The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
At a donor event last week with Miriam Adelson, the widow of Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump promised to be the best friend Jews have ever had in the White House. The event was entitled “Fighting Antisemitism in America.” This is what Trump said:
“My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House. But in all fairness, I already am.”
And without your vote?
Later the same day, he spoke at the Israeli-American Council National Summit to honor the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. And what did he say there? In addition to attacking Kamala Harris, whose husband is Jewish and led the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism, he set Jews up to be blamed if he doesn’t win. If he were to lose, he said, “the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that.”
This is what antisemitism sounds like.
Blame Jews. Invite your supporters to blame Jews if a man who associates publicly with famous antisemites such as extreme right-wing activist Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West loses the election.
With friends like this, who needs enemies?
I am one of those Jews who Donald Trump repeatedly says “should have their heads examined” if they vote for Kamala Harris.
I vote as an American. And as a Jew. I care deeply about Israel. And that is one reason that I don’t want to give a man who openly associates with antisemites, and promises to give Bibi Netanyahu absolutely anything he wants, the keys to the Oval Office. Indeed, not only does Trump associate with antisemites, but he endorses them, and is endorsed by them.
When former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke endorsed Trump in 2016, Trump told CNN that he knew “nothing about David Duke, I know nothing about white supremacists.” Plainly not, since he thought that there were “good people on both sides” in Charlottesville, when white supremacists attacked those marching against racism and hate.
And what of his support for Mark Robinson, the antisemitic lieutenant governor and candidate for governor of North Carolina who reportedly referred to himself as a “black Nazi” and said he preferred Adolf Hitler to the leadership in Washington at a time when Barack Obama was president? Robinson has been a longtime favorite of Trump’s and, after news of his comments was reported, Trump, unlike other Republican leaders, has yet to denounce him. Why not? Can he also claim to know “nothing” about a black Nazi who prefers Adolf Hitler’s genocide to Obama’s leadership? The silence of the Trump campaign is deafening.
Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka is married to an observant Jew. His grandchildren are being raised as Jews. How can he be so blinded by his own narcissism that he fails to understand that associating with antisemites and then setting up Jews to blame if he loses is not the way to express his friendship for Jewish Americans? Is he so tone-deaf; has he never heard of scapegoating? Doesn’t he know that Jews have long been blamed for things over which we have no control? Can he really be so self-involved that everything is about him?
The answer is plainly yes. It’s all about Trump. I can only hope, for this reason as well as so many others, that he loses not by a little, but by a lot — by more votes than there are Jewish Americans. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 2.4 percent of Americans identify as Jewish: this estimate includes both those who identify as Jewish by religion and those who are Jewish by ancestry but not by religious practice. Hopefully, Trump will lose by more than that.
“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said earlier this year. “They hate everything about Israel.” He has said the same about Kamala Harris.
I don’t hate my religion or hate everything about Israel. What I hate is antisemitism, and those who play into it or try to exploit it for political advantage.
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