Donald Trump is not an anti-Semite

Don’t take my word for it.

The exact phrase “Donald Trump is not an anti-Semite” can be found in “Never Trump” media such as Haaretz (November 16, 2016), Daily Kos (October 28, 2016) and even the Washington Post (July 7, 2016).

Just this past week, none other than Barack Obama’s former Special Assistant, and current head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Jonathan Greenblatt, declared in The Forward: “I do not believe that Donald Trump is an anti-Semite.”

I guess that settles it. Donald Trump is not an anti-Semite. Case closed. Right?

Not so fast. There is more to the story. Here, generally, is how their stories go.

They begin by saying “of course Donald Trump is not an anti-Semite, why…look at his daughter and his grandkids,” etcetera. But that is just a setup for what they really came to say.

Case in point: Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL.

The Anti-Defamation League, under Greenblatt’s leadership, has fixated on Donald Trump. The ADL filed an amicus brief to challenge President Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration. It spoke out against Trump’s Executive Order on “Sanctuary Cities.” It issued a statement that “strongly condemns” Trump’s actions to protect Americans from foreign terrorists. It voiced “deep concern” over the way President Trump answered two questions on anti-Semitism – calling it “mind-boggling,” and Mr. Greenblatt himself wrote a piece for The Forward in which he piled on, saying Trump’s “silence on the issue of anti-Semitism is so stunning.”

Really? Let’s take a look at some real “stunning silence” on anti-Semitism.

We all witnessed “stunning silence” on anti-Semitism when Jonathan Greenblatt’s former boss gave billions of dollars, and a sweetheart nuclear deal, to one of the most anti-Semitic regimes in the world: Iran. The ADL estimates that 60 percent of Iran’s adult population – 32 million — harbor anti-Semitic attitudes. So, why give them billions and a path to a bomb? We heard a range of opinions, and even opposition, to the Iran Nuclear Deal. But almost no accusations of anti-Semitism in President Obama’s support for anti-Semitic Iran. Again, don’t take my word for it. President Obama himself said “there are deep strains of anti-Semitism in the core [Iranian] regime” and that Iran’s leadership’s “ideology is steeped with anti-Semitism” – right before he gave them billions of dollars and a nuclear path forward.

Mr. Greenblatt worked for the Obama Administration, which touted the anti-Semitic Muslim Brotherhood as a “moderate alternative” in the Middle East. Since when is it “moderate” to support one of the most anti-Semitic movements in the world? The Muslim Brotherhood actually partnered with Adolf Hitler in his Holocaust against the Jews, saying: “Our fundamental reason for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab World.” Is it anti-Semitic to partner with a group like that, or is it just anti-Semitic to be at a Trump rally when someone yells something?

When Barack Obama gave $221 million, on his last day in office, to Palestinians who teach their kids to hate and kill Jews, making the Palestinian territories the single most anti-Semitic territory in the whole word according to the ADL (with 93 percent of Palestinians harboring anti-Semitic beliefs) – where was all the outrage over the then-President’s support for real and statistically-proven anti-Semitism? Again; some (not the ADL) may have criticized Obama’s cash gift to the most anti-Semitic Jew-killers in the world. But nobody called Obama an anti-Semite for doing it.

I may be wrong, but I checked the ADL press page, and there was not a word of outrage over that bag of cash for anti-Semites. Interesting.

And then there was the Obama/Kerry sabotage of Israel at the United Nations, when they refused to stand up for Israel over UN Security Council Resolution 2334. The ADL did issue a statement against this radical break from longstanding US/Israel policy. But they never played the anti-Semitism card. Even though it took place in the social club and gathering place for the world’s worst anti-Semites.

Now, for some direct apples-to-apples comparisons:

1) Donald Trump fought and opposed, and is continuing to fight and oppose, the disastrous multi-billion dollar nuclear deal with the anti-Semitic regime of Iran.

2) Donald Trump is considering designating the anti-Semitic Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.

3) Donald Trump Immediately stopped the $221 last-minute gift to the most anti-Semitic regime in the world.

4) Donald Trump, before he was even President, did some back-room diplomacy to get Egypt to withdraw its version of a UN resolution similar to UNSCR 2334, he pressured the UN to not pass 2334, and he has been fighting it ever since – even threatening to cut the United Nations funding due, among other things, to its anti-Semitism.

My question to those who oppose anti-Semitism: where is the love for Donald Trump for being your champion in fighting real anti-Semitism?

No love. Just silence.

Actually, they are not being silent. They are raising their voices to call President Trump an anti-Semite, and they are mocking him for declaring his love for his Jewish daughter, grandchildren and for the Jewish people.

The world is upside-down. For some people. For the rest of us – Israelis, who know what real anti- Semitism is – we know that Donald Trump is not an anti-Semite.

And, let’s be honest, you know it too.

—

Marc Zell is a practicing international attorney in Israel and the U.S. and serves as Co-Chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel and Vice President of republicans Overseas International.