Don swipes at Jewish Dems
Rants if they don’t back GOP ‘they hate their own religion’
Former President Donald Trump has derided Jewish Democrats for not being sufficiently strong supporters of Israel amid the war in Gaza.
The MAGA man told right-wing commentator Sebastian Gorka that Jews who do not back his Republican Party hate themselves and their own faith.
“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” he said late Monday on Gorka’s podcast. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed.”
Trump remarks apparently were triggered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech last week denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and renewing his call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The former president accused Schumer of turning on Netanyahu because the Brooklyn Democrat is afraid of losing the votes of progressive anti-war demonstrators.
“I think it’s votes more than anything else, because he was always pro-Israel,” Trump said. “He’s very anti-Israel now.”
Schumer hit back at Trump in a tweet, calling his attacks “highly partisan and hateful rants.”
The most-senior elected Jewish leader in American history — whose state is home to the largest Jewish population in the U.S. — insisted that his criticism of Netanyahu is designed as tough love for the Jewish state.
“I am working in a bipartisan way to ensure the US-Israeli relationship sustains for generations to come,” Schumer tweeted.
The outburst is not the first time Trump has attacked Jews for being too liberal or not supporting him strongly enough.
“Any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump said in 2022.
American Jews are among the nation’s most liberal voting blocs and regularly deliver 70% or more support for Democrats in presidential elections.
Republicans have sought to use their staunch support for Israel to cut into that edge, with decidedly mixed results.
Antisemitism watchdogs say accusations of disloyalty to their own countries or to Israel have been staples of bigotry against Jews for centuries.
Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League said bipartisan and principled American support for Israel is crucial for maintaining the close alliance between the two nations.
“Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory and patently false,” Greenblatt said.
Congressional leaders Tuesday reached an agreement on a bipartisan deal that will fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year and avert an election year shutdown.
Scant details were immediately released on the deal, which includes controversial funding for the Department of Homeland Security that encompasses border security.
“House and Senate committees have begun drafting bill text to be prepared for release and consideration by the full House and Senate as soon as possible,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed the agreement, saying leaders in both chambers were prepared to “review and consider ASAP.”
The deal includes funding for about half the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. A previous compromise funded the rest of the agencies.
Johnson will need the support of most Democratic lawmakers to pass the bill with a two-thirds vote for fast-track authority because a large chunk of his far right-wing GOP caucus objects to any compromise spending package.
If no deal had been reached, parts of the government would have shuttered starting this coming weekend. There could still be a brief partial shutdown if hardliners succeed in delaying rapid passage.
Negotiators clashed over the measure that provides funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for securing and managing U.S. borders, among other things.
Republicans don’t want to do anything to help President Biden keep a lid on the situation at the border because it could help him in the upcoming presidential election against former President Donald Trump.
The stakes for both sides are high as border security emerges as a central issue in the 2024 campaigns and the flow of migrants crossing the southern border far outpaces the capacity of the U.S. immigration system to deal with it. The end result has been a continued flow of migrants bused to areas such as New York City, which is currently struggling to manage an influx of new arrivals.
Most of the opposition is expected to come from Republicans, who have been critical of the overall spending levels as well as the lack of policy mandates sought by some conservatives, such as restricting abortion access, eliminating diversity and inclusion programs and banning gender-affirming care.