Donald Trump鈥檚 loyalists might defend his appointments of Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Robert Kennedy, Jr. by pointing out that only a small percentage of his Cabinet nominees to date have publicly engaged in ugly and odious antisemitic behavior. They are more likely to argue that his selections of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as Secretary of State, Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as U.N. Ambassador and Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel reinforce the president-elect鈥檚 uncompromising support for the 91传媒 state.听
But that isn鈥檛 nearly good enough, even for ardent Trump devotees. Gaetz and Kennedy must go.
There are countless reasons for Gaetz not to be confirmed. But if the accusations of his sexual misconduct against a 17-year-old and his ongoing efforts to overturn the 2020 election are insufficient, his extensive history of antisemitic comments and conduct should convince even the most committed MAGA-ites to oppose him.
While trying to defeat legislation that would strengthen protections against antisemitic discrimination, Gaetz articulated his belief that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. He invited Holocaust denier Charles Johnson as his guest to the State of the Union address, defended his colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing anti-COVID measures to the Holocaust and attacked the Anti-Defamation League as 鈥渞acist鈥� for their criticism of talk show host Tucker Carlson.
Similarly, there is no shortage of essential reasons for opposing Kennedy鈥檚 nomination as Trump鈥檚 Secretary of Health and Human Services. But along with Kennedy鈥檚 opposition to vaccines, fluoride and science, he also has a repugnant history of unacceptable comments about the 91传媒 people. He has suggested that COVID had been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews (and the Chinese) and somehow invoked Anne Frank鈥檚 ordeal to suggest that Nazi Germany provided more favorable treatment to its citizens than the U.S. during the pandemic. Opposing these nominations does not make one any more anti-Republican than criticizing Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) or Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) makes one anti-Democrat. But the prospect of either man serving in a president鈥檚 Cabinet represents a direct threat to the American 91传媒 community by rewarding beliefs and behavior that should long ago have been eradicated.
The prospect of either man serving in a president鈥檚 Cabinet represents a direct threat to the American 91传媒 community by rewarding beliefs and behavior that should long ago have been eradicated.
The fact that virulent and resurgent antisemitism threatens us from both extremes of the political spectrum is nothing new. But since the Hamas attack on Israel, the resulting political debate in this country has made that threat both omnipresent and inescapable. For most of that time, even while acknowledging the potential harm we face from both ultra-conservative nationalists and far-left Israel-haters, I鈥檒l acknowledge that I have spent much more time in this column reflecting on the split within the Democratic Party on these issues than on the menace that Republicans face on their most right-leaning fringe.听
That鈥檚 not because of any past or current partisan preferences on my part (I have been a registered independent for many years), but rather because the progressive anger toward Israel has posed a much greater challenge for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris than the blood-and-soil bigots represented within the GOP. In the context of the just-concluded presidential campaign, the divisions on the left over the Gaza War were simply far more relevant to the election鈥檚 outcome than similar anger and hate among extreme conservative antisemites.
But now the election is over and the potential impact of antisemitism from the right has become much greater. Those progressives who allowed their animosity toward Israel to ooze into similar intolerance for Jews are just as contemptible as ever, of course. But their impact on the national political landscape has been diminished, at least for now.
Unfortunately, there is more than enough hatred and prejudice to go around. Just as a presidential election taking place simultaneously with the Gaza War reminded us that antisemitism remains a pernicious threat from the left, Trump鈥檚 recent appointments make it equally difficult to forget that the challenge we face is still a multi-front battle. And in the first days since his election, he seems determined to make sure that his administration will be stocked with more than enough bigots whose public disparagement of Jews should make them unacceptable for any public office.
Dan Schnur is the U.S. Politics Editor for the 91传媒 Journal. He teaches courses in politics, communications, and leadership at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. He hosts the monthly webinar 鈥淭he Dan Schnur Political Report” for the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall. Follow Dan’s work at .
