Authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have penned an open letter to fellow Jews, warning them that if they do not oppose President Donald Trump, they will be labeled as Nazi collaborators and traitors to their people.
Chabon and Waldman, who were earnest supporters of President Barack Obama, and said nothing when he abandoned Israel and elevated the antisemitic Iranian regime, published their letter on Medium on Thursday.
Using classic antisemitic tropes, they address Jews who may support Trump because of “private business deals” or other personal interests — “You entered into negotiations, cut deals, made contracts with him and his government” — and urge them to turn against him.
Addressing casino magnate Sheldon Adelson directly, they turn up the antisemitic rhetoric, accusing him of calculating “that money trumps hate, or that a million dollars’ worth of access can protect you from one boot heel at the door.”
Chabon and Waldman also resort to blatant lies: “You have counted carefully as each appointment to his administration of an avowed white supremacist, anti-Semite, neo-Nazi or crypto-fascist appeared to be counterbalanced by the appointment of a fellow Jew,” they say, providing no proof whatsoever that Trump has appointed anyone that matches any of those descriptions.
They single out White House adviser Steve Bannon as a “white supremacist godfather,” a complete slander that has no basis in reality.
They claim that President Trump “expressed admiration and sympathy for a group of white supremacist demonstrators who marched through the streets of Charlottesville,” when in fact he condemned “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence” on Saturday, and explicitly condemned white supremacists on Monday and Tuesday.
Chabon and Waldman, who presumably understand the importance of words, seem to misconstrue Trump’s defense Tuesday of legitimate protesters — whose presence was confirmed by the New York Times, no less — as a defense of the extremists he repeatedly denounced.
They also claim, falsely and illogically, that if extremist groups say they support Trump, that means he supports them in return, despite his repeated disavowals.
Chabon and Waldman reserve their ugliest language for Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner: “To Jared Kushner: You have one minute to do whatever it takes to keep the history of your people from looking back on you as among its greatest traitors, and greatest fools; that minute is nearly past.”
They condescend to Ivanka Trump, addressing her as an ignorant convert (original emphasis): “To Ivanka Trump: Allow us to teach you an ancient and venerable phrase, long employed by Jewish parents and children to one another at such moments of family crisis: I’ll sit shiva for you. Try it out on your father; see how it goes.”
“Sitting shiva” refers to the ritual of mourning, meaning that Chabon and Waldman are urging Ivanka Trump to threaten to declare her father dead to her as a way of intimidating him.
Finally, having declared the Trump administration a Nazi-like regime, Chabon and Waldman declare that Jews who support Trump are the equivalent of Nazi collaborators:
Any Jew, anywhere, who does not act to oppose President Donald Trump and his administration acts in favor of anti-Semitism; any Jew who does not condemn the President, directly and by name, for his racism, white supremacism, intolerance and Jew hatred, condones all of those things.
Chabon and Waldman’s letter, which can be read here in full, is being circulated by liberal Jews to their relatives and friends in an effort to pressure them into opposing Trump.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.