However, as bad as those things were (and are), the fact that over millennia our very existence has been jeopardized by countless antisemitic acts by the nations we had been shunted into, we have to acknowledge the tremendous level of support the president has shown for us now. Some of it direct. Some indirect via the conservative political policies he has put forward.
Those who keep pointing to what appears to be antisemitic rhetoric or dog whistles, or his associations with people that have embraced Holocaust denial, revisionism, or outright antisemitism - as evidence of latent antisemitism are either fools or so blinded by their hatred of him that they can’t see what’s right in front of them. Instead, they use this ‘evidence’ as proof of of how he really feels about us. Well, if what he just did is antisemitic, then I wish every past administration had been antisemitic that way. And I hope future presidents exhibit this kind of antisemitism .
The Jewish Insiderm illustrates my point:
Several major Jewish organizations welcomed President Donald Trump’s executive order on Wednesday, calling on every federal agency and department to review and report on civil and criminal actions available within their jurisdiction to fight antisemitism.
Under the executive order, the Department of Justice is directed to review existing antisemitism cases and prepare to more actively bring legal action against those who commit acts of antisemitism in violation of federal civil rights laws. The Department of Education is directed to conduct a thorough review of pending Title VI complaints and investigations.
The order also “demands the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws,” according to a White House fact sheet.
The executive order expands on a 2019 order combating antisemitism, issued during the first Trump administration, which required federal agencies to utilize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism when investigating Title VI civil rights violations.
“Violent criminals who attack Jews or provide material support to designated terrorist organizations like Hamas, ISIS, or Iran and its proxies should not find safe harbor on American soil,” Masters told Jewish Insider. “Those criminals should be prosecuted in full accordance with the law. People must understand that America does not and will not stand for religious hate crimes against Jews or any religious group, nor will it—or the people who foment it—be tolerated.”
By and large, this executive order has been widely and enthusiastically supported by Jewish advocacy organizations as disparate as the Agudah and the ADL. Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL commented:
“Combating antisemitism requires a whole-of-government approach, and we are eager to see every federal agency and department take concrete measures to address this scourge.”
“We welcome this effort by President Trump to put the full force of the federal government against rising antisemitism in our country,” Greenblatt said, adding that since Trump returned to the White House last week, “the increased enforcement of university policies has already started to make a significant difference in the campus environment—and more should be done.”
“We hope that holding perpetrators accountable to the fullest extent of the law—including, where applicable, violations of one’s visa conditions—will have a similar effect,” Greenblatt said.
Finally, some common sense has been restored to the White House. At least as far as combating antisemitism is concerned.
Unfortunately, as expected, the usual progressive voices are raising their typical free speech concerns. The same kind of concerns that enabled all the wide spread campus protests last year. Protests that involved some truly horrific antisemitic rhetoric that was defended by Ivy League presidents under the guise of protected free speech. Even more disturbingly, many far left progressive Jews typically found in the halls of academia have expressed similar attitudes about the Zionist colonialists committing genocide against Palestine’s indigenous peoples..
What most of these far left progressive Jews have in common is that they have virtually no knowledge of their Jewish heritage. The only Mitzvah they know (if any) is Tikun Olam. Which they intepret to mean helping Palestinians get their land back from the Zionists that stole it from them.
If only the Biden administration had displayed the same common sense on this issue as Trump’s executive order does, many of those campus protesters would have been long gone by now. Instead, they were allowed to spew their venomous lies about Israel's genocide of Palestinians - demanding that the Jewish state be dismantled and ‘returned’ to its rightful owners, the Palestinians.
For this reason, I am glad Trump won. The welfare of the Jewish people (and Israel which I addressed yesterday) is my number one priority. Everything else comes second.
That being said, I still have to put up with the truly bad aspects of Trump’s personality and assorted new daily outrages . Some of which has made me livid with anger! But at the same time I have to acknowledge that on balance, the Jewish people and Israel are far better off under his leadership than they were under Biden's leadership. Even if is based only on this executive order. On the other hand many of his other conservative policies are actually quite good for the nation, too. Like killing the highly discriminatory policy of DEI. His gender identification policy of only 2 genders (male and female). And requiring all 50 states to have an educational policy that includes school choice. (I really like that last one.
I firmly believe that the U.S. will survive all the negative aspects of his presidency and that, in the long run America, Israel, and the Jewish people will all be better off.
