This is A Tale of Three Leaders.
(It is also a tale of two countries. And a tale of the one world – a world in which the three leaders, two countries and all of us must somehow find a better way to continue to live with each other.)
Leaders A and B are legislators whose names are known around the world. They recently made public statements that got them a world of attention. And meanwhile, Leader C got all the attention he sought, in his too-familiar way.
Leader A, who is Jewish and passionately pro-Israel, declared in a speech last month that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become “a major obstacle to peace.” The problem, Leader A said, is that Netanyahu opposes a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution that is Israel’s best and only hope for long-term peace. He said Israel should hold a new election, suggesting it should occur “after the war begins to wind down.”
Leader B, who is also Jewish and passionately pro-Israel, declared with greater precision at a press conference last Wednesday, that Israel should hold new elections in September to avoid a national “rift.” He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn’t moved more aggressively to “bring back the hostages.” Leader B was speaking during a week when tens of thousands of patriotic Israelis have been clogging city streets, protesting Netanyahu’s mishandling of the crisis in Gaza, and that began with Netanyahu’s failure to safeguard Israel from Hamas’s horrific Oct. 7 attacks and kidnappings.
At this point, we need to identify the prominent names and different nationalities of these two leaders: Leader A is U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Leader B is Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s National Unity Party. Gantz, who has long been beating Netanyahu in polls, had joined the prime minister’s wartime unity government. But now he has called on Netanyahu, a wartime leader who remains unpopular with most Israelis, to hold new elections in September.
Now you are all set to evaluate the crisis-time performance of Leader C – who, as you’ve figured out, is Donald Trump. In response to Schumer’s impassioned effort to help Israel find an achievable path to peace, Trump chose to respond with perhaps the most personally and religiously prejudiced attack ever made by anyone who ever served as a president of the United States.
In an interview with one of his former aides, Sebastian Gorka, who now hosts a conservative talk radio show, Trump was asked what he thought of criticism of Netanyahu’s policies that has been leveled by Schumer and other prominent Democrats including President Joe Biden.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” said Trump. “…Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
Trump went on to talk about the large turnout of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in America. They are justifiably protesting the wartime death, violence, suffering, famine and dislocation Israel has inflicted upon Gaza’s entire population.
“Don’t forget, when you see those Palestinian marches — even I am amazed at how many people are in those marches,” Trump declared. “And guys like Schumer see that, and to him it’s votes. I think it’s votes more than anything else. …He was always pro-Israel. He’s very anti-Israel now.”
As Israelis retaliated against Hamas, the terrorists chose to hide in tunnels beneath the innocent civilians. Hamas was daring Israel to kill Palestinian civilians in order to get to them. Why? Hamas knew it would outrage the world against Israel. But Trump didn’t focus on that. He chose instead to make false allegations challenging the religious faith and commitment to Israel of all Jews who don’t support him.
Interestingly, last month, Gantz was among those who criticized Schumer’s decision to publicly criticize Netanyahu and call for new elections. Gantz said Schumer was interfering with Israeli politics. But this week, Schumer was quick to support Gantz’s decision to call for new elections and do so with a specific time target of September. Schumer tweeted (or is it “X-ed” now?):
“When a leading member of Israel’s war cabinet calls for early elections and over 70% of the Israeli population agrees according to a major poll, you know it’s the right thing to do.”
Of course, there’s another way to make the same point:
When a leading member of Israel’s war cabinet calls for early elections and over 70% of the Israeli population agrees according to a major poll, you know it is the wrong thing to do to claim that a devout American Jew who takes the same position they do hates Israel and hates their religion.
It is way past time for America’s patriotic and self-respecting Republicans to unite at least enough to demand that their leader conduct himself according to the values that once made their Grand Old Party great.
Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive. Readers may send him email at martin.schram@gmail.com.)
