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Trump Under Fire After Claiming Jewish Democratic Party Voters ‘Hate Their Religion, Hate Israel’
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump encountered a firestorm of criticism on Tuesday after he claimed that American Jews who vote for the Democratic Party “hate” both their religion and the State of Israel.
Deploying the inflammatory rhetoric that is his trademark, Trump made the comments during an appearance on a show anchored by Sebastian Gorka, who served as a White House aide during the former president’s single term in office between 2016-20, on the far right “America First” network. The timing of the interview coincided with growing tensions between President Joe Biden’s administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s conduct in its current war against Hamas in Gaza, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging Israelis to demand an election to remove Netanyahu in a speech last week.
After Gorka effusively praised Trump as “the most pro-Israel, most philosemitic president since the rebirth of Israel in 1948,” citing the decision to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as evidence for his claim, he asked why the Democrats “so hate” Netanyahu.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded, drawing an enthused “yes” from Gorka.
“Any Jewish person that votes for the Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump continued. “You have Iran now making a nuclear weapon, none of that would have happened with me, that’s a big thing.”
Trunp then stated that during his term in office, Iran was “stone cold broke” due to US and international sanctions. He added that “there was no terrorism, because they [the Iranian regime] didn’t have money to fund Hamas and Hezbollah.”
The assertion that there was “no terrorism” directed against Israel during Trump’s presidency does not stand up to scrutiny. State Department reports issued during each of his four years in the White House uniformly noted that Israel faced consistent threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, ISIS and other terrorist organizations, and listed numerous terrorist incidents from stabbings of Israeli civilians to missile launches against Israeli population centers.
The report for 2018 included details of the weekly “return marches” staged by Palestinians along Israel’s security fence on its border with Gaza, noting that these “drew tens of thousands of people. Armed terrorists breached the security fence, launched incendiary devices into Israel, and threw stones and other objects at IDF soldiers. Additionally, sniper attacks injured IDF forces and resulted in the death of at least one IDF soldier. Since April, militants sent hundreds of incendiary devices into southern Israel by kite and balloon, resulting in more than 7,000 acres burned, including a forest preserve and numerous farmed fields.”
Trump’s latest remarks drew an angry response from several US Jewish organizations, including the charge of “antisemitism” — one with which the former president is familiar both from his time in office and afterwards. He attracted strong opprobrium for a Nov. 2022 dinner he hosted with antisemitic rapper Kanye West and the American Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, and again in Sept. 2023, when Trump used the occasion of Rosh Hashanah to attack “liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives” on social media.
“Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory and patently false,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Serious leaders who care about the historic US-Israel alliance should focus on strengthening, rather than unraveling, bipartisan support for the State of Israel.”
“Another day, another depraved antisemitic screed from Donald Trump, who has repeatedly vilified the overwhelming majority of American Jews,” Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, separately declared.
The White House also condemned the remarks, referring to the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel in a statement.
“As antisemitic crimes and acts of hate have increased across the world — among them the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and bring Americans together against it,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. “There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens.”
US Jews have historically voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Democratic Party. In 2016, Trump won just 24 percent of the Jewish vote, rising to 30 percent in his failed 2020 bid for re-election. However, several past Republican candidates fared equally or better with American Jewish voters, among them Ronald Reagan, who won 39 percent in 1980, George H.W. Bush, who won 35 percent in 1988, and Mitt Romney, who won 30 percent in 2012.
Monday’s comments during the interview with Gorka came at the close of a difficult day for Trump’s presidential campaign after his lawyers conceded defeat in their attempts to raise a bond of almost half a billion dollars in his ongoing civil fraud case in New York. The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, brought Trump to trial last year, accusing him of fraudulently inflating the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms. In total, Trump presently faces four separate criminal prosecutions.
The post Trump Under Fire After Claiming Jewish Democratic Party Voters ‘Hate Their Religion, Hate Israel’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove spotlights a menorah designed in the early years of the State of Israel
This laurel branch Hanukkah menorah, designed by artist Maurice Ascalon (1913-2003), won first prize at the 1950 Tel Aviv Design Competition. Between 2,000 and 4,000 of these were made by the Pal-Bell factory in Israel, and they were sold not only in Israel but in select department stores around the world, including Macy’s in New York and Harrods in London.
The shape of the oil containers resembles ancient Roman lamps, while the large pitcher is a reference to the single jug of oil that lasted for eight days that is at the heart of the Hanukkah story.
These hanukkiyot were manufactured out of cast bronze with a green patina that was created using reactive chemicals, a process developed by Ascalon, resulting in an antique verdigris look.
Ascalon, who was born in Hungary and originally named Moshe Klein, immigrated to Palestine in 1934 after training in Brussels and Milan. He started the Pal-Bell Company in the late 1930s for the production of ritual and secular decorative items. “Pal” is short for Palestine and “Bell” is short for bellezza, Italian for beauty and an allusion to his time in Milan where the artist learned and perfected his sculpting skills. During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Ascalon designed munitions for the Israeli army and, at the request of the Israeli government, retrofitted his factory to produce arms for the war effort.
Ascalon closed Pal-Bell and moved to the United States in 1956, where he taught sculpture at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and opened Ascalon Studios, which produces large-scale sculptures for public spaces and houses of worship.
The studio, which is now run by Ascalon’s son David and his grandson Eric, was retooled during the COVID pandemic to manufacture safety boxes that allowed health-care workers to assist a patient on a ventilator while minimizing exposure.
Treasure Trove wishes you a happy Hanukkah , which starts on Dec. 25. This year, as Peter, Paul and Mary sang, “Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice, justice and freedom demand. Don’t let the light go out!”
The post Treasure Trove spotlights a menorah designed in the early years of the State of Israel appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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