The closer Donald Trump gets to the White House, the more unhinged our elites get.
Jewish Journal Editor Rob Eshman writes:
The funny thing about the bitch’s spawn is it never emerges looking like it did the last time. We have all been on the lookout for the loser Jew-hating neo-Nazi, and we are certainly attuned to very real Islamist hate, but this year’s model comes out of right field — a billionaire real estate magnate reality TV star. Who’d have thought?
Fortunately, there is every indication decent folks are prepared to rise up and shut down Trump.
That was clear in the reaction to Trump’s call for banning Muslims from the United States, in response to which, as I pointed out last week, every single Jewish denomination from Orthodox to Reform has fiercely objected.
That was clear in Washington, D.C., at the White House Chanukah party on Dec. 9, where a rabbi’s speech before the menorah lighting invoked the need to bring light to the kind of darkness Trump brings to the world.
“The word Chanukah means dedication,” Rabbi Sid Schwarz, a senior fellow at the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (Clal), said as he stood next to the president and the first lady. “At a time when we hear the most shameful expressions of bigotry in our public discourse from prominent personalities, we must rededicate ourselves to the principles of tolerance and justice for all.”
And that was clear Sunday morning on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, where Mayor Eric Garcetti joined with local leaders, dozens of Muslim, Jewish and Christian clergy and a crowd of concerned citizens to condemn terrorism and the kind of racism that Trump has stoked in reaction to it.
“We know that acts of hate that follow seek to divide us,” Garcetti told the gathering. “And if we are to be a truly safe people, we need not only the protection of those in uniform, we need the trust between one another.”
And that was clear, finally, at a remarkable gathering last Sunday night in Marina del Rey, where dozens of concerned Americans gathered to raise money through the Democracy Council to provide teachers and doctors to Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan. Ambassador Frederic Hof, former special envoy to Syria and a Vietnam veteran who is the recipient of a Purple Heart, made clear that the way to help the refugees and to defeat ISIS is to fight terror there and hate here.
“How in the world will we defeat the Islamic State without the help of American Muslims?” Hof said to the audience of Muslims, Jews and Christians. “Will we let our politicians manipulate our fears so that they can get elected?”
Although the fundraiser didn’t set out to be an interfaith event, it became one — because this is not yet Donald Trump’s America, not even close.
