It’s very easy to call the goyim bigoted, but what about Jewish leaders? Should they have to pass the sort of purity test that Jewish organizations apply to goyisha leaders?<\/p>\n
From Haaretz<\/a>:<\/p>\n Many American Jews are angered at the prospect of Donald Trump addressing the AIPAC policy conference in Washington this coming week and are promising to abstain from attending,\u00a0walk out of the hall or protest his presence in other ways. What perversion allows American Jews \u2013 or the majority of them, it would seem \u2013 to regard Donald Trump as the antithesis of their Jewish values and Benjamin Netanyahu as their exemplar? What cognitive bypass enables them to recognize the potential fascism of Trump, but not the existing tyranny of Israel\u2019s rule over the Palestinians, under the decade-long leadership of Netanyahu? It’s very easy to call the goyim bigoted, but what about Jewish leaders? Should they have to pass the sort of purity test that Jewish organizations apply to goyisha leaders? From Haaretz: Many American Jews are angered at the prospect … Continue reading
\n\u201cThroughout his campaign Trump has made statements that have been bigoted, racist, misogynistic, and Islamophobic \u2013 some could argue even statements that were anti-Semitic,\u201d wrote Rabbi Jesse Olitzky, representing a group of professionals and clergy which calls itself Come Together Against Hate.
\n\u201cIf we sit around and do nothing, even if we sit in silence, that shows complacency and that, by default, we agree with what he says,\u201d Olitzky wrote. \u201cIt is imperative to me as a communal leader, and to all Jews there who are going, that we stand up to his demagoguery.\u201d
\nWhich would make perfect sense, were it not for the fact that the American community, both as individuals and as communal leaders, has been sitting in silence and showing complacency in the face of demagoguery and racism for years already, without feeling the need to stand up and do something about it.
\nAIPAC, that bastion of Jewish values, has gone even further. Rather than sitting in complacent silence, it has given repeated and resounding standing ovations, year after year, to Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli demagogues and racists, who not only talk the talk \u2013 as Trump has done so far \u2013 but walk the walk, as well…<\/p>\n
\nTrump\u2019s values, according to Rabbi Olitzky of Come Together Against Hate, \u201care not the values of the Jewish community. They are not the values of our founders\u2019 vision of an America where all citizens are \u2018endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.\u2019\u201d
\nDoes that mean that those unlucky enough to be born outside America weren\u2019t endowed by the creator with unalienable rights? Does it mean that Jews in America, basking in the glory of their founders\u2019 vision, need not be concerned when Jews in Israel deny others those same unalienable rights?
\nWhile Trump is addressing AIPAC in Washington, according to Olitzky, the members of Come Together Against Hate will be \u201cgathering and learning Torah. We will be learning about sinat chinam (senseless hatred) and derech eretz (common decency).\u201d
\nTouching. As if those righteous Jews have never heard of the sinat chinam practised by their fellow Jews in Israel or of the current state of siege that Netanyahu and his lieutenants have imposed on Israeli derech eretz. With Trumpism flourishing in the state of the Jewish people, the absurdity of studying Bible in order to ward off the evil billionaire is awe-inspiring.
\nNetanyahu himself has declined AIPAC\u2019s invitation to address the conference in person, explaining first that he hadn\u2019t been invited to meet with President Barack Obama while in Washington (a lie, according to the White House) and then that such an appearance would not be proper at the height of the American election campaign.\u00a0
\nComing from the man who thought it appropriate to address Congress at the height of the struggle over the Iran nuclear agreement, Netanyahu\u2019s explanation exudes the sort of hypocrisy that AIPAC appreciates. Olitzky and his Come Together friends may be well-meaning, but they are no less hypocritical.
\nStill, it\u2019s a pity. Having both Trump and Netanyahu address the assembled ranks of Israel\u2019s apologists at AIPAC would be a fitting tribute to an organization dedicated to dishonesty and myopia. It would cast American Jewish values in their true and unambiguous light \u2013 a value system that exempts Israel from every value it purports to hold dear.
\nIt is entirely fitting to have Trump attend the AIPAC congress, while Bernie Sanders stays away. The Democratic candidate may have been invited out of obligation, but his honesty, decency and barely-concealed skepticism about Israel are not welcome at AIPAC. The pomposity and bluster of the Trump-Netanyahu duo are a much better fit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"