Anti-Semitism used as a cover for racism by Trump, Scott
President Trump said the voluntary deportation of four Democratic congresswomen would cleanse the country. Yet he and other Republicans seek to defend this racism by claiming that Trump stood up for Israel. What irony.
Jews understand the poison in Trump’s taunt that the women of color – three of them born here – should “go back” to their ancestral homelands. Expulsion of Jews started in Exodus and culminated in the Holocaust.
Not surprisingly, Jewish organizations refused to give Trump cover when he and other Republicans tried to justify his Twitter post by accusing “The Squad” of “antiSemitism.” Sen. Rick Scott typified this loathsome strategy to chum Jewish voters in Florida and elsewhere by labeling Democrats “the anti-Semitic party.”
The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, however, called the comments “flat out racist” and “xenophobic.” The Simon Wiesenthal Center said, “Every American came from somewhere. Time for everyone in #Washington DC to drop the identity politics #racism.” Jewish Action called Trump “a racist and white supremacist.”
Trump, Scott and other cowardly Republicans concocted this lame cover story because the president crossed yet another line on race and condemnation from outside core Trump voters was strong. The president and his defenders, however, don’t understand – or don’t care – that most Jews won’t embrace tactics that other demagogues have used so often against Jews.
Michael J. Koplow is policy director of the Israeli Policy Forum. He wrote this in The Forward, which aims at a JewishAmerican audience:
“American Jews should look at Trump’s tweet and shudder, not only out of embarrassment over the truism that we get the leaders that we deserve, but out of a sense of dread. When politicians turn to nationalism to demean an entire class of people as foreign others who do not belong here and who present an unidentifiable shadowy threat, it should remind us that the primary target of such rhetoric has historically been Jews.”
Duncan Hunter, a Republican congressman from California, faces trial for allegedly looting his campaign fund. Seeking to shift attention, Hunter accused Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib – two of Trump’s targets – and Hunter’s 2020 challenger of anti-Semitism and “family terrorist ties.”
The Marine Corps then ordered Hunter to stop using its emblem and slogan on the Islamophobic mailer. Oh, and the mailer misspelled Israel.
Make no mistake. Trump’s comments were pure racism, rooted in history. His fan base won’t admit it, but Joe Kaeser understands. He’s not a “radical Democrat,” as Trump has labeled members of “The Squad.” He’s the CEO of Germany-based Siemens, the $94 billion conglomerate.
“I find it depressing,” Kaeser said on Twitter, “that the most important political office in the world is turning into the face of racism and exclusion. I have lived in the USA for many years, experiencing freedom, tolerance and openness as never before.”
Sadly, no national candidate since George Wallace in 1968 has appealed so openly to racism. Just as Trump declared, “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” and accused the four women of racism, Wallace – an ardent segregationist – denied that he was a bigot.
“No, sir, I don’t regard myself as a racist,” Wallace told an interviewer, “and I think the biggest racists in the world are those who call other folks racist.”
Trump could have let Omar stew in her own comments. She indulged in antiSemitism by likening support for Israel to “allegiance to a foreign country.” Such support, she said, was “all about the Benjamins, baby.”
As always, though, Trump used a tweet to distract from his failures. It came just after Trump caved on adding a citizenship question to the census and his touted raids on illegal immigrants didn’t happen. He needed to re-stoke white resentment.
For Trump to claim that he was acting on behalf of Jews, though, is beyond laughable. He referred to “many fine people on both sides” of a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jewish leaders told Trump to stay away from Pittsburgh after an anti-Semite killed 11 members of a synagogue.
Trump sent the tweet – and has continued the attack – because he wants to portray “The Squad” as the face of the Democratic Party. It has nothing to do with protecting against anti-Semitism. It has everything to do with promoting racism. An editorial on page 26A of Sunday’s Sun Sentinel listed Sen. Perry Thurston as one of nine South Florida legislators who supported Florida House Bill 7103, which limits the ability of local governments to require affordable housing in major developments and requires citizens to pay the other side’s legal fees if they try and fail to overturn a permit as inconsistent with a community’s comprehensive plan. While Sen. Thurston voted “yes” during the roll call, he told us he immediately realized his mistake and promptly changed his recorded vote to “No.”