Posted on 04/28/2017 5:58:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
So, Donald Trump delivers a speech in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the anti-Semites are up in arms. He is not the man they thought he was.
In reality, he never was that man, which was more a projection of their own ideology than a right assessment of his. As Sam Kestenbaum reported on the Jewish Forward, “Trump Gives A Holocaust Speech — And The ‘Alt Right’ Screams ‘Betrayal’.”
How, exactly, did Trump betray the “alt-right”?
In his speech, he said, “The State of Israel is an eternal monument to the undying strength of the Jewish people. The fervent dream that burned in the hearts of the oppressed is now filled with the breath of life, and the Star of David waves atop a great nation arisen from the desert.”
This was certainly in keeping with his campaign speeches, in which he pledged to be a great friend of Israel and guaranteed that he would move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Trump commended the late Elie Wiesel, perhaps the most famous Holocaust survivor, affirming his call that “we must bear witness.” Trump spoke to the survivors who were there, people who witnessed “the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people.”
And he denounced Holocaust denial, saying, “Denying the Holocaust is only one of many forms of dangerous anti-Semitism that continues all around the world. We’ve seen anti-Semitism on university campuses, in the public square, and in threats against Jewish citizens. Even worse, it’s been on display in the most sinister manner when terrorists attack Jewish communities, or when aggressors threaten Israel with total and complete destruction.”
He pledged to confront anti-Semitism, and said, “As President of the United States, I will always stand with the Jewish people -- and I will always stand with our great friend and partner, the State of Israel.”
Then he closed with some moving, personal stories of courage and hope.
All in all, a fine and fitting speech, and one that I would have expected from President Trump, since at no point in his campaign did I think he was an anti-Semite (despite the many other reservations I had about him).
But words like these from Trump’s speech are fighting words for the anti-Semites of this world.
As Kestenbaum reported, “‘You can never appease the Jews,’ wrote Benjamin Garland at the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer. ‘Give them an inch and they want a mile. The only way to deal with them is to ignore them and/or tell them to shut their filthy mouths.’
“Garland bemoaned what he saw as a turnaround for Trump. Months ago he was ‘a man who knew how the Jews operate and as a man with enough self-respect to not be publicly humiliated by them by bowing to their every whim and demand.’
“But Jews ‘have their ratlike claws deep in him now,’ Garland wrote.”
What in the world he is talking about? The Trump who gave the Holocaust remembrance speech is the same man as the Trump whom Garland supported.
It’s the same Trump whose daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism. The same Trump who remains very close to his Jewish son-in-law Jared. The same Trump whose grandchildren through Ivanka are considered Jewish. The same Trump who has had many Jewish colleagues and friends. The same Trump of whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I’ve known the President and I’ve known his family and his team for a long time, and there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump. I think we should put that to rest.”
This is who Trump has been for many years. Why the shock from the alt-right now?
David Duke, a leading anti-Semitic, white supremacist (and former KKK leader), tweeted, “Why is the so called Holocaust the only atrocity to receive its very own ‘Remembrance Proclamation’? Jewish privilege.”
Is Duke unaware that Trump also gave a speech in memory of the Armenian genocide this week (although he didn’t use the word “genocide” in his speech)? For the record, it’s officially called Armenian Remembrance Day, and it’s recognized by the White House. Shall we call this “Armenian privilege?”
Getting back to Duke, he challenged Trump directly, asking, “Do you not have any power? Why are you surrounding yourself with the enemies of the American people?”
And who are these “enemies of the American people”? Obviously, the Jewish people and their allies, to whom Trump has now sold out.
The reality is that Trump is simply carrying out his campaign promises and being true to who he has been for many years: a friend of the Jewish people.
As my colleague Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote in February, “Trump as anti-Semite is not implausible, but it is absurd and libelous. It would also suggest that his strong support for Israel is inauthentic, when it’s something he has worn on his sleeve for his entire adult life.”
Shmuley even said this: “He has surrounded himself with Jews — they are his business colleagues, employees and friends. I know orthodox Jews who have long worked for Trump and say that his respect for the Jewish faith has been exemplary.”
Did you hear that, Mr. Duke? Are you listening, Mr. Garland? Trump “has surrounded himself with Jews” for decades, so it’s nothing new if he’s doing so today.
