In a column for Haaretz, Rabbi Eric Yoiffe expressed alarm that American Jews are not taking the resurgence of Donald Trump seriously and painted a frightening portrait of a contested 2024 presidential election that could be overwhelmed with mobs of Trump supporters.
Calling a possible second Trump win "a disaster for America and for American Jews," Yoifee explained that "Trump is not acting like a man who has given up on political life" and he has set out to more fully capture the Republican party and to make it over in his image. And he has succeeded," despite being an "abysmal failure" at many of his other endeavors.
"If Trump is nominated, the nightmare scenario for the election has become the probable scenario, modeled on the pattern of the previous four years. The Trump-led Republicans will challenge every Democratic victory, pressure state officials to bow to wild charges of fraud, twist the arms of representatives in Congress to play along, threaten Republican resisters with retaliation, and strike up the 'stop the steal' band," he wrote. "Most important of all, the signal will be given — openly or implicitly, by Trump himself or others in authority — that loyal Trumpers must take to the street. And take to the streets they will."
Saying that what America witnessed on Jan 6th was not an "aberration" but "a rehearsal for the future," the rabbi suggested complicit Republicans will do all they can to dispute the 2024 election results should Trump lose and that will be a sign to pro-Trump fanatics to take to the streets and engage in mob violence to frighten the public from pushing back.
"The protests will not be led by the decent folks but by the racists, extremist leaders, militia members, and fanatic nationalists, and it is this latter group that will set the tone. Republican leaders, whose initial horror about January 6 quickly turned into excuse-making and rationalizations, will now have the privilege of watching what happens when the 'law and order' party decides that it can ignore a violent mob if the tyrant whose name it is chanting is one of their own," he predicted. "Now, imagine a paralyzed, post-election Congress, unable to resolve an election crisis, while mobs rampage in the streets, demanding a Trump restoration. Imagine anti-Trump mob surging forward to meet them. Imagine the chaos that will ensue, and Donald Trump looking on, a barely suppressed smile on his face."
According to the rabbi, when authoritarian mobs are incited by a charismatic leader to take to the streets, Jews are always at the top of the list to be victimized.
"Jews fear chaos and angry mobs for good reason. They know that if a mob is yelling for blood, it will be yelling for Jewish blood as well. They know that they will never be safe in such an America, and neither will other minorities," he wrote before adding, " It is heartbreaking to watch what is happening to America. We thought we had beaten Trump, saved liberal democracy, defeated the preening insurrectionists, and returned to a more normal politics."
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