Farley Weiss suggests in his opinion column on May 30 that Donald Trump “signed an executive order that made Jews a protected group under Title VI.” That is false. As far back as 2004, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights affirmed that Title VI covered harassment and other forms of discrimination against Jews. It relied in part on Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1987.
In fact, as a Trump-era statement itself made clear, the Executive Order only “reaffirm[ed] the long-standing principle” that Title VI specifically treats Jews as a protected group, while also emphasizing the importance of that principle and clarifying the definition of antisemitism. More recently, the Biden administration issued its truly historic and vital “National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.”
Weiss’ column goes off-kilter in more profound ways, however, by suggesting that Jews who care about antisemitism and Israel might have good reasons to vote from Trump instead of Biden this November. Biden might criticize Israel. But his empathy for Jews and support for the Jewish state are principles he feels in his kishkes, as the saying goes.
Trump, on the other hand, has no kishkes. His views of the world and other people are all either purely transactional or grounded in his self-interest, his inflated if fragile ego, or his bottomless well of grievances. If Israel or the Jewish community ever crossed him, he would likely lash out furiously and irrationally. Moreover, his real common cause for many years has been with right-wing extremists and antisemites. We Jews should not trust him to have our back.
Perry Dane, Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School
I continually marvel at the left’s, and specifically the university’s elitist cadres love affair with the Democratic nominee for president. From Obama’s and Biden’s opening up space between the U.S. and Israel, to stopping weapon deliveries during a war against Hamas terrorists, to his feckless moral equivalence of Hamas and Israel, to his attempt to remove an elected Israeli PM in order to interfere in internal Israeli policies, the Democratic party is no longer protecting the Jewish state. The hatred for Trump in the above article is palpable, but emotion is the worst determinant of foreign policy. It’s obvious to any rational observer that any Democratic nominee for president cannot any longer be counted on, and Biden’s narcissism and fear of the AOC wing of his party, along with his growing senility make a vote for him a vote against Israel’s safety. If you can put aside your emotional hate for Trump and just look at his policies vs Biden there’s only one choice here.
Nothing quite says “support for the Jewish state” like Biden cutting off the supply of weapons to Israel when Israel is fighting a defensive war against an enemy that seeks its complete destruction.