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Trump issues first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents

By Ayesha Rascoe

REUTERS

 

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks after visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump delivered his first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States on Tuesday after a new spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centres around the country and vandalism in a Jewish cemetery.

 

Several of the centres were evacuated for a time on Monday after receiving the threats, the JCC Association of North America said, and another centre was evacuated on Tuesday morning in San Diego, California, according to police.

 

Also, vandals toppled about 170 headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, over the weekend.

 

"The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centres are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil," Trump told reporters.

 

He was speaking at the end of a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, which Trump said showed "why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms."

 

The comments marked a change for Trump, who had not explicitly and publicly condemned the threats against Jews when asked last week. Instead, he spoke more generally about his hopes of making the nation less "divided."

 

The president reacted with anger at a news conference last week when a journalist from a Jewish magazine asked how his government planned to "take care" of a rise in threats.

 

Trump berated the reporter for asking a "very insulting" question, appearing to believe the reporter was accusing him of being anti-Semitic.

 

"Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen in your entire life," the president said, adding that he was also the least racist person. Trump has often noted that one of his daughters is a convert to Judaism, he has Jewish grandchildren and he employs many Jews in his business.

 

Trump's daughter Ivanka, a close adviser to her father who practices Orthodox Judaism, responded to the latest threats in a message on her Twitter account on Monday evening.

 

"America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance," she said. "We must protect our houses of worship & religious centres."

 

On Tuesday, Trump again declined to answer a question about what action he would take to address the threats to Jewish organizations. Sean Spicer, a White House spokesman, said later that Trump would respond through "deed and action" over the coming months and years.

 

'BAND-AID'

 

Trump's derogatory campaign rhetoric against Muslims and Mexican immigrants won enthusiastic backing from prominent white supremacists who embrace anti-Jewish, anti-black and anti-Muslim ideologies. It also drew greater media attention to fringe extremist groups.

 

Trump has disavowed their support. His chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is the former publisher of Breitbart, a news website popular among right-wing extremist groups.

 

The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect in New York, which has criticized the Trump administration repeatedly over anti-Semitism, said his comments were too little too late.

 

"The president's sudden acknowledgement is a Band-Aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own administration," Steven Goldstein, the group's executive director, said in a statement.

 

Spicer rejected the characterization.

 

"I wish that they had praised the president for his leadership in this area," he told reporters when asked about Goldstein's comment. "Hopefully as time goes by they'll recognise his commitment to civil rights."

 

Jewish groups criticized the White House for omitting any mention of Jews in its statement marking Holocaust Memorial Day last month. The White House said the omission was deliberate since the Nazis also killed people who were not Jews, if in smaller numbers. The stated goal of the Nazis was the extermination of Jews.

 

One day after speaking at a security summit in Munich, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spent Sunday morning walking through the grounds of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany with a camp survivor.

 

Over the course of the U.S. Presidents Day holiday on Monday, bomb threats were sent to 11 Jewish community centres, including ones in the Houston, Chicago and Milwaukee areas, according to the JCC association. They were found to be hoaxes, as was another threat that forced the evacuation of a centre in San Diego on Tuesday morning, according to police.

 

No arrests were made. The FBI has said it is investigating recent threats as "possible civil rights violations."

 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a prominent Muslim human rights group, has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of anyone behind the threats, saying Muslims felt a duty to support any targeted minority group.

 

The incidents on Monday followed three waves of bomb threats so far this year. In all, at least 69 incidents at 54 Jewish community centres in 27 states and one Canadian province have been reported, according to the JCC association.

 

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington, Tom Gannam in St. Louis and Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Frances Kerry and Jeffrey Benkoe)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-22

[Credo]

I don't have a particularly strong opinion on Jewish issues, but the president's very slow response to the recent events is appalling.    He had been asked about it in a press conference and told the reporter to sit down.   

 

When he finally did condemn it, he read a statement with almost no feeling.   I've heard people read the phone book with more conviction.   I am surprised he didn't just get up and say 'blah, blah, blah'.   

 

I don't think he is capable of talking about anything other than how great he is.   He certainly shows no compassion for anyone or anything out of his immediate sphere.   

 

Consider the difference in his condemnation of the situation for Jews and his rhetoric about the 'event' (that never happened) in Sweden.   

 

[Traveler19491]

38 minutes ago, Credo said:

I don't have a particularly strong opinion on Jewish issues, but the president's very slow response to the recent events is appalling.    He had been asked about it in a press conference and told the reporter to sit down.   

 

When he finally did condemn it, he read a statement with almost no feeling.   I've heard people read the phone book with more conviction.   I am surprised he didn't just get up and say 'blah, blah, blah'.   

 

I don't think he is capable of talking about anything other than how great he is.   He certainly shows no compassion for anyone or anything out of his immediate sphere.   

 

Consider the difference in his condemnation of the situation for Jews and his rhetoric about the 'event' (that never happened) in Sweden.   

 

 

Good point about Trump's "passion" about "what happened in Sweden last night" in comparison to his deadpan reading of a script someone put together for him. Ted Cruz did a better job of reading "Green Eggs and Ham" on the floor of the Senate.  This is the same guy who stated that he didn't want blacks counting his money, but wanted that job being done by Jews ( “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/30/the-dumbest-stuff-donald-trump-has-ever-said.html ). 

[Enoon]

1 hour ago, Credo said:

I don't have a particularly strong opinion on Jewish issues, but the president's very slow response to the recent events is appalling.    He had been asked about it in a press conference and told the reporter to sit down.   

