Are you a Good Jew or a Bad Jew?

Donald Trump would like to know

It should go without saying that if anyone is telling you that to be a good _____, you must _____, they’re full of shit and trying to push their own self-interested agenda. So when Donald Trump came out and said that if Jews don’t vote for him, they hate Israel and their religion, it struck some nerves.

The immediate reaction, of course, was visceral- “How DARE you tell me how I must vote to be considered a good Jew.” Like any identity group- blacks, gays, women, left-handed Thai three-fingered atheists, etc.- Jews are not monolithic. They don’t vote as a bloc, and to expect them to do so is ridiculously naive and borderline anti-Semitic.

To TELL Jews how they must vote to be considered “good” Jews is just plain insulting. No one tells Whites how they must vote to be considered “good” White folks. But Jews? They can be lumped together and instructed on how to vote, right?

That’s what Mango Mussolini tried to do over the weekend and doubled down on earlier this week. Many Jews, as might be expected, didn’t take kindly to Trump’s words.

Throughout much of his political career, Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed a degree of disdain for Jewish voters in the United States. As the former president sees it, he took steps he considered pro-Israel, with the expectation that he’d receive an electoral reward, and when Jewish voters largely stuck with Democrats anyway, Trump deemed them ungrateful.

This attitude continues to produce ugly results. Last summer, for example, the Republican used his social media platform to share a missive that accused “liberal Jews” of voting to “destroy” America and Israel. This week, as NBC News reported, Trump went further, invoking a dual loyalty trope by claiming that Jewish voters who support Democrats hate Israel.

“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said in an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration official, on Gorka’s web show. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump continued, going on to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The presumptive GOP nominee added that he believes Democrats “hate Israel.” He specifically targeted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — the highest ranking Jewish lawmaker in American history — as being “very anti-Israel,” which is hilarious to anyone who knows anything about Chuck Schumer.

His campaign spokesperson, showing the kind of measured restraint that’s come to define Team Trump, added, “The Democrat [sic] Party has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist cabal.”

In other words, Trump approaches the Jewish vote much like a mob boss approaches a neighborhood he’s done a lot for…and, in return, expects loyalty. There’s one fundamental difference in this equation, though. Trump isn’t a mob boss, and in politics, one doesn’t get to implicitly demand support based on a perceived quid pro quo, primarily where none exists, anyway.

Trump's stating that “the Democrat party hates Israel” seems somewhat overcooked, given that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is Jewish and an outspoken defender of Israel. But not even Schumer is willing to give Israel carte blanche to slaughter innocent men, women, and children, non-combatants who have no dog in the fight.

Trump’s comments come after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish official, stunned Israel when he called on the country to make “significant course corrections” in Gaza” last week. Those changes, Schumer said, included a new government, a major condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the death toll in Gaza has reportedly topped more than 30,000 people, including many women and children.

“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Majority Leader Schumer is, of course, correct in his assessment. Benjamin Netanyahu is hung up on eradicating Hamas, which, while a laudable goal, will also end up eradicating too many innocent civilian lives. Israel needs to be able to formulate a plan to clear Rafah of Hamas fighters that also provides for protecting civilians. Nothing they’ve put forward to date provides those assurances.

Palestinian civilians seem to be the sacrifice Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to make to subdue Hamas…and the world is telling the Israeli Prime Minister that approach is a bridge too far. That’s what war criminals do, something that seems not to faze Netanyahu in the slightest.

America- whether Jew or Gentile- does not owe Israel blind allegiance. As the largest recipient of US foreign and military aid, we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to pull Israel from the brink of genocide. The killing can’t continue as it has. Too many innocent non-combatants have died because the Israeli military has been insufficiently cautious about who or what they’re shooting at.

And no one- especially Donald Trump, of all people- should be allowed to define who’s a “Good Jew” or a “Bad Jew,” especially when said definition is spun purely out of self-interest. He’s not a Christian, though he has the Evangelical and Christian Nationalist communities wrapped around his finger. How he could presume to define Judaism in terms of “good” vis-a-vis “bad” defies rational understanding.

Trump’s religion, such as it is, is, like everything else in his life, purely transactional. What’s in it for me? What can I get out of it? How will I benefit? Who can I screw before they screw me?

When he was President, he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, so he no doubt believes that American Jews “owe” him for that. While many Jews appreciated that move, they in no way feel honor-bound to cast their vote for him this time around. Trump certainly didn’t help his cause with his comments over the weekend.

What has been seen cannot be unseen….

Any Jewish person who votes Democratic or Republican is probably voting their conscience, just like any other American. We can only hope they’ve taken the time to consider the issues and the candidates and are making informed decisions. That’s how a representative democracy is supposed to work. The result may not always be what we want to see, but that means the losing side must work harder the next time.

It has nothing to do with hating Israel, your country, or your religion. It CAN, however, have a lot to do with hating Donald Trump.

Jews will make their decision just as any other American will. They “owe” Donald Trump nothing.

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