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Trump Chastises Jewish Democrats
President Trump continues to amaze me each time he alienates another group of Americans. And this time he’s correct: Jews who are Democrats clearly are misguided and foolish regarding their attitudes toward Judaism, the Democrat party, America and Israel. Here’s Trump’s brief remark:
I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat — it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.
In response, several Jewish groups denounced the comment:
‘It’s unclear who @POTUS is claiming Jews would be ‘disloyal’ to, but charges of disloyalty have long been used to attack Jews. As we’ve said before, it’s possible to engage in the democratic process without these claims. It’s long overdue to stop using Jews as a political football,’ Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted later Tuesday.
J Street, which frequently engages in anti-Israel attacks, said this about Trump’s statement:
It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal.’
And Halie Sofer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, accused Trump of anti-Semitism:
If this is about Israel, then Trump is repeating a dual loyalty claim, which is a form of anti-Semitism. If this is about Jews being ‘loyal’ to him, then Trump needs a reality check. We live in a democracy, and Jewish support for the Republican Party has been halved in the past four years.
(I have no idea if the last sentence in her comment is accurate.)
Since Trump has not clarified the reasons for his comments, I’m going to offer my own interpretations.
Jews have supported liberal movements for a very long time. As the perpetual underdog community, it has shown empathy for those who suffer. In the 20th and 21st centuries, however, the have shown themselves not worthy of defending; the Palestinians, Hamas, and Hezbollah in particular, have proven to be vicious and destructive. Their goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, a reality that many Progressive Jews prefer to ignore. (I’d suggest that this fact is one reason that Trump states that Jewish Democrats lack knowledge.)
Jewish Democrats also seem to have no problem living with cognitive dissonance. Even though Rashid Tlaib and Ilhan Omar made blatant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks, the Jewish Democrats refused to condemn them. Yet these same Jews are delighted to berate President Trump, in spite of his daughter and son-in-law being Jewish, his supporting Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, his encouraging the withdrawal of UN funds that supported the Palestinians, and acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
By the way, I believe when Trump described Democrat Jews as disloyal, he was speaking of their disloyalty to this country due to their support of a party that is constantly condemning America and refuses to pass legislation in the country’s interest. I also think he feels they are disloyal to the Jews in Israel who are fighting for their very existence, and disloyal to other Jews in this country who are Republicans, a party whose values are much closer to Jewish values than the Democrats could ever be. There might have been a time when a Jew could try to justify being a Democrat before the domination of the Progressives, but those times are long past.
I like what the Republican Jewish Coalition tweeted:
President Trump is right; it shows a great deal of disloyalty to oneself to defend a party that protects/emboldens people that hate you for your religion.
Indeed.
Published in Politics
Similar in my mind to Christians who are Democrats. They are either ignorant of their own faith, cognitively dissonant (if that’s the right way to say it) of their own party, or some combination of the two. I asked a friend who calls himself a pro-life Democrat: “I just want to ensure that a young woman is never in a situation where she feels compelled to get an abortion.” No mention of the fact that the poorest regions in our country (places like where Gosnell worked his grisly practice) are all run by Democrats.
I like to think he risks alienating a group of Americans by trying to open their eyes to what’s going on. Sure, some Jewish Democrats will be ticked off, but maybe, just maybe – others will take a hard look at themselves and their political positions, then find out they’ve been wrong all these years . . .
Now who is engaging in cognitive dissonance? ;-)
That will be a tough nut to crack. But I’m with you. I won’t give up hope, @stad!
I like to think I’m delusional to the point of unbridled optimism . . .
I think it might be helpful to give the context for Trump’s remark in a brief meeting with the some of the press in the Oval Office–it was somewhat off-the-cuff:
Some stuff I read this morning:
Susan,
Trump is truly a strange political phenomenon. He seems like the bull in the political china shop. However, a long time ago when Jimmy Carter was first elected I coined a phrase. I referred to Carter as a butterfly in an iron foundry. Jimmy developed the persona of modern political virtue signaling to high art. He was also a disastrous President, economically, socially, and geopolitically.
For too long American politics has been dominated by the butterflies in the iron foundry. Of course, Trump isn’t just a bull in a china shop as the left and never-Trump would have it. There is a great deal of method to Trump’s madness and his batting average proves how effective he is. Perhaps this statement has been waiting to be said for decades. Trump has said it. I, of course, have been trying to say this to my own American Jewish community for a very long time. No matter how many feathers have been ruffled I think it is a very healthy thing both for America and American Jews.
