Israeli Leaders Critical Of Trump Smear – OpEd
Three Israeli political leaders, ex-justice minister Yossi Beilin, and two members of Israel’s parliament, Aida Touma-Sliman and Ayman Odeh are among the Israeli voices speaking out after US president attacks four first year congresswomen
US President Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina on July 17, 2019 told Rep. Rashida Tlaib,, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, “If you hate our country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!”.
Yossi Beilin, an ex-justice minister who served in the Labor and Meretz parties, lashed out at the US president Donald Trump for his nativist attacks on the four congresswomen of color, noting that Trump himself was the grandson of immigrants:
“Trump is part of just the second generation from his family to be born in America and he talks about people who come from countries that don’t have appropriate governments?
“Does he not remember where his own family came from? What kind of inappropriate rulers they’ve had?” Trump’s grandfather Frederick Trump immigrated to the US from Germany in 1885.
Israeli Leaders Critical of Trump Smear “He should be careful that others don’t tell him to return back to where he came from,” Beilin said..
Trump had tweeted that a group of four Democratic congresswomen of color should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Three of the four were born in the US. Only Omar came to the US as a child after fleeing Somalia with her family.
Two Members of Israel’s parliament, Ta’al Ayman Odeh and Aida Touma-Sliman also responded to Trump’s smear: “Trump went on a racist attack against left wing congresswomen of color… and incitement against minorities as a political tool,” Touma-Sliman said in a statement retweeted by Odeh.
In the US, while most Republicans avoided criticizing a sitting president, four Congress members from Trump’s party did vote in favor of a House resolution condemning his remarks. In response to the resolution, Trump tweeted that he doesn’t have a “racist bone” in his body.
However, some Republicans have criticized a crowd chanting “Send her back,” directed at Omar, during a Trump rally Wednesday. AndTrump himself said he “was not happy” with the chants.