.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[machoneman]

3. He doesn't see his daughter as Jewish.

Not at all. See, he's convinced her transition to the Jewish faith was merely a convenience to allow her to marry her husband. It was a 'deal' just like he taught her. So, who's worse? Him or his conniving offspring? You decide.........

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Anti-semites have always made exceptions for people they're close to

Even some of the Nazi leaders did that.

It's a common trait in haters, I think: All members of group X are subhuman, except for the few I know and like.

[Gothmog]

5. The alt right people are scary

[BigmanPigman]

6. I know of many jews in NYC who voted for him.

They are orthodox and support his views related to our relationship with Israel. They still support him as opposed to Obama and Hillary.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. Very orthodox Jews are politically indistinguishable from evangelicals

That's been the case for some time and seems to be getting even more the case lately.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. So? 12% of Muslims voted for him. That make his hateful Muslim Ban OK?

What is the motivation of those who feel the need to point out the minority being discriminated against being discussed voted for him? This is as offensive as when anyone discusses police violence and someone always seems to feel the need to sputter; "but...but..Black on Black crime".

[Lithos]

9. What I do not get

And apologies to coming to the party late.

What I do not get is why groups such as IsraellyCool are so blind to this and other even less coded (more overt) comments by Trump, his immediate cronies, his "alllies", and his supporters who are mainstreaming their hatred. Their obsession with minor celebrities such as Roger Waters is like complaining about a leaking faucet when a tornado is about to rip the roof right off and level the house.

L-

[Behind the Aegis]

10. I can't really speak to their thought process, but I can guess.

"IsraellyCool" and the like are willing to "overlook" certain slights and overt anti-Semitism in much the same way sites on the left do. The bubbles of both sides in regards to anti-Semitism are particularly disturbing. On our side, there are assholes like JVP who routinely ignore anti-Semitism or make excuses (see the recent articles about the Chicago Dyke March). Perhaps the question really needing to be asked, is why anti-Semitism only seems to appear in left leaning sites is when Jews bring it up and usually from conservative sources because liberal and (especially) progressive sources DON'T report on the issue UNLESS it is coming from the right.

While I certainly see some issues in getting up in arms about one thing over another, I also recognize how many people are willing to ignore anti-Semitism all together unless it suits their political agenda or "social justice" quota.