Answering questions and comments on ‘How Donald Trump will divide American and Israeli Jews’

My ” target=”_blank”>is ” target=”_blank”>habit ” target=”_blank”>here):

If [Trump’s] policies match his campaign rhetoric Israelis, with time, will grow to like him – and American Jews will seethe… when American Jews see the good relationship that President Trump has with Israel… it will make them doubt Israel’s values and morality, it will alienate them from Israel. What is going to happen when Israeli Jews see American Jews oppose President Trump at every step? It will make them question their good judgment, it will make them doubt their commitment to Israel’s security.

Now on to questions, comments, and my answers:

What about Hillary?

Don Radlauer wrote on “>than all other groups).

2. The numbers we have say that Orthodox Jews also supported Clinton. True, they did not support her to the same extent that other non-Orthodox Jews did – but the notion that a majority of Orthodox Jews were for Trump has nothing I’m aware of to rely on.

3. An Israel-American-Jewish-divide is an issue that rarely manifests itself in the Orthodox Jewish world. So writing about the divide in the context of a Trump presidency, there was no urgent need for me to deal with the group of Jews with which Israel is much less likely to have a problem.

Israelis are all little Trumps

Chami Shalev ” target=”_blank”>Twitter:

What is going to happen if Israeli Jews see American Jews oppose a man who emboldens anti-Semites? They will applaud.

My response: Mr. Esensten raises an important issue. I did not have enough space in the article to delve into the important question that I will phrase as follows: how will Israeli Jews react if Trump is very good with Israel – but his America becomes less tolerating of Jews and more anti-Semitic?

It is not easy to answer this question honestly. Israeli Jews are obviously appalled by anti-Semitism. Israeli Jews are obviously interested in preserving Israel. What if preserving Israel makes it necessary to turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism? I assume a lot of it will depend on the actual level of support versus the actual level of anti-Jewish sentiment in the US. I assume that Israel will not be quick to alienate a friendly administration as soon as American Jews make the allegation that this administration suffers from anti-Semitic tendencies.

Does it have to be bad?

Elke Weiss of New York left a comment on the NYT comment section