Israeli journalist watches in horror as Trump's rise mirrors Hitler: 'The echoes are getting much too close'

An American-born Israeli journalist is warning Jewish voters not to cast ballots for GOP front runner Donald Trump, who he compares in chilling terms to the rise of Adolf Hitler before the Second World War.

Writing for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, award-winning journalist Bradley Burston described watching American Jews talk about voting for Trump on television with a growing sense of doom. Normally, he pointed out, the concern goes in the other direction.

"But now I find myself thinking about what is about to happen to my loved ones in America," he writes. "About what may happen to minorities and other people who may be rendered vulnerable by their faiths or their opinions, Jews certainly among them."

Burston writes he has never been one to jump at comparing modern politicians with Hitler, the leader of the genocidal regime in Germany that killed 6 million Jews and millions of others belonging to the political opposition and vulnerable minority groups.

"My discomfort has only grown over the years, as the epithet Nazi has been thrown around so often and so loosely, by so many sides to so many conflicts," he writes. "But this time is different. Because this time, the echoes are getting much too close."

Burston, who has close relatives who survived the Holocaust, found haunting the words of Trump while speaking on Fox. "'Everybody that's attacked me is gone. Do you ever notice that? Wouldn't that be nice for our country?'"

While Burston had long been comforted by the phrase uttered by many in regards to the Holocaust, "never again," that assurance has been evaporating.

"I figured they were right," he notes. "Until this week. Until I began to hear reminders of the observations of the Jews who'd once placed hopes in Hitler. How a leader like that could bring stability, restore a broken country to greatness. How you shouldn't pay too much heed to what he says – it's just what politicians need to do to get elected."

He adds, "Any Jew who votes for Donald Trump is voting for an anti-Semite."

Burston recalled statements Trump has made about comedian Jon Stewart, as well as anti-Semitic statements made by vocal supporters Ann Coulter and pastor Mark Burns.

This week, Burns said at a Trump rally that the only Jewish candidate in the race, Sen. Bernie Sanders, needs to convert to Christianity.

Burston isn't the first to compare Trump to Hitler. Trump has multiple times retweeted white supremacist Twitter accounts, including one devoted to Hitler that posted a picture of him dressed as a Nazi, gassing Sanders.

Trump further raised eyebrows earlier this month when footage from one of his rallies emerged, where he tells supporters to raise their right hands and pledge to vote for him.

"The next time he asks you to raise your right hand, America," Burston concludes, "just say Never Again."