Israeli comms minister downplays Trump’s delay to condemn Nazis

by Max Greenwood - 08/20/17 8:32 AM ET

Israel’s communications minister is urging his country to stand behind President Trump in the wake of his comments on the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying that it’s more important to bolster ties with Trump than to condemn anti-Semitism.

“Due to the terrific relations with the U.S., we need to put the declarations about the Nazis in the proper proportion,” Ayoub Kara told The Jerusalem Post last week. “We need to condemn anti-Semitism and any trace of Nazism, and I will do what I can as a minister to stop its spread.”

The comments follow Trump’s delay to name white supremacist, white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups that organized a Virginia rally as being responsible for the violence it prompted last weekend.

“But Trump is the best U.S. leader Israel has ever had,” Kara continued. “His relations with the prime minister of Israel are wonderful, and after enduring the terrible years of [former U.S. President Barack] Obama, Trump is the unquestioned leader of the free world, and we must not accept anyone harming him.”

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Kara also said Trump has “a proven track record in opposing anti-Semitism and religious extremism.”

The communications minister’s comments came as Trump faced intense criticism last week for blaming both white nationalists and counterprotesters for the violence that erupted in Charlottesville and led to the death of one counterprotester on Aug. 12.

In an off-the-rails news conference on Tuesday, Trump appeared to equate hate groups with the demonstrators who had turned out to oppose them.

Both Democrats and Republicans have slammed the president’s remarks, which some say validate or encourage white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has developed a friendly rapport with Trump, has faced criticism of his own for waiting days to condemn anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville. He tweeted Tuesday that he was “outraged by expressions of antisemitism, neo-Nazism and racism.”