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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
They’re too busy running the banking industry to meddle with politics. Hehe . . .
Possibly Trump’s reelection campaign. Of the top 10 Jewish US states…..only 1, maybe 2 qualify as non uber blue. So, his and FOX’s obsession with Talib and Omar in some grand strategic move to win over Florida Jews…seems more like some right wing Jewish obsession.
Bernie Sanders, a leading Democrat, has called Netanyahu a racist. I’m not even sure if Trump mentioned it….amidst his war on Omar and Talib,
There have always been socialists and communist-sympathizers in the Democratic Party lurking beneath the surface. But now they have risen like Lovecraftian fish monsters to terrorize the pro-Israel members of the democratic party.
Gwakkkkk. Let’s join antifa and support the BDS movement.
Wow. I didn’t think you’d actually do it, but you did.
Hey, biggest GOP donor is a Jew from Vegas. Thats some control. And his biggest issue is Israel. So, its worth a conversation about why Trump is really obsessing about 2 idiots in Congress, all to get maybe a few votes in Florida.
https://lobelog.com/gops-biggest-donors-laid-groundwork-for-trump-and-netanyahus-targeting-of-muslim-congresswomen/
Keep going, man.
I don’t know … because Trump has jujutsued the Democratic Party into full-throated support for a brace of anti-Semitic imbeciles? Trump apparently can put Baby in the corner, and it remains to be seen if Baby can ever get out again.
9-5 against. Baby ain’t all that bright.
@romanblichar, you think that Jews are controlling the GOP. Do you also think they are controlling the Dems, too? After all George Soros is one of the biggest Democrat donors. And most Democrats are Jews. I can’t figure out why a population that is primarily Democrat would try to control the Republicans.
Jews that seriously believe in G-d vote Republican. People of Jewish blood tend to vote Democrat. Big difference.
I didn’t say they control the GOP. More they likely have an outsized influence on Trump, due to Sheldon Adelson being the largest GOP donor. Is any other leading Republican jumping on the Omar and Talib lunacy?
You’re right, that nearly every prominent Jew is a Democrat. And they aren’t even really located in politically sensitive states. So, logically when “Jewish issues” get outsized political discussion…..people suspect that donors are pushing it, more than actual voters.
The Dems are inherently anti Semitic? This is crazy train stuff.
By the same reasoning why would any black vote for the GOP when one of its senior senators who ran as a presidential campaign on a segregationist platform changed his affiliation from D to R because he felt more at home with the GOP?
Most Jews are Democrats, not most Democrats are Jews.
And you’re saying it’s the donors pushing it, not other politicians or the people? I could understand that they may want to push an agenda, but I have a hard time imagining Trump being pushed around by donors. Besides, I’m glad to see these “outsized” discussions; they’ve been ignored as relevant issues for a very long time.
Funny how everything that was once considered too crazy to be true is now openly and emphatically real.
@gumbymark, I don’t have a problem with your disagreeing, but I’d be interested in how you’d characterize the Democrats regarding anti-Semitism. Certainly support of Jews and Israel was pretty much bi-partisan for a long time. Do you think that support is about the same now, or do you think it’s changed or changing?
Oops–thanks, @percival, for fixing that.
A number of D Jews in Congress did criticize them.
Also if you are a D voting Jew and support Israel, oppose BDS, support continued aid to Israel and yes D social welfare programs in the US how does that make you a disloyal Jew or a disloyal American or whatever it was Trump was trying to say?
Sometimes I just wish he would shut up and I say that as someone who will vote for him in 2020.
And yes his job is to get re-elected not to set fire to himself and run down the street.
The one thing that may save him is the D’s have to actually run someone against him and they are already on the crazy train. Though if their candidate can manage to sound halfway sober they stand a decent shot at winning.
No, it could be other people in Trump’s circle. But, Adelson came to mind first. Theres almost no other prominent Jewish Republicans that even like Trump.
Outsized discussions are fine, I suppose, for the cheap thrill of it. I mean, you’re probably not going to make any urban liberals hate Trump even more. But as I noted earlier, from Bibbi’s perspective, I’m not sure he wants to make support for Israel a partisan issue. Bernie is already calling him a racist.
Yes, some Dems did criticize them, but when it came to the resolution to condemn their comments, they wouldn’t step up. I think Trump might (and who knows) may have interpreted that as a betrayal to Jews in general–not being willing to condemn their own members who have made anti-Semitic remarks, over and over again.
I also wish at times he would shut up–I try to ignore his comments most of them (try, I say) because they are so obnoxious, and like you, I will vote for him. But I’ve given up on finding a way to stop him. On the plus side, he gets out a lot of information that the MSM tries to ignore. Sigh.
And I don’t take for granted that he will win. Thanks.
