I am so sick and tired of the double standard we apply to our politicians, where if an elected official with an ‘R’ at the end of their name makes an antisemitic comment they get a pass, while those with a ‘D’ following their name who make insensitive comments are immediately cast as the devil incarnate. Indeed, I was guilty of this. Being a conservative, I for many years saw Republicans in a more positive light than Democrats. And while being biased towards lawmakers who share your perspectives makes sense, there has to be a point where you can admit that even the politicians you admire are sick. I voted for Donald Trump – both in 2016 and in 2020. But I must admit the reality: the man is an anti-Semite. In a recent interview with Barak Ravid – an Israeli journalist who also works for Axios, a US news outlet – Trump made some comments that, if made by any Democratic politician, would sicken us. In the interview, Trump said that if Jews really loved Israel, a larger percentage of them would have voted for him and said that “it used to be that Israel had absolute power over Congress” – a classic antisemitic trope used by Jew-haters for decades to justify their antisemitism. If this were the first time Trump made such comments, I would probably wave them off. I would argue that it was a slip of the tongue, or that he was trying to bring out a general point rather than attacking Jews. But this isn’t the first time he’s made such comments. In a June interview with Ami Magazine, Trump made similar comments, saying that if Jews loved Israel they would have voted for him, and in other interviews has called Jews who didn’t vote for him “disloyal.” On another occasion, while speaking to American Jews Trump called Israel “your country” – another antisemitic canard which claims that Jews have dual loyalty. Imagine for a moment if the person who made the above comments was Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar rather than Donald Trump. You think we would just ignore them? Of course not. We would come out guns blazing, slamming them for inciting hatred against Jews. But now that it’s Donald Trump saying it, we have heard nothing from most conservative Jews. They won’t condemn him, make a public statement decrying his antisemitism or withdraw their support from him. Why not? Because we share the same political views? If you agreed with leftist perspectives, would you also not condemn Tlaib and Omar? Of course not. You condemn antisemitism wherever and however it manifests itself, and Donald Trump should not be getting a pass any more than leftist politicians. Donald Trump might have done a lot of things that conservative Jews like, but that doesn’t excuse away his clear and obvious antisemitism. That’s exactly what his comments were, and it’s time for American Jews to admit it. I am done with Donald Trump and I hope you are too. There are many Republicans who will support the conservative Jewish agenda without inciting people to hate us – we don’t need Donald Trump. In fact, Trump as we all know is an egotistical maniac and will turn on Jews in a split-second if he feels they […]
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