Reader Charles Schneider laments “missing” condemnations by local
persons – including me – of Trump and his recent Jew-hating dinner guests. I cannot speak for the elected officials he mentions – nor can I be expected to personally issue press releases regarding my declarations and opinions as, at this moment, I am neither an elected official nor representing one.
That said, I have been contacted by several publications and electronic media and have said the following long prior to Mr. Schneider’s prompting:
Regrettably, while there were many positive outcomes of the Trump administration’s policies, we are paying a stiff price for them. Since the 2020 election, the former president has reverted to all manner of negative and irresponsible behavior for which he was known. Included in his misconduct, now coming on the heels of false “stolen election charges,” incitement to violence, and so forth, is his participation in facilitating the normalization of antisemitism through the invitation of – and failure to dismiss – execrable Jew-haters from his dinner table.
Israeli politician and human rights activist Natan Sharansky has stated repeatedly that Jew hatred and general extremism cannot be arrested by one side shunning and condemning only the miscreants of the other side. It can only be so when all persons of both parties shun their own extremists as well.
I have not hesitated in condemning President Trump’s conduct since the 2020 election including this aforementioned dinner, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and a number of other nut cases. I am still waiting for my Democratic locals to condemn Jew-hating Tlaib, Omar, AOC, the “Democratic Socialists” and the other detritus on the left.
Yes. All persons of decency should consistently condemn and work to defeat all leftist and alt-right extremists.
Finally, I recall a rally several years ago on the Village Green, organized when the jihadist-American ingrate Ilhan Omar – prompted the event with her gross attacks on Jews and Israel. At that time, the Democrats were in charge in Nassau and they all came to speak out against antisemitism—but would not utter her name.
We must know and name our enemies – not some of them, but all of them.
Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld
Great Neck
