Trump's latest remarks about Israel should alarm American Jews: columnist
Former president Donald Trump during an interview with Newsmax. (Screenshot)
December 20, 2021
Donald Trump's remarks about Israel are just another example that he's no real friend to Jewish people.
The twice-impeached one-term president bashed American Jews who didn't vote for him, and praised the evangelical Christians who did, while indulging in some anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish people controlling certain institutions, reported MSNBC columnist Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
"American Jews who continue to support Trump and the GOP might take a cue from the experiences of Italian Jews under fascism," Ben-Ghiat wrote. "Many of them supported Benito Mussolini for years, thinking he was the 'good' authoritarian — he persecuted other groups, but not them, unlike Hitler — only to be hit in 1938 with il Duce's antisemitic legislation and forced into ruin or exile. They learned the hard way that once violence becomes legitimized in a country, the roster of 'enemies of the people' inevitably expands."
Trump's daughter and son-in-law are observant Jews, and he has enjoyed the support of Orthodox Jews, but his pro-Israel stance was always more about securing evangelical votes than supporting Jewish people.
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