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January 30, 2017
Netanyahu Supports Silent on Trump Travel Ban
"PM's anti-Jewish support for Trump's anti-Muslim decree" is a front-page headline of Haaretz's English print edition yesterday.
Similarly, Haaretz's online headline states: "Netanyahu’s anti-Jewish Support for Trump’s anti-Muslim Decree."
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not expressed any support for President Trump's move against immigration. In fact, Netanyahu has come under criticism for keeping silentabout Trump's executive order. The Times of Israel reported yesterday:
Former Likud party stalwart Dan Meridor on Sunday harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to condemn the new US administration’s entry ban on citizens from certain Muslim states, arguing that the Jewish state should place Jewish values above political expediency. . .
In December 2015, Netanyahu himself issued a statement rejecting then-presidential candidate Trump’s vow to ban Muslims from entering the US. On Sunday, however, he did not comment on the matter, and his spokesperson refused to respond to several Times of Israel queries.
In December 2015, Netanyahu himself issued a statement rejecting then-presidential candidate Trump’s vow to ban Muslims from entering the US. On Sunday, however, he did not comment on the matter, and his spokesperson refused to respond to several Times of Israel queries.
Nor does the analysis by Chemi Shalev accompanying the erroneous Haaretz headline substantiate the claim that Netanyahu supports Trump's executive order. Shalev instead focuses on the timing of Netanyahu's tweet expressing approval Trump's decision to build a wall on the Mexican border -- in close proximity to the executive order regarding Syrians and Muslim immigrants. Shalev writes:
On Saturday, the Israeli prime minister applauded Trump’s decision to set up a wall with Mexico, with the disputable claim, phrased in Trump-style syntax, “I built a wall along Israel's southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea.�? Netanyahu’s intervention on a topic that is in sharp political dispute in the U.S. is questionable enough, but the timing of his decision to identify so strongly with Trump, just after the president issued his executive order on Syrian refugees and Muslim immigrants - a move viewed widely as a declaration of hate against Muslims - is a reckless gamble.
Posted by TS at January 30, 2017 05:54 AM
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