Trump’s date with Aipac is a dilemma

APPEARING BEFORE the Republican Jewish Committee in December, Donald Trump boasted of his hitherto-unknown diplomatic skills and pledged to bring a swift end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I could bring the two sides together. It would take six months,” the Republican presidential frontrunner declared.

With such a tantalising prospect on offer, it was unsurprising that Aipac decided to invite Mr Trump to address its annual conference next week. But, in so doing, the organisation highlighted the mounting disquiet in the Jewish community as the New York billionaire moves ever closer to becoming the Republican standardbearer in November. Despite days of negative publicity following violence at his rallies and facing a barrage of attack ads, Mr Trump won Florida, Illinois, North Carolina and Missouri in Tuesday’s primaries, stretching his lead in delegates to his party’s convention in July and reducing the GOP race to a three-man brawl.

While recognising Aipac’s responsibility to provide a platform for presidential candidates to outline their views on US-Israeli relations — Hillary Clinton will also be speaking — leaders of the Reform movement have already signalled their deep unease. In a joint statement, the Union for Reform Judaism, headed by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, and the Central Committee of American Rabbis attacked Mr Trump for his “naked appeals to bigotry” and accused him of “sowing seeds of division and hatred in our body politic”. Hinting at protests at the event, they pledged to find “an appropriate and powerful way to make our voices heard”.

Aipac’s dilemma is that, as the Reform movement leaders indicated, many Jews reject the notion that Mr Trump can be regarded as “simply another candidate”. While the “kosher voter” leans heavily towards the Democrats, that feeling crosses the political divide. Earlier this month, the leading conservative commentator Bill Kristol urged fellow Republicans to “save a respectable political party, an admirable political movement, and a great country from a charlatan and a demagogue”.

Mr Trump’s supporters insinuate that it is their candidate’s criticisms of the Iraq war and his

Rabbi Jacobs unwillingness to express the requisite devotion to Israel — as evident in his pledge to be “somewhat neutral” on the issue — which so infuriates many Jewish conservatives. In reality, however, their opposition is driven by a fear of something dark and menacing in the Trump phenomenon. As another conservative, the journalist James Kirchick, argued in the Tablet: “He is the candidate of the mob, and the mob always ends up turning on the Jews.”

Certainly, the crowds at Mr Trump’s rallies and his fans on social media do little to allay such fears. Last weekend it was reported that one Trump supporter gave a Nazi salute and shouted “Go to Auschwitz” at protesters. The Republican frontrunner’s apparent appeal to antisemites is not new. The Republican strategist Rick Wilson noted last autumn that, “on social media, it seems that while not all Donald Trump supporters are antisemites, many of the vocal and vicious antisemites seem to be Donald Trump supporters”.

Not even the promise of peace in the Middle East delivered in less than 200 days is likely to dampen the suspicion that in modern American politics there is something unique — although not in the way he would have you believe — about Mr Trump.