I decided to wait at least 24 hours before posting this, in the hope that a spark of common sense would ignite the dark minds at the pro-Trump Breitbart.com. But nope: it’s still there.
Now I’ll admit there’s something alluring about being a “renegade Jew” (it’s almost as cool as being a “desperado Jew”), but I think Bill Kristol– the very mainstream conservative editor of The Weekly Standard– is seriously unqualified for that moniker, especially this year.
The author of the piece– David Horowitz– is famous for his transformation since the 1960s from far leftist to far rightist. He attacks Kristol (and other prominent conservatives) for their refusal to fall in line behind Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for president.
I am a Jew who has never been to Israel and has never been a Zionist in the sense of believing that Jews can rid themselves of Jew hatred by having their own nation state. But half of world Jewry now lives in Israel, and the enemies whom Obama and Hillary have empowered — Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, ISIS, and Hamas — have openly sworn to exterminate the Jews. I am also an American (and an American first), whose country is threatened with destruction by the same enemies.
To weaken the only party that stands between the Jews and their annihilation, and between America and the forces intent on destroying her, is a political miscalculation so great and a betrayal so profound as to not be easily forgiven.
A Democratic victory in November would lead to the annihilation of the Jews? Wow. He puts some of our overwrought commenters at HP to shame.
The fact is that when it comes to American Jews, Kristol was much more of a “renegade” in past presidential elections, when he supported Republican candidates rather than the Democratic candidates favored by the overwhelming majority of Jewish voters.
Kristol’s refusal (so far) to support Trump actually brings him closer to the majority of his fellow Jews, who won’t be voting for Trump either. So while Kristol (who supports the idea of a third-party candidate) might be described as a renegade Republican or perhaps a renegade conservative, the only sense in which he is a renegade Jew is that he won’t, as most Jews will, support Hillary Clinton.
Horowitz reveals that he wrote the, um, provocative headline and he defends doing so. But a glance at the comments under his original article reveals that– no doubt unintentionally– it has brought a number of Jew-hating Trump supporters out of the woodwork. Strangely Breitbart.com, despite this steady stream of filth, has still not closed the comments.
Judging from the vicious attacks on Kristol and other anti-Trump Jewish conservatives by antisemitic Trump supporters, Horowitz may have misjudged the impact of his words.
