Trump: antisemitism will be among disqualifying criteria for immigrants

(JTA) – Donald Trump said he would test would-be immigrants for antisemitic beliefs and that Israel would be a key ally in defeating radical Islam.

Speaking Monday in Youngstown, Ohio, the Republican presidential nominee outlined national security policies that included “extreme vetting” for would-be immigrants, including for those who would reject what he described as American values of tolerance. “We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people,” Trump said.

Explaining why he favored such a policy, he cited the French experience as an example. “Beyond terrorism, as we have seen in France, foreign populations have brought their antisemitic attitudes with them,” he said.

It’s not clear which “foreign populations” he was referring to, although from the broader context of his comments, targeting “radical Islam,” it appears he was speaking of Muslims from North Africa. Although antisemitism existed and at times thrived in France for centuries before its recent waves of immigrants, recent high-profile attacks on Jews have been carried out by French Muslim extremists.

Trump also said Israel would be key in an alliance to face down the spread of radical Islam.

“As president, I will call for an international conference focused on this goal,” he said. “We will work side by side with our friends in the Middle East, including our greatest ally, Israel.”

Much of Trump’s targeting of would-be immigrants focused on attributes he has associated with Islam.

“In addition to screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes towards our country or its principles – or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law,” he said, referring to the Muslim religious canon.

The Anti-Defamation League immediately took to Twitter to express concerns about Trump’s reiterated call to ban Muslim entry and entry from countries subject to violence. “Refugees from Syria, Iraq, etc. are fleeing the same terror we fear,” the ADL said. “Suspending immigration would only trap those who need refuge most.”

Also speaking out was HIAS, the lead Jewish group advocating for immigrants and refugees. “For the American Jewish community, the thought of barring a refugee family because of their religion or home country is simply unpalatable,” Melanie Nezer, the group’s vice president, said in a statement.

Trump dedicated a chunk of his speech to decrying what he described as a decline in American security under President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who served as secretary of state in Obama’s first term. He referred to the nuclear rollback for sanctions relief deal with Iran.

“The nuclear deal puts Iran, the No. 1 state sponsor of radical Islamic terrorism, on a path to nuclear weapons,” he said. “In short, the Obama-Clinton foreign policy has unleashed ISIS, destabilized the Middle East and put the nation of Iran – which chants ‘Death to America’ – in a dominant position.”

Green Party VP pick disavows Holocaust denial

(JTA) — The vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, Ajamu Baraka, disavowed Holocaust denial after contributing an article to a writer whom Baraka said he did not know was a Holocaust denier.

“There has never been any question in mind about the genocidal madness of the Nazi Holocaust throughout Europe during the Second World War,” Ajamu Baraka told Gawker on August 12. “I abhor and reject any individual or group that fails to understand the tremendous suffering of Jewish people during that dark period.”

Baraka agreed to allow Kevin Barrett, who has said the “Holocaust controversy was a legitimate topic of historical debate,” to include his essay in a book Barrett compiled this year on theories of “false flags,” attacks organized by hidden conspirators to create pretexts for counterattacks. The book included essays by antisemites and 9-11 “truthers” who propagate discredited theories that the U.S. government and others are protecting the true perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The press director for the campaign of the far-left party’s presidential candidate, Jill Stein, told Gawker that Baraka contributed the article without knowing where it would be published and what other authors might be included.

Stein has come under fire from the pro-Israel community for backing the boycott Israel movement, and for deleting social media posts mourning the passing of Elie Wiesel following complaints from critics of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s pro-Israel views.

Rabin’s son to Trump: Same kind of ‘incitement’ spurred murder of my father

(JTA) — The son of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Donald Trump’s “ugly” campaign rhetoric is threatening American democracy and creating an atmosphere similar to the one in Israel leading up to his father’s assassination. In a USA Today op-ed on Sunday, Yuval Rabin wrote that the recent call by Trump to “Second Amendment people” is the same kind of “incitement” that “led to the murder” of his father in 1995.

Trump’s comments last week – suggesting that gun-rights supporters could take action against Hillary Clinton if she “wants to abolish” the Second Amendment, or the right to bear arms – also prompted Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy to make the Rabin assassination comparison.

“I instantly thought about Rabin and Israel,” Malloy, a Democrat, said on MSNBC. “There were rallies going on in Israel where ‘Death to Rabin’ was shouted and politicians didn’t respond, so I’m going to respond.”

Rabin was shot and killed by a right-wing extremist, Yigal Amir, amid tensions over Rabin’s push to make peace with the Palestinians.

Yuval Rabin went on to argue in his piece that Trump’s words are “a threat to American democracy.”

“It is not my place to make this claim,” he wrote. “But I have been touched by political violence, and have witnessed the environment that led to at least one person to believe such violence was called for.”

Joe Lieberman says he will vote for Hillary Clinton

(JTA) — Joseph Lieberman said he would vote for Hillary Clinton days after leaving open the possibility he would vote for Donald Trump.

“I’m an independent Democrat, I never changed parties, and I’m going to vote for Hillary Clinton,” the former senator from Connecticut said Wednesday, August 10 on the Fox Business channel, as quoted by the Washington Examiner. Lieberman noted that he has known Clinton, the Democratic nominee, since he studied with her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at Yale Law School in the early 1970s.

“I worked with her closely in the Senate for eight years,” he said. Clinton was the senator from New York from 2001-09. “She’s strong, she’s smart, she understands national security. What I was most impressed with in our years in the Senate together was she reached across party lines to try to build coalitions to get something done.”

Lieberman last week said he was not yet settled on a candidate, leaving open the prospect that he could vote for Trump, the Republican nominee.

“I’m one of those people, and there’re a lot of us I think, who can’t feel quite comfortable either way yet,” he said then on Fox Business Channel. He attributed his indecision in part to a group he founded with former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, called No Labels, which seeks conciliation between the parties.

Lieberman was the first Jewish candidate on a major ticket when he was Al Gore’s pick for vice president in the 2000 elections. Elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 1988, he lost the party primary in 2006, in part because of his enthusiastic backing for the Iraq War. He went on to win a fourth term as an Independent, and backed Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee in the 2008 election, but left politics in 2012.

Wasserman Schultz and her challenger tussle over Israel

(JTA) — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. and her primary challenger are exchanging sharp accusations about which candidate is more pro-Israel.

Tim Canova, a lawyer, attempted in a debate last Sunday on CBS4-CBS Miami, to use Wasserman Schultz’s vote last year for the nuclear deal with Iran against her.

“Her vote has been condemned by an awful lot of folks,” Canova said in remarks reported by Jewish Insider. “I think she wasn’t looking out for Israel’s security.”

Wasserman Schultz, one of the most prominent Jewish members of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, accused Canova of “waffling” on Israel during the debate, and repeated the charge on Monday in an email linking to a Q and A Canova hosted earlier this year on the Reddit social media site. A statement from her campaign “condemned her opponent’s call for disarming the Middle East, including Israel, as drastic, dangerous and deadly for the Jewish state.”

In the Reddit exchange, Canova calls for “a real disarmament effort for the entire region.” He also said “I favor a freeze on settlements and the administration has to make this a big priority.”

Wasserman Schultz resigned last month as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee after hacked emails revealed staffers’ antagonism to the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders. Sanders, who now backs Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, has backed Canova since May, and recently fund-raised for him.

Florida’s congressional primaries are on August 30.