Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Great Disloyalty’, New York Times
“Logan Bayroff, the communications director for J Street, a progressive Jewish organization, said: ‘It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal.’ But it is no surprise that the president’s racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews.’”
Trump says any Jewish people who vote for Democrats are showing ‘great disloyalty’ or ‘lack of knowledge’, Washington Post
“‘It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal,’’ J Street spokesman Logan Bayroff said in a statement. ‘But it is no surprise that the president’s racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews.’”
Trump Says Jews Who Vote for Democrats Show Ignorance, Disloyalty, WSJ
“‘The vast majority of our community is loyal to the Jewish and liberal democratic values of tolerance, equality, social justice and peace—not to Donald Trump and his far-right agenda, which puts the lives of American Jews and other vulnerable minority groups in danger,’ wrote J Street, a liberal-leaning Jewish group that has been critical of the president and his policy toward Israel.”
Trump: Any Jew voting Democratic is uninformed or disloyal, AP
“Logan Bayroff of the liberal J Street pro-Israel group said it was ‘no surprise that the president’s racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews.’ — ‘It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal,’’ Bayroff said. A number of groups noted that accusations of disloyalty have long been made against Jews, including in Europe during the 1930s.”
Jewish leaders outraged by Trump saying Jews disloyal if they vote for Democrats, CNN
“J Street, a liberal advocacy group focused on reaching a resolution between Israel and the Palestinian territories, said in a statement, ‘It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal.’’ The President has suggested that Jewish Americans, who are traditionally staunch supporters of the Democratic Party, are leaving it. But polling suggests that Jewish Americans continue overwhelmingly to be Democrats and opposed to Trump.”
Trump Says Jews Who Vote for Democrats Show ‘Great Disloyalty’, Bloomberg
“The Union for Reform Judaism, which represents the largest denomination in North America, denounced Trump’s call for Tlaib and Omar to be blocked, as did the pro-Israel lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the progressive Jewish group J Street. J Street on Tuesday called the president’s latest remarks ‘disgusting.’ The nonprofit Republican Jewish Coalition, however, stood by Trump’s comments.”
Jewish groups condemn Trump’s ‘disloyalty’ remark, The Hill
“Left-leaning Jewish advocacy group J Street called the comment ‘disgusting.’”
Jewish groups: Trump spreads anti-Semitic trope by accusing Jews of ‘disloyalty’, Times of Israel
“The liberal Mideast advocacy organization J Street said it was the logical next step after the president’s bigoted attacks on other racial and ethnic minorities. ‘It is no surprise that the president’s racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews,’ said Logan Bayroff, the group’s director of communications.”
Jewish groups react to Trump’s latest comments on American Jewish voters, Jewish Insider
“Logan Bayroff, J Street’s director of communications, said in a statement: ‘It is no surprise that the president’s racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews.’”
Bernie Sanders responds to Trump: ‘I am a proud Jewish person’ with ‘no concerns about voting Democratic’, Washington Post
“I am a proud Jewish person, and I have no concerns about voting Democratic,” the White House hopeful said at a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa. “And in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president of the United States,” Sanders added, presumably referring to himself.
Democrats take aim at 2 ambassadors for the Tlaib-Omar fiasco, JTA
Dermer’s U.S. counterpart, David Friedman, the ambassador to Israel, may not escape an official reckoning. There is serious talk on Capitol Hill of a formal request to the State Department inspector general to report on whether Friedman has politicized the role. In the past, Friedman has suggested that Democrats are not as pro-Israel as Republicans. In this instance, Friedman released a statement on Twitter saying that the United States “supports and respects the decision of the Government of Israel to deny entry to the Tlaib/Omar Delegation.” By backing Israel’s decision to bar entry to two House members, many Democrats say, Friedman showed disloyalty to one of his constituents — Congress.
Dear Israel: Please dump Netanyahu. Your friend, America., Washington Post
Dana Milbank writes, “The antithesis of strong bipartisan support for Israel is Netanyahu. After Netanyahu’s latest stunt, even Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), as stalwart a supporter in Congress as Israel has, said that the move ‘will only strengthen the anti-Israel movements.’ And none other than the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has fused itself to the Republican Party, said that ‘every member of Congress should be able to visit and experience our democratic ally Israel firsthand.’”
