Netanyahu and Trump
Photo: Reuters
Netanyahu's silence echoes Trump's disgraceful stance on neo-Nazis
Op-ed: By remaining silent on US president's failure to immediately condemn neo-Nazis in the wake of Charlottesville violence, the prime minister has demonstrated a nonchalant attitude toward rising anti-Semitism in the US; by leaving his son Yair to fight his corner on social media, an almost symmetrical position between the PM and Trump can be discerned.
US President Donald Trump succeeded yesterday in provoking the world’s entire population, except one person: the prime minister of Israel. It turns out that of all people, the prime minister of the only Jewish state in the world is not irked in the slightest.
If he had been irked enough, the prime minister would have come out against against the president’s horrifying statements.
The most natural thing to do would be for Netanyahu to issue a harsh condemnation of Trump’s words and show support for Jewish organizations which find themselves in a particularly difficult period in the US.
But Netanyahu didn’t rush to condemn. After turning Trump into the best thing that had happened to Jews in 5,000 years, after turning him into the biggest friend Israel has ever had, how can Netanyahu now come out and condemn the anti-Semitic and racist president?
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, almost symmetrical in their positions (Photo: Reuters)
Perhaps Netanyahu’s position is not too distant from that of the American president after all. Anyone who saw the Facebook page of his son Yair Netanyahu, a clear shared position can be discerned—almost symmetrical—between Netanyahu and Trump.
The young Netanyahu expressed enthusiastic support on his post for the dark positions of the American president.
He wrote in English—obviously in English since such profound and noble stances must be read by the entire world. He wrote that things must be put in proportion. Of course, Yair is exactly the person who is going to put things in proportion. He also wrote the neo-Nazis belong to the past and that they are a dying breed.
They are not like the bullies of the left-wing and anti-fascist organizations such as ‘Antifa’ and the organization for black rights, who are becoming stronger and stronger and becoming more dominant in universities and in public life in the US.
It turns out that our Yair also doesn’t grasp the difference between neo-Nazis and their opponents.
It’s true, we are talking about the son of the prime minister and not the prime minister himself, but in the absence of a response from Israel’s leader himself, beyond a half-hearted condemnation unlike the scathing response to tweets by Naftali Bennett, he is leaving the arena to his son.
Since we know that Yair Netanyahu expresses the true feelings of his family, we are simply left with the words of President Trump which are echoed loudly in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s silence.
But our big problem is not only with the president who is Israel’s biggest friend and who is anti-Semitic, but with the rift between us and American Jewry that will open as a result. Now it isn’t just the conversion and the Kotel. Now it is silence in the face of the largest wave of anti-Semitism to have broken out in the US in decades.
