Is Trump an anti Semite?

A member of my family sent me the following article, by Janis Ian:

I can’t believe people don’t see the parallels. No one thought the National Socialist German Workers Party would “allow” Hitler to do what he did. No one believed that kristallnacht would lead to Auschwitz. Everyone said “the party will stop him”, “the courts will stop him”, “there’s a process in place that will stop him”.
The Republican party’s active encouragement of “tea party” misbehavior, the party’s belief that they could “control” Trump, their turning a blind eye to his continuing egregious behavior, have landed us here.
Despite his disgusting, immoral, unethical, misogynistic behavior, despite his failure after failure as a business person, despite his refusal to give a hoot about the people working for and under him, Republicans like Ryan and Corker went ahead and supported him – first, in the hope that they’d keep their own jobs intact, and second because they made the spurious argument that “I don’t support him. I support the Republican Party.”
Well, what is the Republican Party, or for that matter the Democratic Party? It’s the people IN it. Not the flags, not the banners, not the party hats, but the people.
Now, Ryan finally says he’s had enough. John McCain says he’s finally had enough. Personally, I suspect the only reason most of the politicians deserting Trump are doing so is because their wives have finally had enough. Apparently nothing else mattered enough, or at least, nothing else mattered as much as their own political hides.
I’m no Hillary Clinton fan. If you’d told me a year ago that I would be supporting her, I’d have laughed in your face. But I refuse to vote for a third-party candidate who will do nothing more than deliberately split the vote, and throw this country to the dogs.
I’m not twelve years old any more. I don’t have to like my candidate. I just have to trust that they’ll do their job, behave in a rational manner, treat other world leaders – heck, treat everyone! – with respect, and provide a decent example for my granddaughters. I have to believe that at 3 in the morning, when they’re bored pushing buttons to tweet one last vindictive remark, they won’t push some other buttons and plunge us into a nuclear holocaust.

I have heard people say “I trust in the impeachment process” as an excuse to vote Trump into power, knowing he shouldn’t get within a mile of the White House. I have heard people say “Yeah, he scares me, but I support the Republican Party, and he’s my candidate.” I’ve even heard people say “He’ll put money in my pocket. He knows how to do that” and “He has a secret plan – that’s why he won’t reveal it, because the Democrats would steal it” about everything from health to economics. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. The only secret plan any of these people have is to stay in power. Period.
As to supporting a candidate because you support the party, well, welcome to the National Socialist German Workers Party, folks. A/k/a the Nazis.
Doesn’t anyone read history any more?
Shame on us. Shame on all of us, for standing by and letting this happen. Shame on every single person who doesn’t vote, shame on every single politician who would rather keep their seat than do what’s right, and shame on us for continuing to vote these people into office. Across the board, not Republican or Democrat. Across the board. Shame on us.

I’ll admit that back in the day, I thought Ian was super hot, but comparing Trump to Hitler? Give me a break! Not that this wasn’t predictable. Every time the Establishment Left doesn’t like somebody, they compare him to Hitler. It’s a tired cliché.

I don’t keep up much with the election; personally, I don’t really like either major candidate. But at least Trump isn’t as enthusiastic about eliminating white people as Clinton is, so I’ll vote for him.

I asked my family member to provide me some anti Semitic quotes that Trump has let escape from his (admittedly) loose lips, but she couldn’t provide me with any. So I did a quick search and found an article from Forward.com. It listed five “cringe-worthy” quotes from Trump:

1) Jews are Hagglers “I know why you’re not going to support me. You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money …Look, I’m a negotiator like you folks, we’re negotiators.”

2) One of My Favorite Daughters is Jewish “I want to thank my Jewish daughter. I have a Jewish daughter…This wasn’t in the plan but I’m very glad it happened.”

3) How ‘Bout That Jon Leibowitz — I Mean Stewart “I promise you that I’m much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz – I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated.”

4) Debbie Wasserman Schultz is “Neurotic” (Read: Jewish Woman) “This is a woman that is a terrible person,” Trump said of Democratic
National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz after calling her “crazy” and a “highly neurotic woman.”

5) Not That I’ve Actually Read Hitler… “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.… My friend Marty Davis from Paramount gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.”

 

None of those can be even remotely considered “anti Semitic” comments. Lame attempts at humor? Perhaps. References to old Jewish stereotypes? Perhaps. I’ve know many Jews, including myself, who are “guilty” of the exact same thing. Yes, Jews do joke about Jewish stereotypes. Yes, Jews do make jokes (sometimes bad ones) at the expense of other Jews.

As for #4, we’ve got to wonder if the term “anti Semitic” has any meaning if it can be applied to any person who says something negative about an individual who happens to be Jewish. That would make just about everybody anti Semitic.

Does reading Mein Kampf make somebody an anti Semite? Well… does reading Das Kapital make somebody a communist? Does reading the Qur’an make somebody a Muslim? How silly!

Until Trump proclaims his hatred of Jews, or calls for our extermination, we should refrain from calling him an anti Semite.