Rabbi Eric Yoffie: “What is surprising is not that Trump would break the rules of the game, but that, after four years of would-be autocracy, anyone would think that a Trump presidency and the rule of law are in any way consistent. And what does all of this have to do with the Jews? Everything. What pushed me over the edge was QAnon. Trump has praised Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a Republican candidate for Congress who endorses QAnon’s views, backs the also-antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ theory and who has posed with neo-Nazis, as a ‘future Republican star.’ The RNC pulled a speaker from its program only after the Daily Beast reported her endorsement of a blatantly antisemitic tweet describing ‘malevolent Jewish forces in the banking industry [who] are out to enslave non-Jews and promote world wars,’ citing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as back-up. A week ago, Vice-President Mike Pence backed out of a Trump fundraiser with a couple who are longtime public supporters of the QAnon conspiracy, and who had shared antisemitic posts about the nefarious reach of the Rothschilds and their ‘global cabal.'”

“And the president refuses to condemn QAnon, telling reporters that the theory is ‘gaining in popularity’ and that its supporters ‘like me very much, which I appreciate.’ This is absolute madness, of course. Yes, President Trump has done some good things for Israel, and I acknowledge those contributions and thank him for them. But how can it be good for Israel or American Jews when an American president will not speak out instinctively, emphatically, and immediately against a lunatic conspiracy theory dripping with racism and with clearly anti-Semitic overtones? Should we not be entitled to expect at least a modicum of moral clarity from our president?”