Israel First, American Jewry Second?

For much of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, Jewish Republicans rationalized away the bigoted fringe of Mr. Trump’s coalition, arguing that the unsavory supporters in his midst and the antisemitic tropes he deployed paled in comparison with the staunchly pro-Israel policies of his administration.

…

“We have a long history in this country of separating the moral character of the man in the White House from his conduct in office, but with Trump, it’s gone beyond any of the reasonably acceptable and justifiable norms,” Jay Lefkowitz, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and a supporter of many of Mr. Trump’s policies, said on Monday.

Lefkowitz is referring to, inter alia, Bill Clinton, right? Dildoing an intern with a cigar~hosting a dinner with an antisemite and a neo-Nazi. That those two are viewed as ~ is just stupid. That both lead to the “rationalization”: “Hey! No effect on policy!”—is a dialogue-stopper.

…

“Donald Trump is not an antisemite. He loves Israel. He loves Jews. But he mainstreams, he legitimizes Jew hatred and Jew haters. And this scares me.”— Morton Klein, head of the right-wing Zionist Organization of America.

This is another side. Criticism of Israel is de facto evidence, compelling, perhaps not conclusive, evidence of antisemitism. Conversely, an Israel lover is compelling evidence of Jew love. How in any rational conception can one who “mainstreams” and “legitimizes Jew hatred and Jew haters” be a Jew lover and not an antisemite? When are people going to wake up? Donald Trump loves nobody but himself. He fakes love for whomever supports him. 

West, a figure with an enormous following, has espoused hatred of the Jews. The basketball star Kyrie Irving has spread antisemitic views with a tweet, though he eventually apologized. Neo-Nazis are returning to Twitter, bringing memes and coded messages not seen for years, now that its new owner, Elon Musk, has reinstated accounts that had been blocked for bigotry. Mr. Musk himself on Monday tweeted a cartoon of “Pepe” the frog, a symbol adopted by the alt-right segment of the white supremacist movement. That followed a tweet last month of a German soldier from World War II, which was cited by white nationalist Telegram accounts as evidence of Mr. Musk’s like-mindedness.

And House Republican leaders say they will reinstate Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, and Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, to committees from which they were jettisoned by Democrats in part for their antisemitic comments or associating with white supremacists like Mr. Fuentes.

…

“The normalization of antisemitism is here,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League.

Yes! That is it, the “normalization” of antisemitism. Trump, West, Irving, Taylor Greene, Gosar, Fuentes—those are your new best friends, American Jewry! You severely injure your credibility, you are quisling to hatred of yourselves for this facile seperate-personal-morality-from-policy “rationalization.” Now you’re drawing a line? Bruh, that picture is near complete, you’re putting lipstick on a pig at this point!

Now, Mr. West has promised on Twitter to “go death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE.” The comedian Dave Chappelle delivered a stinging monologue on “Saturday Night Live” on “the Jews” and their numbers in Hollywood. And at the same time, American Jewry is divided over whether denunciations of Mr. Trump might harm American policy toward Israel, should he return to power.—Peter Hayes, a Northwestern University historian.

Right? What is that but Israel First!🤦🏻‍♂️

“The more people prioritize Israel, the more they are willing to make excuses for Trump, and that just makes me sad,” he said.

There it is. Okay, one last thing and then enough: Well, I’ve already written it: American Jewry is calving its credibility and the resulting sea rise of antisemitism threatens to swamp those at the fringes, all for support of a foreign country. “Sad”.