The head of American’s leading Jewish defence organisation has condemned former President Donald Trump for using “antisemitic stereotypes” in comments about Jews and Israel.
Jonathan Greenblat, chief executive, of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted that “insinuating that Israel or the Jews control Congress or the media is antisemitic, plain and simple”.
Mr Trump made his remarks during an interview with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, author of the recently published book In Hebrew, Trump’s Peace.
Clips of the interview were broadcast on the Unholy Podcast, which is co-hosted by Jonathan Freedland and Israeli TV journalist Yonit Levy.
Mr Trump said, “There’s people in this country that are Jewish, no longer love Israel. I’ll tell you, the evangelical. Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country.”
He went on, “It used to be that Israel had absolute power over Congress. And today, I think it’s the exact opposite. And I think Obama and Biden did that.
“And yet in the election, they still get a lot of votes from Jewish people which tells you that the Jewish people – and I’ve said this for a long time - the Jewish people in the United States either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel.”
He added that the New York Times, which was “run by Jewish people”, “hates Israel”.
New quotes from Trump to @BarakRavid: Most US Jews don't love Israel. Exclusive for Unholy podcast
— Yonit Levi (@LeviYonit) December 17, 2021
@Freedland pic.twitter.com/Hv4joYkbCN
In response, Mr Greenblat tweeted, “Once again, former President Donald Trump has linked his lack of strong support among most US Jews to their feelings about Israel and used classic antisemitic stereotypes about Israeli and Jewish control of Congress and the press to bolster his argument.”
It was sad, he added, “that once again we have to restate this point, but the vast majority of American Jews support and have some kind of connection to Israel, regardless of which political candidates they vote for.”
During his presidency, Mr Trump moved the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. His administration helped to broker the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain and the plan drawn up by his son-in-law Jared Kushner to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians was widely seen as favourable to Israel.
However, in other comments he made to Mr Ravid broadcast last week, he suggested that the then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “did not want to make a deal with the Palestinians”.
