On Hamas and Hitler, our Reddest Lines Must Hold

This year’s protests against Israel quickly revealed themselves to be about more than a war abroad. Something drove people beyond their feelings about the larger conflict, Muslims or even Jews. In the protests and the social media posts, we could recognize a deeper, frightening shift in basic values.

For many of the protestors, the world consisted only of “oppressors” vs. “oppressed people”, with every person sorted by the color of their skin. Supposedly, the movement wanted to end oppression. But that mission was at odds with a culture that treated being “oppressed” like a prize to compete for and impress others with. Meanwhile, a person coming from an “oppressor” group could join this movement – so long as they repented and disavowed their community, religion and family. Failing this litmus test was grounds for rejection and mistreatment. This, supposedly, was racial justice.

As warped as this worldview was, it became even more backwards when applied to Israel. The gleeful massacre of October 7th could be justified by Israel’s policies. Protestors called for ‘One solution – Intifada Revolution’. In the most extreme instances, Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah were cheered on by young people claiming to stand for liberation.

When these chants broke out, not every student necessarily agreed or joined the calls. However, most saw no reason to leave, either. It was chilling to see how many students continued standing shoulder-to-shoulder with peers who commend those who slaughtered us. Perhaps they shrugged it off as just words. After all, the crimes and misdeeds of their opponents were worse.

They had crossed one of the easiest and boldest of red lines on antisemitism: When someone praises mass murderers of Jews, they should be instantly and automatically disqualified as a friend, ally or leader. Anyone who admires or emulates such evil must be swiftly rejected. This is a truth so obvious that it shouldn’t need to be said.

And yet, some of us reading this article do not yet meet that same standard.

Last week, four-star general John Kelly reported that Donald Trump insisted to him that “Hitler did some good things.” Kelly, Trump’s Chief of Staff at the time, pressed upon his boss that he should never, ever praise Hitler. Yet Trump repeatedly returned back to the point of Hitler not being so bad after all.

This was not their only exchange. According to two White House staffers who overheard, Trump also said “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.” Separately, Trump asked Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?”  When asked if the German generals he was admiring were the ones Kelly thought they were, Trump clarified: ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’”

These remarks were corroborated by several other White House staffers. This was not a new revelation, either – Kelly first made it public in 2022.

There are many reasons a Jew could have been reasonably compelled to support Trump. Maybe you believe he was better for the economy, Israel or some other issue. However, the point of red lines is to keep us tethered to our core principles. If we hold to them unconditionally, no amount of anger, fear, or extraordinary circumstance can compel us to betray our most important values.

As a people committed to honoring the memory of the Holocaust, one of our red lines is this: when a politician expresses clear and consistent admiration for the man who slaughtered the six million, do not vote for that person. Do not accept the unacceptable.

Many Jews could tell you that the signs have been there for quite some time. No, Trump never sought the genocide of Jews. But he’s repeatedly used language nearly identical to that in Mein Kampf. Trump now tells his followers that America’s greatest threat is “the enemy within,” and that he will imprison and turn the military on these American citizens. Like Hitler, he used a failed assassination attempt to create a cultish mythology around himself. He speaks openly about his plans to seize total control of the government. He attempted America’s first-ever coup, inciting a violent mob of thousands of extremists to overturn an election that he lost.

General Kelly has warned that Trump is a true fascist and intends to govern as one. That assessment is shared by the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. 13 Republican officials from Trump’s own administration agree. Between his open respect for dictators to his innovation of a modern Big Lie, Trump proves them right every week. Moreover, the evidence that Trump is a genuine antisemite could barely fit within its own post.

Think of a generation of Jews we once knew – the members of our families, synagogues and communities who are no longer with us. How would they feel about all of this? Would they ever tolerate a presidential candidate praising Hitler and all variety of avowed antisemites, just because he is supposedly ‘stronger on Israel?’ If they thought that candidate would reduce inflation, would they stomach him whipping up a violent siege on the Capitol and never expressing regret? I don’t believe they would. They would recognize that something was very wrong here. They would see his targeting of citizens and scapegoating of minority groups as un-American. Most of them would not want someone who did these things to ever serve in government again. We shouldn’t either.

Disagree as strongly as you want with Kamala Harris’s policy views on Israel. Believe everything you read in Republican mailers about her record. But even the wildest distortions will not try to claim that she or Tim Walz has praised Hamas, Hezbollah or any other mass-murderer of Jews. Nobody seriously believes she would round up enemies, overturn elections or chill dissent as president. And if you do try to read fairly into her stance, you will likely discover a very different picture – one where she has defended Israel and Jews at great political risk.

It is fine to maintain concerns about Harris on Israel. But there are much better ways to vote your values than to vote for Trump. You can vote Republican in other races on the ticket. Lobby your House member or Senator to hold the line in Congress.

With American Jews’ history in higher education, it makes sense that we’d be especially attuned to the situation on campuses. But in all of that hullabaloo, we seem to have forgotten that a far more lethal, more depraved, more explicitly antisemitic worldview festers outside of our circles. For years, the Department of Homeland Security’s has warned that white supremacist ideology is America’s #1 terror threat. Indeed, it has inspired most of this decade’s deadliest attacks on US soil, both against Jews and non-Jews. This is not the devil we’ve known – pointy hoods and shaved heads. The new iteration boasts a far broader reach and larger scale than anything we saw in the 90s.

We’ve felt great anxiety to see progressive antisemitism gaining cultural momentum. But for years, antisemitic white supremacist groups have seen their numbers surge. The engine driving this trend was very clear: America’s most influential man constantly promoting their conspiracy theories to hundreds of millions of people. But this, for some reason, we could tolerate.

Now, General Kelly’s corroborated report brings every Jewish voter to a moment of truth.

Can you vote for a man who praises and emulates Adolph Hitler?

However much it pains you, I hope you know the answer. You may vote against him rather than for her, and sigh and shake your head as you do so. You may even decide you have to leave that ballot line blank. But different as we may be, our most essential shared principles as American Jews make very clear what we cannot do.

I understand that some readers may reject this argument outright. Maybe you fully believe the most sensationalized claims about Harris. Maybe you insist that “Why can’t you be more like the German generals” does not sound exactly like something Trump would say. Maybe the serial huckster and scoundrel is telling the truth, and the four-star generals are lying. Or maybe, Israel policy triumphs over all, including the wellbeing of Jews in America – and America itself.

Whatever the reason, you may prance over the reddest of red lines and proudly vote for Trump. But if you stand by someone whom you know admires such evil, you are no different than the students in the encampments. You can no longer claim the mantle of patriotism or traditional American values. You lose the authority to rail against young people who can’t distinguish basic right from wrong. If you knowingly accept the unacceptable, your supposed desire to defeat antisemitism will reveal itself as a sham – a high-minded facade for the more important task of defeating members of the other party.