We applaud the strong condemnations last week by President Trump and Vice President Pence of the recent spate of anti-Semitic threats and attacks across the country. Mr. Trump had come under some criticism for not speaking out sooner but his clear statement should rebut the notion that he was indifferent to the issue.
As Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has said, the recent outbreaks of anti-Semitism are “a pandemic in the making,” and he specifically cited events in Britain, France, Germany, and Scandinavia. So it seems absurd to suggest that Mr. Trump was somehow part of the problem.
In fact, one can argue that there is indeed a nexus, but it’s not what some Trump critics have in mind. The president’s close family ties to the Jewish community, the significant number of Jewish employees who have occupied key positions in his vast, far-flung enterprises, and, perhaps most important, the widespread feeling that the U.S.-Israel relationship will grow even closer over the next several years, may well have triggered the kind of envy and frustration that has all too often in our history led to demented, anti-Semitic acts.
