Pittsburgh, politics and Trump

Anti-Semitism hovered like a ghost, especially after the Pittsburgh massacre, on the midterm elections. It has unexpectedly become a keyword for all of November.

Perhaps the community’s continued haunting by the murder of 6 million Jews explains why American Jews continue to prefer voting Democratic, even as candidates move more and more to the left, and expressing anti-Israel views.

It’s a preference linked to the liberal tradition of the American Jewish community. But it has assumed a clearly paradoxical character after the pro-Israel positions taken by President Donald Trump in favor of Israel, which includes pulling the United States out of the Iranian nuclear deal, transferring the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and cutting off aid to the Palestinians. Trump also has family ties to the Jewish world.

It’s paradoxical, but it expresses a phenomenon that is hard to exaggerate: the new, widespread, dangerous divisions between the Jews of that Diaspora and Israel.

We still don’t know exactly how American Jews voted in the midterm elections, but 71 percent chose Hillary Clinton in 2016, and today at least 75 percent identify as Democrats. The deep divisions with Israel are evident: According to a survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee, 77 percent of Israelis approve of Trump’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations, while only 34 percent of Americans do. Moreover, 59 percent of Americans favor the establishment of a Palestinian state, but only 44 percent of Israelis support the idea.

Immediately after the murderous attack on Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh, Trump was essentially blamed for causing it. We have heard that he is responsible for creating a climate of violence, and encouraging white supremacy. Liberal American Jews have promoted this interpretation, but they have seemingly forgotten the anti-Semitic reality in America, including the left-wing brand espoused by the continuous, violent propaganda of Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, who compares Jews to “termites.”

No local dignitaries went to greet Trump upon his arrival at the Pittsburgh airport to pay his respects to the 11 victims of the synagogue massacre. And more than 82,000 signed a letter of reproach penned by Bend the Arc, a national organization of progressive Jews: “President Trump, your words, your policies, and your party have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement. The violence against Jews in Pittsburgh is the direct culmination of your influence.”

This hysteria is linked to the growing divide between American Jews and Israel. The American Jewish world, focused on its social rituals of liberalism and kindness, cannot accept the Middle Eastern conflict. The Obama period has Europeanized it. It doesn’t matter if their president is the friendliest ever seen towards Israel, which today is besieged by Iran on the Syrian border, threatened by Hezbollah’s missile arsenal in the north and Hamas in the south, daily tormented by terrorism against its citizens.

When they dismiss Trump’s foreign policy, American Jews show their lack of interest for a real possibility of a Middle Eastern-U.S. guided new balance. They are jeopardizing a future peace plan that could meld the Sunni Arab world to Israeli interests and also those of the Palestinians.

Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib — initially endorsed by J Street, the nonprofit advocacy group of American left-wing Jews — became the first Palestinian American to be elected to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, despite being openly anti-Israel. Others also newly elected to the U.S. House of Representatives have shown animosity towards Israel or a misunderstanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This is a peculiar situation. Trump may be suddenly wondering if the Jews are his friends or foes. Jews have always enjoyed, all over the world, national respect for their young state. But lately, it seems as though they are watching from opposite shores while the rest of the world shows bias against it. The United Nations. The Obama administration. And now, some who are making their way to Washington.

Fiamma Nirenstein was a member of the Italian Parliament from 2008 to 2013. She is a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.