American Jewish reaction to Isreali officials supporting Trump against criticism for his promoting anti-Semitism

Allison Kaplan Sommer writes about the significance of the response to Israeli officials to the Pittsburgh massacre last week and how it may shape American Jewish attitudes about the Likud-led government of Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (American Jews May Never Forgive Israel for Its Reaction to the Pittsburgh Massacre Haaretz 11/04/2018):

Over the past week, when American Jews expected comfort and support, Israeli government officials instead offered carefully honed political talking points: It is “unfair” to assign responsibility to the president, they lectured. Trump is the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House, he has Jewish family members therefore, any implication he is either anti-Semitic himself or encourages anti-Semitism with his populist “America First” rhetoric is outrageous. These arguments were inevitabley followed up by the “both sides” defense - that Farrakhan-style leftist anti-Semitism is equally as bad and dangerous as white supremacist Soros-bashing xenophobia.

What Sommer describes is a good example of how narrow or short-term calculations of national interest can potentially compromise broader and more long-term ones:

Not only did Israel’s leaders choose Trump over American Jews, but they did so easily, naturally, without hesitation, leaping to the defense of a political leader who is actively and openly fanning the flames of hatred that now has an unprecedented death toll. That they did this, and did so before the bodies of eleven American Jews: brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, were even buried, was experienced as a stab in the back, which, even if it does heal one day, will leave a scar.