�He�s setting us up�: Jewish leaders express alarm at Trump�s blaming
Jews if he loses

�I�m not going to lie that I�m not scared about the potential for
violence,� one extremism watchdog told JTA.

https://www.jta.org/2024/09/20/politics/hes-setting-us-up-jewish-leaders-
express-alarm-at-trumps-blaming-jews-if-he-loses

By Ron Kampeas September 20, 2024 6:04 pm

WASHINGTON � Donald Trump has promised to protect the Jews. But now, some
Jews are wondering whether they need protection from him.

In speeches Thursday night � the first to a small crowd of donors and
backers billed as a �Fighting Antisemitism� event, the second to a packed
ballroom at the Israeli American Council conference � Trump pledged he
would be the �defender� of American Jews and of Israel.

�You have a big protector in me,� he told the Israeli Americans. He told
his backers, �I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the
best friend Jewish Americans I�ve ever had in the White House.�

Both lines got him big applause. But it was another line that
precipitated a flood of outrage and concern from Jewish groups and
watchdogs that track extremist violence.

�I will put it to you very simply and gently. I really haven�t been
treated right, but you haven�t been treated right, because you�re putting
yourself in great danger, and the United States hasn�t been treated
right,� he said.

Then, citing a high estimate of the proportion of Jews who may vote for
him, he said, �The Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss if
I�m at 40%. Think of it, that means 60% are voting for Kamala.�

Trump blaming Jews for his potential defeat, which he has said would lead
to ruination in America and Israel, sent shudders through liberal and
centrist groups in a Jewish community already rattled by a year of rising
antisemitism spurred by the Israel-Hamas war. It also alarmed watchdogs
who have seen extremists inspired by Trump�s rhetoric engage in dangerous
conduct.

And it cast a renewed spotlight on accusations that Trump is antisemitic
at the very moment when he is seeking to position himself as a fighter
for Israel and against antisemitism. The Jewish Democratic Council of
America has already repeatedly branded him as an antisemite.

�President Trump, your words preemptively blaming Jews for your potential
election loss is of a piece with millennia of antisemitic lies about
Jewish power,� Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform
Judaism, said Friday on X. �It puts a target on American Jews. And it
makes you an ally not to our vulnerable community but to those who wish
us harm.�

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a national public policy group,
was out with a statement within minutes, saying Trump was engaging in
�dangerous dual loyalty tropes.�

The American Jewish Committee said Trump was endangering the Jewish
community.

�Setting up anyone to say �we lost because of the Jews� is outrageous and
dangerous,� it said in a statement. �Thousands of years of history have
shown that scapegoating Jews can lead to antisemitic hate and violence.�

Sharon Nazarian, a board member of the Anti-Defamation League, said the
spike in antisemitism in recent years meant that Jewish communities
should be especially on alert for Trump�s amplification of antisemitic
tropes.

�Look, we can only look back and connect the dots,� she said. She then
listed a number of antisemitic events and attacks that took place when
Trump was in the White House, including the deadly neo-Nazi march in
Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and deadly far-right synagogue
shootings in Pittsburgh in 2018 and in Poway, California, in 2019.

She also referenced the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol spurred by
Trump�s false claims that he had won the election, as well as the false
rumors Trump has recently spread about Haitian migrants in Ohio eating
pets. She worries that the Jewish community may find itself in a similar
situation.

�Look at what happens when one community is singled out and targeted by
candidate Trump, dehumanized and vilified,� she said regarding the
Haitian migrants. �That community right now is in despair, living in fear
for their lives. I think the Jewish community has to be prepared, given
what he said last night.�

Trump has made efforts to depict himself as the candidate who will
strengthen relations with Israel and defend Jews at home from hatred on
the progressive left. He frequently cites his record on Israel during his
term in office � including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and
brokering normalization deals between Israel and neighboring countries.
And he has charged that his opponent, Kamala Harris, and her party are
sympathetic to anti-Israel forces, including on college campuses. He has
claimed that her election would lead to Israel�s demise.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL CEO, pointed out in a statement that blaming
Jews for an election loss undermined his pledge.

�I appreciate that former President Trump called out antisemitism and
recognized its historic surge,� he said. �But the effect is undermined by
then employing numerous antisemitic tropes and anti-Jewish stereotypes �
including rampant accusations of dual loyalty.�

He continued, �Preemptively blaming American Jews for your potential
election loss does zero to help American Jews. It increases their sense
of alienation in a moment of vulnerability when right-wing extremists and
left-wing anti-Zionists continually demonize and slander Jews.�

Abraham Foxman, Greenblatt�s predecessor, said in an interview that he
was already anticipating violence spurred by Trump, given the events of
Jan. 6, 2021 � but that he was now worried that the threat was
specifically elevated for Jews.

�I worry about violence in the streets, but I think that�s beyond us
�unsupportive� Jews,� said Foxman, who in 2020 campaigned for Joe Biden�s
presidential bid. �But certainly he is reinforcing all the canards about
Jewish disloyalty, Jewish power, Jewish influence. And he�s saying,
basically, if he loses it�s our fault. He�s setting us up.�

IfNotNow, the Jewish group that is harshly critical of Israel and
frequently partners with anti-Zionist groups, said Trump was stoking
anti-Jewish violence.

�Make no mistake: this is a clear and flagrant instruction to his
fanatical base of extremists to target Jews with retributive violence if
he should lose in November,� said Lauren Maunus, the group�s political
director.

Trump�s defenders said that all he was doing, in typical Trumpian style,
was getting out the vote. (At a Christian conference in July, Trump also
admonished the crowd for not casting more votes for him. �I don�t want to
scold you, but did you know that Christians do not vote proportionately?
They don�t vote like they should,� he said, according to The New York
Times.)

�It�s not a surprise that Donald Trump says things in ways that you don�t
agree with, but that has nothing to do with his underlying commitment,�
said Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish
Coalition. �The simplest explanation is that the Jews are going to be
pivotal in this election, win or lose, the Jewish vote is going to be at
the forefront of this election. That�s why our president is doing
multiple events reaching out to the Jewish community, because it�s in
play.�

Joel Pollak, an editor at the conservative Breitbart News outlet, said if
anything he would have gone tougher than Trump.

�We had four years of peace under Trump, with no college craziness,� said
Pollak, who has authored a book recommending actions for Trump�s first
100 days in office. �We should reward that, and it�s incomprehensible to
non-Jews that we don�t.�

He added, �He wasn�t blaming Jews for anything, but rather, as he said,
hoping Jews would be �energized� to get out the vote for him. He said
nothing different than conservative Jews say, and was probably gentler
about it than I would have been.�

Alon Milwicki, who tracks antisemitic extremism at the Southern Poverty
Law Center, said the likely result of Trump�s rhetoric would be an
increase in harassment that has already risen in the wake of the outbreak
of the Israel-Hamas war last Oct. 7.

�The types of incidents we�ve seen in the post 10/7 world that have
increased have been things like swatting, swastikas drawn on religious or
Jewish institutions, visibly Jewish people being harassed,� he said. �If
Trump loses, we�re going to see more harassment, we�re going to see more
of the conflation of Israel and Jews.�

Michael Koplow, a political scientist and the chief policy officer at the
Israel Policy Forum, which supports a two-state outcome, said Trump was
importing a blame-the-Jews trope that had previously been absent from
mainstream American political discourse.

He was particularly surprised that Trump made the remarks in a speech
about countering antisemitism, but noted that Trump likely did not
understand why people saw the remark as antisemitic.