Amazing. Check out the statement put out by the White House on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day—the same day, by the way, that Trump issued his cruel ban on refugees fleeing the devastation in Syria. Notice something missing? Any mention whatsoever of the victims of Hitler’s “Final Solution”: the Jews.
Such an omission was, of course, intentional. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks explained that there was no reference to Jewish tragedy “because we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.” That would be good reason, as New York Times reporter Binyamin Applebaum says, to also name other victims. To name no one at all sends quite a different message.
And the message is that Trump is following the Soviet practice of, as scholar J.H. Swenson puts it, saying “a lot of people suffered” to avoid having to confront anti-Semitism. It’s fitting, of course: Trump’s top strategist is known Jew-hater Steve Bannon, and his regime was installed by Vladimir Putin, so it’s only natural that he’s adopted the Russian line. And Trump’s been responsible for a toxic flowering of anti-Semitism, so obviously he doesn’t want to address it.
There’s also the fact that Jews have been extremely vocal in their hostility toward Trump and his policies, especially his stance on refugees. Jews know all too well what happens when America closes its doors to the displaced, which is why they’ve been at the forefront in embracing Syrians seeking to escape the hell of their country’s civil war. So it’s no surprise that Trump only has disdain for Jews and would seek to denigrate their memory on a sacred day.
Wonder what Ivanka has to say about all this.