I really don’t get why Trump would say something like that. He needs the spotlight and made no interesting point. Tlaib and Omar are anti-Semites who have said things that should have been forcefully condemned by the Democratic party and the mainstream media. They weren’t because the two are in the tank for each other. In a sane world that would/should be a serious problem for Pelosi.
Many conservatives were/are rightfully upset about the Tlaib’s and Omar’s statements, the retweeting of a political cartoon by drawn by the 2nd place winner of a Holocaust denial contest, and the hypocrisy of the media. So what does Trump do? Run his own dual loyalty smear. He just can’t not have the spotlight and he can’t let his enemies start their process of self-immolation. He has to jump in and “help” but he often isn’t very good at this stuff so he messes it up. This is no different than his “go back” statement: the Squad was on the ropes for their misbehavior and calling Pelosi racist and Trump just jumps in with an inappropriate comment and puts all the heat on him.
I don’t get it.
I find that offensive. I’m assuming by “outsized discussions” you mean topics that get a lot of airtime and discussion, more than are warranted. I happen to think it’s a very important discussion; a rise of anti-Semitism is like another canary in the coal mine. There are too many people ignoring the topic of anti-Semitism, and whenever a spotlight is put on the topic, I cheer–not because I get some cheap thrill out of it, but because it makes it harder to ignore it. If people are getting a cheap thrill out of it, it’s the Left and the MSM–not those of us who are Jews or most Republicans I know. Clearly you don’t think it’s an important issue–I wish that it weren’t.
I think we get ourselves into a mess when we try to figure out Trump–which I did daily for two years. I pride myself on understanding people, making sense of what they do (even if I don’t agree with them). But there are some things that can’t be figured out because in a sane world, they wouldn’t be happening. The world is not sane. It’s a bizarre time to be living, and we only make ourselves crazy when we try to figure out some things that can’t be figured out. So if I get hooked by something Trump says (I did roll my eyes at first), I note my reaction and let it go, sometimes over and over again. Sometimes I can see something positive coming out of it. But I rarely try to make sense of it. I fear if I understood what he was doing, it would be an acknowledgement that I’ve fallen into an abyss. I don’t want to go there. This might not work for you, @goldgeller, but it does for me.
Fine, talk about anti-semitism. I’m just saying, the GOP has few experts….and the polarizing president that doesn’t even have a clue why Jews are liberal…..will just end up making the issue even worse (which he already did). And obsessing about the 2 loser Muslim Dems that got elected 6 months ago (despite all the many Jews that are Democrats)….might make the issue worse still.
Progressive Jews won’t like what Trump said but his comments need to be put in context. President Obama largely heeded the wishes of Progressive Jews on Israel: put daylight between Israel and the US, sign a nuclear deal with Iran, continue to support a two-state solution, take a hardline on settlements, try to defeat Bibi, etc.
Obama basically ignored other Jewish viewpoints on Israel because he wouldn’t lose many votes by doing so.
It won’t come as a shock to anyone here that the Progressive Jewish voter’s perspective was, to put it mildly, not great for Israel. Also, many American Jews felt that their perspective was being ignored and disparaged by the Left wing of the Democrat party. All of this in the context of the Democrat party’s drift from the Israel that exists today—a center-right country.
Trump listens to a different Jewish constituency, one which rejects the anti-Zionism of the Progressive Jewish Left. And thank goodness he does. Like Obama, Trump won’t lose many Progressive Jewish votes by ignoring their voices—they were never going to vote for him anyway.
Whether you think that Progressive Jewish Left voters are disloyal to Israel depends in part on whether you think Jews have an obligation to be Zionists. By Zionist I think I mean that they believe that Israel should be a Jewish state which offers political and social equality to all its citizens (without respect to religion), as opposed to a secular, social-democratic state.
Here’s what you can expect from Democrat presidents on Israel going forward: continued military aid; less and less support in the UN, as that body is used to pressure Israel into a two-state solution that is given lip service to by leaders but which is not supported by their voters; condemnation of anti-Semitism on the one hand but silence to “anti-Zionism” that calls Israel a Nazi country and supporters of Israel Nazis and Afrikaners. No support for BDS but no condemnation of it, either; Courting and bank rolling Hamas in Gaza. If you care about Israel how can you support that?
Is Florida a Jewish state now? Silly me. I was thinking of Israel . . .
The Dems have been anti-Semitic from the git-go. Only now are they becoming more open about it. Pelosi would love to put it back in the closet, but it’s too late. In a warped way, Tlaib and Omar have done the US a favor by exposing the ugly truth . . .
It’s a good strategy. I hear you. I’m just worried at the whole “pulling defeat from the jaws of victory” thing. He shouldn’t have said what he said. Handing the media a narrative like this isn’t good either.
I have never understood how a Jew can be a Dem other than by a stubborn tradition that needs changing. For the past three years I’ve attended the Passover Seder at our club at the invitation of a neighbor. Included in the service each time was the Israeli National Anthem which left me wondering how an observing Jew can support a party that is opposed to Israel?