Former President Donald Trump’s antisemitism has too often gone unchallenged or mildly criticized.
The latest example of Trump’s promotion of antisemitic tropes has been the former president’s social media attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
After Shapiro’s speech August 21 at the Democratic National Convention, Trump called Shapiro a “highly overrated Jewish governor” in a post on his Truth Social network. Trump went on to say that Shapiro “has done nothing for Israel” and called his speech “really bad and poorly delivered.”
Although we strongly disagree with his assessment of the governor’s performance, Trump is within his right to criticize the governor’s speech. He can also offer his unsubstantiated opinion that Shapiro has done nothing for Israel.
The truth is that Shapiro is a well-known strong supporter of Israel as is the Biden administration and most Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
But as Shapiro points out, “last I checked the job of governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not involve foreign policy with Israel.”
Trump promotes antisemitism when he refers to Shapiro as the “overrated Jewish Governor.”
There is no reason for him to point out Shapiro’s faith in this context and it has no relevance to how well he governs Pennsylvania.
Shapiro has offered a sharp response to Trump’s biased attacks. “It’s clear over the last few days Donald Trump is obsessed with me and obsessed with continuing to spew hate and division in our politics. He’s someone who has routinely peddled antisemitic tropes like this.”
Shapiro added that the way Trump judges Jewish elected officials by their stances on Israel—and positions himself as the arbiter on who is a good Jewish leader—promotes a notion of a dual loyalty that is “at its heart antisemitic,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Trump’s attacks on politicians who are nonwhite, non-Christian or female often singles out the race, religion or gender of his political opponent.
Since launching his presidential bid last year, he said that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion.”
During an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump questioned whether Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is Black or not. The daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris last week became the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to accept a major party’s presidential nominee.
In his arrogance, Trump positioned himself as the arbiter of who is Black and which Jewish politician is loyal to Israel.
Trump has repeatedly shown that he is willing to divide Americans along racial and religious lines to achieve political power.
In response, America’s leaders, especially those in politics and in the news media, must be willing to call out and strongly condemn Trump’s hateful rhetoric.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
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