We can certainly debate whether Jared Kushner has too much influence or whether Kushner’s views represent those of Trump’s major supporters. But we can’t debate Trump’s historic relationship with Israel and the Jewish people. That’s not new at all.
What’s new is that he has also surrounded himself with conservative Christians in recent years. And what’s new is that his populist, pro-America message helped catapult him to the White House.
Apparently, these anti-Semites misunderstood Trump’s words and pledges, finding confirmation for their white-supremacist, Jew-hatred, thereby projecting their views on his.
It looks like they’re in for a rude awakening
We luff da Juice.
And all the effing Islamofascists in the world blowing their own arses up will never change that.
Woot President Trump!
Do I recall correctly that Trump (on the campaign trail) promised to move our embassy to Jerusalem? If that recollection is correct ... expecting him to hate Jews would seem irrational.
Donald Trump will hopefully continue the goodwill and mutual affection that his father Fred had with the working class Jews of Flatbush in Brooklyn. Great story:
http://www.chareidi.org/archives5777/voera/afredtrumpvrh77.htm
That Katzenjammer accent in the first sentence could be misconstrued as sarcasm. Which I sincerely hope it is not. I more or less share Mark Twain’s take on “the Jews.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/mark-twain-quotations-on-judaism-and-israel
Trump ran on a VERY pro-Israel platform.
His condemnation of antisemitism was very much on display.
I guess haters gonna hate.
Yeah when is that going to happen seems easy
I know the usual Leftist methodology is to cast every non-Leftist as an anti-Semite, but it keeps running into the fact that the Left is where most anti-Semites in the West hang out these days.
Michael Brown, what a shame you had to fall for the latest in thing and begin your column with “So.”
That word adds nothing to your discourse.
It has been the practice of every US President since Truman to laud and praise the State of Israel, as being part of the prophecy of the return of the Jewish people to the land from which they driven during the Diaspora. Of course, several of the Presidents, most notably Carter and Obama, have paid only lip service to the legitimacy of the Jewish return, and have actively engaged in trying to dislodge the Israelis altogether, by some not so benign neglect and outright support for the ENEMIES of Zion.
This period of neglect is now over, and President Trump has returned to the earlier historical principle of treating Israel as the respected and tangible proof that the Lord God YHWH is still in command, despite the existence of a lesser god Allah.
It is sarcasm, pointed towards the Islamofascist supporting left.
But we mean it. We love the Jewish nation.
Dunno ... It's not really high on my list. When it happens I'll enjoy watching the muzzies and the stormfront types freak out over it. The exploding heads should be epic.
You see why I say I prefer Jews.
Personally, I think the irrationality would start with the fact that Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, daughter and grand children are Jewish.
If he was anti-Semitic, it would have come out a long time ago.
I think antisemites were confused by Trump’s pledge to “make America great again”. In their twisted world view, “America” refers to sick bigots like themselves, and no one else. They might reread the founding documents, but their minds are shut.
I’ve read the definition that’s out there but still don’t know what the supposed alt-right is.
Are they a figment of the media’s overactive imagination?
I wonder, because they seem to use the term “alt-right” as being some be-all-end-all justification to attack President Trump on any given topic ... while saying “this isn’t the democrats attacking the president .. oh no, it’s the know-everything alt-right!”
Maybe the alt-right thought Trump was an anti-Semite because the MSM - and even some conservative media - kept saying he was an anti-Semite. The only “evidence” I ever remember being put forth were a couple of those “dog whistle” incidents in which some innocuous statement was given a sinister interpretation, as when they claimed that “make America great again” was the resurrection of an old Nazi-sympathizer slogan.
“They might reread the founding documents, but their minds are shut.”
Their founding documents is the Mein Kempf.
He cut foreign aid to Egypt and Jordan, who are both at peace with their neighbor Israel.
Trump invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, and INCREASED foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, both of which have publicly sworn to destroy Israel.
Trump, like Obama, is trying to destroy Bashar Assad in Syria, who has maintained a “cold” but mostly non-violent relationship with Israel for almost two decades.
Trump is trying to replace Assad with a coalition of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Muslim Brotherhood leaders who have sworn to destroy Israel.
Trump gave a speech remembering the one million Armenians slaughtered by the Turks.
Then, Trump phoned Recep Erdogan, the president of Turkey, who denies the Armenian genocide.
Trump congratulated Erdogan for seizing dictatorial powers in Turkey and invited Erdogan to the White House.
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