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| The President answering media questions in the Oval Office (AP) |
This is not the first time garbage came out of it. But it might be the worst. As least as far as Jews in this country are concerned. The idea that a sitting President can accuse Jews that vote for Democrats as disloyal not only sounds breathtakingly antisemitic it is in my view dangerous! But that is exactly what the President said to the media recently:
I think any Jewish people who would vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.
That thought went straight from his brain to the American people with an all too eager media widely reporting it and repeating over and over again. (He seems not to have yet gotten over his diarrhea of the brain. Probably never will.)
That said, I still do not believe for a minute that the President is antisemitic. Although he has used antisemitism as a weapon against members of congress that support BDS. The President has repeatedly said that 2 Muslim congresswomen that do (Tlaib and Omar) hate Israel and hate the Jewish people. And believes they should be thrown out of office. Or at the very least voted out in 2020.
What did the President mean by saying Jews that vote for Democrats are disloyal? I’m sure he did not mean disloyal to this country. That should be obvious from the context in which he made that statement. (Which most of the media has ignored. See below) He probably meant disloyal to Israel. But he is still wrong. The mere mention of the word ‘disloyal’ in connection with the Jewish people plays right into the hands of antisemites (of both the right and the left) that accuse Jews of having dual loyalties because of their support of Israel. Which of course means that we are not fully loyal Americans. They can now quote the President to back them up.
So why did the President say this now? I can only guess. But the fact happens to be that 90% of the Jews in this country are not Orthodox and their values are not religious based values but secular ones. Which are trending heavily liberal these days. That translates to support for Democrats whose liberal values reflect their own. That further translates to hating the President whose values are mostly about his own ego but whose policies have been conservative. Which liberals see as Neanderthal.
That hatred is so strong that anything positive he has done for Israel is condemned as either meaningless or actuality hurting them. The President's socially conservative policies which promote religious values over civil values goes against the liberal mindset of most Jews in this country. And that just fuels the hatred even more. And with this latest comment, I am absolutely convinced that politically liberal Jews are apoplectic just about now. And I can’t really blame them.
The President must be frustrated at the fact that he is so supportive of the Jewish state and despite that, 90% of our people hate him. He probably believed that - unlike past Presidents - once he fulfilled his campaign promise to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, (the same promise made by many Presidential candidates and yet remaining unfulfilled once in office) that Jews would come flocking to him. But thus far they have not. If anything they have gone the other way. And this - his latest comment has very likely pushed them even further away (if that’s even possible any more).
What about the rest of American Jewry …the 10% or so that are Orthodox? Most Orthodox Jews love him and voted for him. And they may even love him more now than they did when they voted for him in 2016. And I’m pretty sure they do not consider his latest comment to even be antisemitic. Many Orthodox Jews might even agree with the President – believing that the increasing criticism of Israel by 90% of the Jewish people actually does make them disloyal – to Israel!
Well, I am Orthodox. And much as I see what the President has done for Israel and appreciate it, I do not think voting for Democrats makes them disloyal. Not to America. And not to Israel. I do not even believe that hating the President makes anyone disloyal to America. Not anymore than half the Israeli population that hates Netanyahu makes them disloyal to Israel. Everyone is entitled to vote their conscience and see those in opposition to their views as terribly wrong. But that does not make anyone of them disloyal. Which is why I believe the President should think before he speaks. Unfortunately that is just wishful thinking in my part.