Beyond Trump Derangement Syndrome

Every time left-wing Jews think that they’ve nailed US President Donald Trump once and for all, he does something to deflate their Democratic bubble. Rather than spurring them to rethink their stance and shed their snobbery toward the Republican leader for whom they did not and will not vote, however, his actions cause them either to double down or grudgingly to give him credit where they wish it were not due.Take this week, for instance, when he made history by signing an executive order aimed at protecting Jews from campus antisemitism and preventing taxpayers’ money from funding it.The fact that groups like Students for Justice in Palestine went ballistic over this stroke of genius makes perfect sense, since they are among the greatest perpetrators and promoters of Jew-and-Israel-bashing on university quads across the country. But the Jews who joined in the attack by calling the executive order “antisemitic” – or who claimed, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) did, that it “smacks of what happened in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany” – are afflicted with a disease that goes way beyond Trump Derangement Syndrome. Indeed, such members of the tribe ought to have their heads examined, or at least hang their heads in shame. They will do neither, of course; being a left-wing liberal means never having to say you’re sorry, after all, especially when you’re proven wrong.Yes, the never-Trumpers stick to their guns as stubbornly as they do to their gun-control ideology. So the same people lambasting the president for decreeing that Jews will now be protected under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – “prohibit[ing] discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance” – accused him of antisemitism a mere few days earlier, for a different ridiculous reason.The brouhaha erupted on Saturday night when Trump delivered a speech before a gathering of the Israeli America Council at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida. Following his address – which was characteristically bull-in-a-china-shop blunt, and so pro-Israel that it could have made even the most ardent Zionists blush – the Jewish never-Trumpers in the media and on Capitol Hill proceeded to pounce. This is not surprising, given the fact that they had been waiting in the wings for this very purpose, wringing their hands in gleeful anticipation of the fodder he was about to provide for their cocked canons. They thus had no problem distorting what he said beyond recognition. Not that they have ever needed an excuse to aim and fire their vitriol at this commander-in-chief, regardless of the circumstances. And this case was no exception.In an effort to persuade the Jews in the audience and elsewhere to cast their ballots for him in November, Trump pointed to and questioned the tendency of a majority of them to support the Democrats. THE “INCREDIBLE partnership between the United States and Israel... suffered very gravely in the last administration,” he said, alluding to the motley crew serving under former president Barack Obama. “So many of you voted for people in the last administration. Someday you’ll have to explain that to me, because I don’t think they liked Israel too much.” Nothing wrong with this statement, other than the sad reality it depicted: that most Jews favored and remained faithful to a White House whose stated aim was to put “daylight” between the US and Israel. Nevertheless, Trump’s critics purposely highlighted two subsequent remarks, in order to assert – as the far-left Jewish organization J Street, did on Twitter – that he was “dipping into the deep well of antisemitic tropes that shape his worldview.”One of the comments eliciting the above slander was that some American Jews “don’t love Israel enough.” The other was that many Jews in the real-estate business “have no choice” but to vote for Trump, in spite of not liking him, because the wealth-tax plan put forth by Democratic primary hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) would bankrupt them “in about 15 minutes.” Never mind that he was right, both about the attitude of many American Jews toward Israel, and regarding those moguls who would be hurt by a wealth tax. Set aside the fact that 99% of his oratory was devoted to expressing deep love and respect for the Jewish people, who “endured, persevered and flourished beyond measure, building a thriving, proud, beautiful and mighty nation in the Holy Land.” Forget about his insistence that “we must not ignore the vile poison [of antisemitism] or those who spread its venomous creed,” and assurance that “[his] administration is committed to aggressively challenging and confronting antisemitic bigotry in every resource, and using every single weapon at [its] disposal.”None of the above makes any difference to the likes of Blumenthal and J Street, mind you. But why should it? The former backed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the treacherous nuclear deal with Iran that Trump ripped up, just as he had vowed to do during his presidential campaign. The latter – along with groups of left-wing rabbis and other self-described “human rights” activists –“opposes any efforts to pass legislation penalizing supporters of the BDS movement against Israel.”Naturally, Trump’s pro-Israel policies present a problem for his Jewish adversaries. Those who care about Israel but can’t bring themselves to champion his constant moves to bolster and safeguard the Jewish state engage in rhetorical acrobatics to explain why he’s really not good for the Jews. The rest, who allege disingenuously that trashing Israel is tantamount to tough love, have trouble deciding which target, Washington or Jerusalem, is more worthy of derision at any given moment.WHICH BRINGS us to the executive order that Trump signed on Wednesday, during the annual White House Hanukkah party, no less. How antisemitic of him.The document calls on the government departments enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism: “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”According to the IHRA, “Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to: calling for, aiding or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion; making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions; accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews; denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust); accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust; accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations; denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor; applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation; using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis; drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis; and holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”
During the glatt-kosher reception, Trump put it simply.“This is our message to universities,” he said. “If you want to extend the tremendous amount of federal dollars that you get every year, you must reject antisemitism and... never tolerate the suppression, persecution or silencing of the Jewish people. We have also taken a firm stand against the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement].”The Jews in the crowd, some wearing MAGA skullcaps, responded to the Hanukkah gift with the gratitude it deserved. Their angry brethren, meanwhile, were too busy penning anti-Trump op-eds to acknowledge that the Democratic Party they embrace and the colleges to which they send their kids are being taken over by actual antisemites. The irony clearly escapes them.