© ReutersNetanyahu acknowledges applause as he arrives to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), in Washington, March 4, 2014.
American Jews are capable of recognizing the potential fascism of Trump, but not the existing tyranny of Israel's rule over the Palestinians, under the decade-long leadership of Netanyahu.Many American Jews are angered at the prospect of Donald Trump addressing the AIPAC policy conference in Washington this coming week and are promising to abstain from attending, walk out of the hall or protest his presence in other ways.
"Throughout his campaign Trump has made statements that have been bigoted, racist, misogynistic, and Islamophobic - some could argue even statements that were anti-Semitic," wrote Rabbi Jesse Olitzky, representing a group of professionals and clergy which calls itself Come Together Against Hate.
"If we sit around and do nothing, even if we sit in silence, that shows complacency and that, by default, we agree with what he says," Olitzky wrote. "It is imperative to me as a communal leader, and to all Jews there who are going, that we stand up to his demagoguery."
Which would make perfect sense, were it not for the fact that the American community, both as individuals and as communal leaders, has been sitting in silence and showing complacency in the face of demagoguery and racism for years already, without feeling the need to stand up and do something about it.
AIPAC, that bastion of Jewish values, has gone even further.
Rather than sitting in complacent silence, it has given repeated and resounding standing ovations, year after year, to Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli demagogues and racists, who not only talk the talk - as Trump has done so far - but walk the walk, as well.