WASHINGTON:(WN)-Days after he declined to
denounce anti-Semitism, President Donald Trump finally condemned the reported
increase in anti-Semitism in the United States that has been linked to his
political rise.
But it wasn’t enough.Trump was immediately
pressed to speak more forcefully about the issue and to take specific steps to
tackle hate crime in the United States, including improving data collection and
providing additional resources to protect threatened communities.
“The president’s sudden acknowledgment of
anti-Semitism is a band-aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected
his own administration,” said Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne
Frank Center for Mutual Respect. “His statement . is a pathetic asterisk of
condescension after weeks in which he and his staff have committed grotesque
acts and omissions reflecting anti-Semitism, yet day after day have refused to
apologize and correct the record.”
Trump’s comments his first public comments
since drawing criticism for failing to denounce recent attacks targeting Jewish
people and institutions came Tuesday after a series of bomb threats against
Jewish Community Centers and the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Missouri.
His remarks also followed a tweet by his daughter, Ivanka.
“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our
Jewish community and community centers 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 said during a visit to the National Museum of
African American History and Culture.
In recent months, synagogues and other Jewish
institutions have been vandalized with swastikas and other anti-Semitic
symbols. Jewish community centers have been threatened with a series of
unsolved bomb threats.
“If leaders in the United States continue to
halfheartedly condemn hate crime, we will continue to see these horrific
instances of anti-Semitism and intolerance,” Human Rights First’s Susan Corke
said.
Twice last week, Trump largely ignored the
issue when asked for his reaction to the attacks at back-to-back news
conferences. At least once, he responded as if the accusations were directed at
him, which they weren’t.
Trump’s failure to take advantage of the
opportunities to denounce what was taking place left Jewish groups confused and
frustrated, especially following the recent visit of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.
“President Trump has been inexcusably silent
as this trend of anti-Semitism has continued and arguably accelerated,” said
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism. “The President of the United States must always be a voice against
hate and for the values of religious freedom and inclusion that are the
nation’s highest ideals. We urge President Trump to continue to speak out
against anti-Semitism as he did today and to apply the full weight of the
executive branch’s powers behind the effort to hold accountable the
perpetrators of such hatred.”
At the White House, Press Secretary Sean
Spicer took a moment during his daily press briefing to reiterate Trump’s
condemnation of anti-semitic threats targeting Jewish centers. He called them
“horrible and painful,” and a reminder of the work that must be done to “root
out hate and prejudice and evil.”
Spicer then defended the president as several
questioners wondered why he hadn’t spoken sooner. Spicer didn’t announce any
specific initiatives, but said the president’s been clear since his campaign
that he would speak out against hate, anti-feminism and racism.
“Today I think was an unbelievably forceful
comment by the president as far as his denunciation of the actions that are
currently targeted toward Jewish community centers,” he said. “But I think that
he's been very clear previous to this, that he wants to be someone that brings
this country together and not divide people, especially in those areas.”
During the presidential campaign, Trump
counted anti-Semites among his supporters, and his aides occasionally employed
veiled anti-Semitic messages and images associated with white supremacists in
their social media posts.
Trump’s slogan “America first” also recalls
the movement that urged the country to appease Adolf Hitler decades ago, and
his aides omitted a reference to Jews in the White House’s Holocaust
Remembrance Day statement.
Jonathan Boyarin, director of Jewish Studies
at Cornell University, said that if Trump were serious about fighting
anti-Semitism, he would fire his top aide, Stephen Bannon, and stop targeting
Muslims and Arabs.
“President Trump’s acknowledgment Tuesday
that anti-Semitism is ‘horrible’ rings hollow,” he said. “If he really were
offended by both anti-Semitism and racism, he wouldn’t have anything to do with
advisers like Stephen Bannon. If what he really wants for this country is
‘love,’ then he would promote policies that serve everyone who lives in, works
in, and visits the United States, rather than choosing to target Muslims and
Arabs.”
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