For years, President Trump's opponents on the Left have attempted to pin the label of anti-Semitism on him.  In the wake of the vile attack on the Poway synagogue, the response from Rabbi Yishoel Goldstein, who was wounded in the attack, tells a different story:

Rabbi Goldstein on Trump calling him following the shooting: "He spoke about his love of peace and Judaism and Israel and he was just so comforting that I’m really grateful to our president for taking the time and making that effort to share with us his comfort and consolation" pic.twitter.com/Bu31UvZomI

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 29, 2019

As I was in my house, I received a personal phone call from our president, Donald Trump. I was amazed to answer the phone, and, say, the secretary of the White House is calling, and he spent close to ten, 15 minutes with me on the phone. And, it's the first time I've ever spoken to a president of the United States of America. He shared with the condolences on behalf of the United States of America. And we spoke about the moment of silence. And he spoke about his love of peace and Judaism and Israel and he was just so comforting that I'm really grateful to our president for taking the time and making that effort to share with us his comfort and consolation.

Does that sound like the kind of phone call that comes from an anti-Semite?  The sort of person who would run a sick 'Der Sturmer'–style Jews-are-dogs cartoon in a newspaper?  The sort of phone call that Rep. Ilhan Omar would be capable of making?

It's amazing that in this era of Omar and all her anti-Semitic tropes ("All about the Benjamins, baby,"), and now the New York Times' repulsive anti-Semitic cartoon, it's Trump who is branded as the 'real' anti-Semite, a projection if there ever was one.  It reminds me of the style of anti-Semitism that has come out of Europe in recent decades, claiming that Jews, see, are the real Nazis. 

Yet the evidence of President Trump's philo-Semitism has always been there.

His favorite daughter is a convert to Judaism.  He boldly moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to its correct capital, Jerusalem, in a deed that has eluded every past president — and, wildly enough, seems to have contributed to peace.  He has a warm relationship with Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu, the man who was left waiting at the White House while then-president Obama ate his own lunch without offering his guest any.  And Trump has made repeated statements of affection for the Jewish people.

Nope, Trump is the bad guy, the 'real' anti-Semite, despite all the evidence to the contrary — and in particular, this moving statement from the kindly old wounded rabbi in Poway.

Look at this nonsense written by some lefty in Ha'aretz:

The U.S. president is no anti-Semite and doesn't want attacks on Israelis and Jews. Nevertheless, Donald Trump's electoral victory and the violent political discourse which he both reflects and actively encourages have let the genies of extremism out of the bottle in the United States. Under these circumstances, even the San Diego murderer — whose published remarks just before he embarked on his attack harshly criticized Trump and depicted him as a puppet of the Jews — have found the ideological ground more fertile for action.

Here's more dreck, trying to pin anti-Semitism onto conservatives from the Daily Beast:

Despite reams and reams of ideological-political writing, from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion forgery to Mein Kampf to the paranoid manifesto of the Poway shooter that allege in precise terms the ways in which Jews destroy the national homeland, conservatives insist that anti-Semitism is simply pure, irrational, timeless, and ahistorical hatred that has nothing to do with any politics whatsoever. It's the same whether it comes from Pharaoh in Egypt, a Tsarist pogrom, or a Hamas terrorist.

"We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated," President Donald Trump said in response to the Poway shooting.

This definition of anti-Semitism is extraordinarily wrong. It is at odds with what anti-Semites themselves have said since the term was popularized in 1879. It mashes together religious animus, true nationalist anti-Semitism, and resistance to right-wing Zionism. And it is particularly helpful to the very people who exacerbate it, today's nationalists, for three reasons.

Leftist California governor Gavin Newsom muddled things in other ways, first trying to yes-but his thanks to Trump by calling attention to himself and then by generalizing the 'hate' he condemns to include everyone, taking the focus off the anti-Semitism that drove the maniac to kill.  Here's what Fox reported:

"Appreciated the call from [Trump]," Newsom tweeted. "Working with state, local, and federal officials on today's horrific shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue."

Newsom added: "We all must call out hate — against any and all communities — wherever it lives."

It's changing the subject. 

Because right now, it's pretty obvious that President Trump — who was detested by the killer who attacked the synagogue in his so-called 'manifesto' — is probably the strongest friend the Israelis and the Jewish people here have ever had.  He not only detests Jew-hatred with a credible loathing; he loves Jewish people.

They can't pin this on him anymore.  They need to start looking at themselves — and their newspaper of record, which just ran a revolting anti-Semitic cartoon and papered over the anti-Semitism of a congressmember by reducing the problem to a generalized issue of 'hate.'  They're the ones with an anti-Semitism problem, and their hypocrisy is showing.

Image credit: CBS News screen grab.