Trump’s apathy toward anti-Semitism unbecoming of a leader

Monday, Feb. 27, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Well, at least he said more than “Stop it.”

But that’s about the best that can be said about President Donald Trump’s statement on anti-Semitism.

In finally addressing the terrible surge of hate speech, threats and criminal incidents at Jewish community centers and other institutions nationwide, Trump offered an all-too-brief, all-too-dispassionate “denunciation” of the people committing these acts.

It was reminiscent of his post-election interview with “60 Minutes,” when he told Lesley Stahl he was “saddened” to hear about violence being committed by some of his supporters, but also said he believed “a very small amount” was occurring. Asked if he wanted to say anything to the perpetrators, he looked into the camera and said, “Stop it.”

Needless to say, the wave of hatred kept right on rolling. Trump did little to keep it in check, choosing instead to direct his famously vitriolic rhetoric to a completely unsubstantiated claim of widespread voter fraud, the media and a judge who had the audacity to follow the law in ruling against the president’s refugee ban.

The common denominator among those tweet tantrums was that those things affected Trump personally, and therefore rose to his notice. But when others have been victimized by hate speech or hate crimes, he’s been largely silent.

If Trump met the surge in violence head-on — for instance, by recognizing it as a serious problem and pledging to use the full extent of the government’s resources to punish perpetrators of hate crimes — maybe things wouldn’t have reached a point where his statement on anti-Semitism would have been necessary.

But Trump apparently doesn’t understand that a president’s role is to take the lead on righting wrongs like this. He’s been quiet on the wave of hate crimes against Muslims in America and has ignored the mosque shooting in Canada. And while he’s eager to talk about Islamic extremists and Hispanic gangs, he hasn’t gone after the white supremacist hate groups in the U.S. who are terrorizing Jews, blacks, Muslims, Hispanics, members of the LGBTQ community and others.

It’s shameful that the president has to be dragged into tepid denunciations.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, put it well: “The failure of our elected officials, the failure of political leadership, the failure of our leadership, the failure of our public leaders to step up and say ‘enough,’ has created a vacuum that extremists have exploited. And when abuse is allowed, because it’s not forthrightly condemned, you see that it spreads like a virus.”

Trump, to his credit, said the violent incidents were “a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” which is quite true.

But the question that remains is whether Trump is fully committed to doing that work and protecting all Americans.

At this point, words aren’t going to cut it. On Feb. 22, a day after Trump’s remarks, the ADL received a bomb threat. The JCC (Jewish Community Center) Association of North America reported earlier that there had been 69 threats made in 54 locations in 27 states and a Canadian province since early January. Meanwhile, officials at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis said more than 170 grave sites were vandalized during one week in February — which, notably, prompted Muslim-American activists to start a fundraising effort for repairs. In Las Vegas, reported incidents included a man engraving a swastika into a marble column in front of a synagogue.

The violence must stop.

Trump touted himself as the law-and-order candidate; it’s past time for him to put his money where his mouth is. If he truly cares about the issue, he’ll direct federal law enforcement resources to actively target the hate groups that are terrorizing innocent people. That’s what a strong leader would do.