Trump, Netanyahu use synagogue shooting to cement alliance
President Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are using this week’s massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue to cement support for each other.
In the aftermath of the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in American history, Israel’s right-wing government went into overdrive to defend President Donald Trump from charges that his rhetoric helped fuel the massacre.
Trump visited Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Tuesday to pay his respects to the 11 dead worshippers, despite requests from Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto and at least one victim’s family that he not attend. Republican and Democratic leaders turned down Trump’s invitation to join and instead the president was greeted by protesters.
And the first person to greet Trump at the synagogue was not a grieving Pittsburgher. Instead it was Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer.
“The fact that the person who officially greeted the president of the United States at an American city at an American synagogue was the ambassador of another country was stunning,” Lara Friedman, the president of the liberal Foundation for Middle East Peace, told Al-Monitor.
