Israeli left slams Netanyahu's silence on Trump's anti-Semitism

Israeli left slams Netanyahu's silence on Trump's anti-Semitism
The Israeli left has slammed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for sweeping Trump's anti-Semitism under the carpet.
2 min read
22 August, 2019
Trump on Wednesday went on an anti-Semitic tirade [Getty]
Israeli politicians on the left lambasted prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu for refusing to condemn Trump’s anti-Semitism after saying Jews who vote Democrats lack knowledge and loyalty.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump accused American Jews who don't support him or criticise Israel of "disloyalty", viewed by many as another anti-Semitic slur.

"I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat - it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty", he said.

After he was called out across the world for his racism, he quoted a conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root in a tweet that claimed the Jews of Israel "idolise" him, while followers in the US do not appreciate him.

Netanyahu’s Likud shunned away from responding to Trump’s outrageous comments against Jews, saying that “it is not a campaign issue.”

One senior Likud figure said “the last thing we want to do is interfere in American politics, other than to say is we are friends with both parties.”

The comments were met with outrage by members of the Israeli left.

Joint List Knesset member Ofer Cassif said Trump was essentially accusing the majority of Jewish Americans of being disloyal, since a large amount of them voted Democrats.

"In a normal world, a president who spoke like that about the Jews of his country would receive severe condemnation from the prime minister of Israel, but not in the case of Netanyahu," he said.

In the last US Presidential elections of 2016, 71 percent of Jewish Americans voted for Hillary Clinton.

Palestinian citizen of Israel MK, Ayman Odeh, who has a track record for speaking out against Israeli crimes against Palestinians, criticised both Trump and Netanyahu.

“The only thing more disgusting than what Trump said is the hypocritical silence of Bibi,” the anti-racism MK said.

Member of the Democratic Union party Tamar Zandberg directly accused Trump of anti-Semitism and said Israel should be on the forefront to call him out.

“Casting doubt on the loyalties of minorities has been directed against the Jewish people for generations, and today unites the anti-liberal alliance of Netanyahu, Trump and other leaders,” she said.

“Netanyahu should have been the first to demand an apology; on the other hand, he was the first to say that the Left has forgotten to be Jewish.”

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