Trump mocks Tlaib’s tears, says she ‘grandstanded’ over grandmother visit, CNN
President Donald Trump on Tuesday mocked Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s grief over her decision not to visit her grandmother in the West Bank after initially being barred by Israel, claiming the Democratic congresswoman “grandstanded” when she shed tears Monday.
Zarif makes fresh push to save Iran deal, ease Gulf tensions, Al-Monitor
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is on an international tour that will take him from Scandinavia to France and later to East Asia in search of solutions to rescue the Iran nuclear deal — also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — from collapse and to end ongoing tensions in the Persian Gulf.
‘We have an obligation’: Ilhan Omar calls on lawmakers to visit Israel, The Guardian
The Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar called on her colleagues to visit Israel to prevent Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “succeed in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us”. Omar’s comments came to in an emotional press conference on Monday, following Israel’s decision last week to deny her and the Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib entry to the country amid pressure from Donald Trump.
Report: US, Russia gave Israel green light to strike Iran in Syria, Iraq, Times of Israel
Israel has conducted several strikes on Iranian-controlled bases in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks with permission from the United States and Russia, a Western diplomatic source told a Saudi-owned newspaper Wednesday.
Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing party teams with main rival of Netanyahu in bid for extra Knesset seat, JTA
Yisrael Beiteinu and Blue and White, a center-left party and the main rival of Netanyahu’s Likud, have signed an agreement to share their surplus votes in the Sept. 17 elections. Under a surplus vote-sharing agreement, two parties can pool their extra votes that do not add up to a Knesset seat in order to gain an additional seat. The seat usually goes to the party with more surplus votes.
Likud joins far-right appeal to bar Arab parties from running in election, Times of Israel
Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party on Tuesday joined an extremist faction’s legal bid to ban the Joint (Arab) List from running in the upcoming elections.
Fake Twitter accounts are impersonating Jews and promoting anti-Semitism, JTA
Fake Twitter accounts impersonating Jews and promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have proliferated following a post on the online messaging forum 4chan. The author of the post urges readers to “create a massive movement of fake Jewish profiles on Facebook, Twitter etc.” The goal, according to the post, is to avoid censorship by social media companies and spread conspiracy theories about Jewish involvement in the slave trade, the global economy, mass media and the porn industry.
How the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process Became a Farce, New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman writes, “Last week’s ugly mess involving the abortive visit to Israel of two Democratic congresswomen was useful for only one reason: It exposed how much the Palestinian-Israeli peace process has become a pathetic festival of magical thinking, performance art, reality denial, political fund-raising and outright political fraud. It’s become about everything except what it needs to succeed: courageous, fair-minded, creative diplomacy and leadership.”
Trump Doesn’t Care About Israel. He Cares About Reelection., Foreign Policy
Shalom Lipner writes, “Benjamin Netanyahu’s capitulation to the White House over Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib’s visit has harmed his country’s image and profoundly endangered bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress.”
What Israeli and Palestinian Activists Had Hoped to Tell Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, New Yorker
Ruth Margalit writes, “When I asked Gvaryahu about the congresswomen’s vocal support of the movement to boycott Israel, he cited that as the very reason that allowing them to hear voices of criticism within Israel would have been powerful. ‘Part of what we bring to the table is to show that there are Israeli citizens who are fighting for the future of this place who don’t buy into this lie that says that supporting Israel equates supporting the occupation,’ Gvaryahu said. It’s a distinction that he and other Israeli activists wished that Omar and Tlaib could see for themselves.”
West Bank Violence Could Erupt Before Israeli Election, Security Officials Believe, Haaretz
Amos Harel writes, “The Palestinian Authority is gradually descending into a severe economic crisis, due to mutual stubbornness on the part of Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the issue of the PA’s payments to people imprisoned in Israel for terrorism-related offenses. The result is that some 160,000 Palestinian civil servants, including 65,000 members of the Palestinian security services, have gotten only half their salaries for six months in a row, due to Israel’s decision to deduct the prisoner payments from the tax revenues it transfers to the authority and the PA’s consequent refusal to accept any of the money, even indirectly.”