Israeli PM resists calls to criticize Trump
• Israel’s prime minister faced growing calls on Thursday to denounce President Donald Trump’s response to the racially charged violence and anti-Semitic displays in Charlottesville, Va., even at the risk of angering the American leader.
Benjamin Netanyahu has remained largely silent during the unfolding crisis in Virginia. While issuing a terse condemnation of neoNazis and racists, he has said nothing about Trump’s apparent defence of the actions of white supremacists during last weekend’s deadly violence.
The muted response has upset a growing number of Israelis, who believe that Netanyahu has a special role to play on behalf of Jews overseas. Some have warned that it could cause further damage to an already strained relationship with American Jews.
“We must set a clear boundary against anti-Semitism and protect the Jewish people wherever they may be. There are no grey areas when it comes to these issues, and this doesn’t jeopardize our relationship with the U.S. or with any other partners around the world,” Stav Shaffir, an opposition lawmaker, wrote in the liberal daily Haaretz.
She said Netanyahu has lost “any semblance of a moral compass.”
Netanyahu views himself as the leader of global Jewry, and he has rarely been shy about speaking out against anti-Semitism. But he has become more selective in his battles. Last month, for instance, he instructed the Israeli Foreign Ministry to drop its criticism of a Hungarian government campaign against Jewish billionaire George Soros, despite its antiSemitic overtones.
The Hungarian-American billionaire, himself a Holocaust survivor, has supported a number of liberal causes in Israel critical of Netanyahu. At the same time, the Israeli leader has befriended Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, who takes a strong line against Muslim migrants.
Likewise, Netanyahu has so far been willing to overlook Trump’s handling of the Charlottesville crisis.
Trump has acknowledged there were some “very bad people” at Saturday’s rally, where a woman was killed when a car slammed into a crowd of counter-protesters. But he also said there were “very fine people” on both sides.
The president’s equation of extremist hate groups and left-wing demonstrators brought condemnation from across the American political spectrum.
In Israel, most major newspapers condemned Trump’s comments on Wednesday. “Shame,” read the headline in the mass daily Yediot Ahronot. The lone exception: Israel Hayom, a free daily owned by Sheldon Adelson, a supporter of Trump and Netanyahu, buried Trump’s troubles on page 24.