Israel defends Trump

JERUSALEM — With President Donald Trump getting a cool welcome from the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, Israel’s envoy to the memorial ceremonies for the synagogue shooting victims has come to his defence, saying it was “unfair and wrong” to link him to the tragedy.

Trump was greeted by hundreds of chanting protesters Tuesday, many accusing the president’s fiery rhetoric for contributing to the climate of violence and emboldening extremists to act.

Pennsylvania’s governor and the mayor of Pittsburgh declined to join Trump during the visit, and one of the families of the 11 victims of the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history asked not to meet him.

Adding to the anger was the shooting suspect’s apparent targeting of a synagogue because of his outrage over a Jewish refugee agency that has become a target of conspiracy theories among Trump’s nationalist base.

However, Naftali Bennett, the Israeli minister for diaspora affairs, took issue with those he said were “using this horrific anti-Semitic act to attack President Trump.”

“This is unfair and wrong,” said Bennett, who rushed to Pittsburgh after the shootings to offer Israel’s support to the city’s Jewish community. “President Trump is a true friend of the state of Israel and to the Jewish people. With President Trump, we never have to worry if he has our backs.”

Israel’s envoys to the United States and the United Nations have also tried to distance Trump from the attack.

Their defence of the president has added another element to the growing divide between Israel’s leadership, which hails Trump for his staunch political backing and tough stance against nemesis Iran, and the more liberal American Jewish community, whose members are among Trump’s toughest domestic critics.

Trump visited the Tree of Life synagogue and lit candles for the victims before visiting survivors in the hospital.