'Somewhere between stunning and stupid': Anti-Defamation League chief slams Trump's anti-Semitic rant
On Friday's edition of CNN's "The Lead," Anti-Defamation League President Jonathan Greenblatt tore into former President Donald Trump for his virulently anti-Semitic interview with Israeli reporter Barak Ravid in which he claimed that American Jews have no love for Israel and that Israel used to "control" the entire United States Congress.
"So, a lot to dive into there," said anchor Jake Tapper. "Four or five anti-Semitic tropes in 45 seconds. A new record perhaps. A Pew survey found that 58 percent of Jews in America are very or somewhat emotionally attached to Israel. 60 percent say that they have a lot or something in common with Israeli Jews. To say American Jews don't like or love Israel, that's inaccurate as a factual matter."
"Yeah, look, Jake, these comments, unfortunately, are not very surprising from former President Trump, but they fall somewhere between stunning and stupid," said Greenblatt. "Now, I expect this from people on the extreme right or the far left, but you'd think a former president of the United States with Jewish grandchildren would get stuff like this right. What are we talking about? Look, the bottom line is Jews — he is not the one to tell Jewish people about their feelings for Israel, but there's widespread, overwhelming positive feelings among the Jewish community for the Jewish state, and that's just the start, as you point out of what he said. Tropes about greed, power, loyalty, clannishness, like literally, you wonder how low he's going to go."
Tapper noted that those weren't Trump's only remarks to indulge in anti-Semitic tropes.
"And then he said, Israel — I'm going to quote this — Israel had absolute power over Congress, and today I think it's the exact opposite," said Tapper. "I mean, the idea that Israel had absolute control over Congress or absolute power over Congress, that's the anti-Semitism you hear from members of the Klan."
"That's right," said Greenblatt. "This sounds like Richard Spencer, or this sounds like some of the most radical people on the left, or Lyndon LaRouche. That's what we're talking about here. Israel doesn't have absolute power over anything, even its own electorate, for goodness sakes. But this plays into these longstanding tropes, Jake, that have led to Jewish people being harassed, suffering from violence, and literally being killed. So it's not something we can take lightly, especially when it's coming from a former commander in chief. It's really quite disturbing."
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