I’m not the least dissatisfied with the President’s statement.
Regards,
Jim
Indeed. The President says the stuff that everyone knows but won’t say out loud. Then, when the silence has been broken, it forces the issue on the national consciousness. The left is famous for saying that we need more “conversations” about all their favorite issues. (By which they mean, they lecture you and you shut up and listen.) But the President is forcing conversations about things the left would rather not talk about.
We’ve seen this tactic over and over again in the last three years. The President’s words — seemingly ill-chosen — force the press to address something they would rather keep hidden. In the process, everyone has to face this ugly truth: the Democratic Party is inherently anti-Semitic.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-morning-briefing-trump-triggers-the-israel-haters/
Send those disloyal Jews back! Another great 4D chess Trump move. Either that, or he needs to stick to reading his cue cards, before he alienates yet another group.
Jews largely run the Dem Party. I think they don’t need Trump’s advice on how to deal with his 2 favorite loser congresspeople, Omar and Talib. They are 2 votes. Thats all.
Leftists are Leftist first and everything else later. Including Jewish.
“Jews largely run the Dem Party”? Do you really want to go there? Do I detect that anti-Semitic trope of the Jews secretly controlling our politics?
A Trumper asking me if I want to go somewhere? We need “conversations”, man. You just said it.
Anyway, I suspect Netanyahu being the leader of Israel for so long alienates Jewish Dems from Israel much more than Muslim Dems. If anything, Trump and Bibbi should be concerned that they are alienating an entire political party…..rather than Trump using it as another of his lame 4D chess political polarization strategies..
The terrible two have been acting like jerks and got treated like jerks.
Let’s have that conversation. What else do you think the Jews control?
I think the question on the table is the existence of Israel, therefore “loyalty” is to idea of the existence of Israel rather than to some other interest of Israel. I interpret “lack of knowledge” as referring to BDS goal.
Yes! My thoughts exactly.
Yes and 90% of House Dems voted for the anti BDS resolution last month. This was phenomenally stupid move by Trump which will gain him no votes. Between this and his idiotic cancelling of the visit to Denmark he’s sending message he may be going bonkers.
Susan, thanks for putting this together. I have several comments.
(1) On the ADL CEO statement: This past weekend, on another post, I stated my skepticism of relying on the ADL as a source for the identification of white supremacists and similar groups. This statement confirms my suspicion. Regrettably, I think that the ADL is now a radical far-Left organization, which cannot be trusted.
(2) On the J Street statement: This statement actually demonstrates the lack of intelligence that J Street claims (falsely) that the President referenced. Whoever made the statement apparently does not understand the difference between “and” and “or.” The President essentially said that Jewish support for Democrats shows either disloyalty or ignorance (lack of knowledge). There was no accusation of a lack of intelligence. (In fairness, I don’t think that the person making the J Street statement is actually unintelligent. I think it more likely that the person is a malicious liar, deliberately misrepresenting the President’s statement.)
(3) On the Jewish Democratic Council statement: This does appear to be a problem with the accusation of anti-Semitism. So it’s anti-Semitic to oppose Israel, but it’s also anti-Semitic to assume that a Jew would support Israel. Do I have that right?
These are excellent, @drewinwisconsin. Exactly my points!
They aren’t inherently anti-Semitic.
Yet.
The day is coming, however. The Jew-haters are in ascendancy. The time to put them in their proper place — outside of the acceptable — is already past. Either crush these bugs or prepare to deal with more and more of their nonsense going forward.
I completely agree, Jim. Thanks the butterfly analogy!
So well said, Drew. I bolded my favorite lines. Be careful what you ask for, those on the Left!
H.m.m.m… interesting comment. Really?
They did vote that way, @gumbymark. How do you square that with their reluctance to criticize Tlaib and Omar? You’re also right, I believe, that it will get him no votes. But he didn’t do it to get votes. Sometimes people just need to be called out, don’t you think?
Very good point, @percival. We actually don’t know, however, the number who are anti-Semitic and aren’t speaking up. But soon, they will feel they have permission to do so. Sigh.
I dunno. I feel like I’ve been seeing anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party my whole life. I recall having these same discussions back in college 35-40 years ago: why would Jews ever vote for a political party that clearly hates them? So I’m pretty comfortable calling it an inherent quality. It has been as long as I’ve been politically aware.
Agreed.
Forty seconds.
So true. I often wonder why any black would be a member of the Party of Slavery (Democrat), much less vote for its candidates, even when one of its senior Senators was a Klansman and continued to use the dreaded n-word . . .