 

When he finally did condemn it, he read a statement with almost no feeling.   I've heard people read the phone book with more conviction.   I am surprised he didn't just get up and say 'blah, blah, blah'.   

 

I don't think he is capable of talking about anything other than how great he is.   He certainly shows no compassion for anyone or anything out of his immediate sphere.   

 

Consider the difference in his condemnation of the situation for Jews and his rhetoric about the 'event' (that never happened) in Sweden.   

 

 

Because the threats against Jews are not being made by visiting "citizens of certain countries".

 

Or even home grown terrorists of a specific "brand" (they "just do it").

 

No, they're being made by the lovely "down home folks" who voted for Trump.

 

 

Edited February 22, 2017 by Enoon

[Langsuan Man]

He finally did it because Ivanka tweeted about it !!!!!

 

 

and the twitter community was not kind about it either:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-religious-tolerance-tweet_us_58ac0cede4b0a855d1d949a2

[elgordo38]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

"The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centres are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil," Trump told reporters.

I am impressed Donald not once did you reach into your greatness vocabulary for a word or two. You were a little slow off the mark on your comments though. Did you gets some alternate truths and sort through them??

[hawker9000]

'Wonder if Trump realizes how fashionable Jew-hating has become these days.

[Jingthing]

This is a complicated nuanced issue mostly watched closely by Jews and antisemites but this article may shed some light on it.

 

Quote

“Trump’s words echoed the theory that the threats to Jewish community centers and other anti-Semitic incidents have been contrived to support the premise that Trump’s presidency is ushering in greater racism.” These “false flag” claims are rampant among anti-Semites and have been pushed by David Duke himself. “I wonder who could be placing all those calls?” Duke tweeted recently, referencing the threats to Jewish community centers.

 

 

Personally I don't think trump himself is an antisemite in the Nazi sense. More like in the Archie Bunker stereotype sense. Long evidence that he harbors typical stereotypes about Jews and money. 

 

But this is much bigger than what is in trump's heart. He's president now and from most American Jews POV, he has failed to provide moral leadership on this issue. Not that that was expected from him, but that's another matter.

 

It's also no secret (to trump of course as well) that American Jews are among the most passionate opponents of the trumpist movement, with about 75 percent voting against him.

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/02/donald_trump_s_disturbing_dalliance_with_anti_semitic_rhetoric.html

 

Edited February 22, 2017 by Jingthing

[Credo]

I don't have a particularly strong opinion on Jewish issues, but the president's very slow response to the recent events is appalling.    He had been asked about it in a press conference and told the reporter to sit down.   

 

When he finally did condemn it, he read a statement with almost no feeling.   I've heard people read the phone book with more conviction.   I am surprised he didn't just get up and say 'blah, blah, blah'.   

 

I don't think he is capable of talking about anything other than how great he is.   He certainly shows no compassion for anyone or anything out of his immediate sphere.   

 

Consider the difference in his condemnation of the situation for Jews and his rhetoric about the 'event' (that never happened) in Sweden.   

 

[Jingthing]

Hot exchange:

 

Also to address the trumpist talking point that there can't be antisemitism in the "alt-right" riddled trump regime that is at the same time (at least now) pro right wing Zionist and the apple of Netanyahu's eye, well, it's not that simple --

 

Quote

 

Yet, for many centrists and liberals, the idea of Kushner and Bannon working together causes endless confusion: How could the descendent of Holocaust survivors find common cause with the ideological leader of the “alt-right”?

The answer may lie in the history of the Zionist movement, a history demonstrating that there is no inherent contradiction between Zionism and anti-Semitism. The two ideologies have in fact often worked in concert to achieve their shared goal: concentrating Jews in one place (so as to better avoid them in others).

 

http://forward.com/opinion/363545/the-disturbing-alliance-between-zionists-and-anti-semites/

Edited February 22, 2017 by Jingthing

[bendejo]

He had to choose between the Jews and the white supremacist crowd that helped give him the electoral majority.  Probably got the nearest thing to a non-drug induced erection he's had in years when he saw the "heil Trump" videos, and it breaks his heart to risk alienating those fine fellows.

 

But gee whiz, is Ivanka the hero of this episode?

 

 

[hawker9000]

1 hour ago, bendejo said:

He had to choose between the Jews and the white supremacist crowd that helped give him the electoral majority.  Probably got the nearest thing to a non-drug induced erection he's had in years when he saw the "heil Trump" videos, and it breaks his heart to risk alienating those fine fellows.

 

But gee whiz, is Ivanka the hero of this episode?

 

 

LOL.  It just wouldn't be politics without your War on Whites, would it?  Well, keep it up.   It worked wonders last November.  'Not sure the RNC shouldn't actually be paying you guys.  All the lame carping since the election is really pretty entertaining.   'Like spoiled kids finally being told by dad to cut out the horseplay. 

[bangon04]

Strange that when Trump speaks he seems to pronounce the word as "antisemetic" instead of antisemitic.

 

Remember George W who couldn't say "nuclear" and said "nucular"

[joecoolfrog]

1 hour ago, hawker9000 said:

LOL.  It just wouldn't be politics without your War on Whites, would it?  Well, keep it up.   It worked wonders last November.  'Not sure the RNC shouldn't actually be paying you guys.  All the lame carping since the election is really pretty entertaining.   'Like spoiled kids finally being told by dad to cut out the horseplay. 

 

1 hour ago, bangon04 said:

Strange that when Trump speaks he seems to pronounce the word as "antisemetic" instead of antisemitic.

 

Remember George W who couldn't say "nuclear" and said "nucular"

Hawker , your meds are in the bathroom cabinet , dont make a habit of forgetting them.