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Is Netanyahu concerned about anti-Semitic rulers?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu befriends far-right leaders, such as Hungary’s Victor Orban, and keeps silent when his close ally, President Donald Trump, invites to the White House an anti-Semitic cartoonist.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint statment, at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem,  July 19, 2018.  Debbie Hill/Pool via Reuters - RC15A2D3CB00
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a joint statement at the prime minister's office, Jerusalem, July 19, 2018. — Debbie Hill/Pool via Reuters

How many minutes, if not seconds, would it have taken Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his son Yair Netanyahu to tweet in rage against a Western leader who invited an illustrator (or a cartoonist) known for his anti-Semitic caricatures to meet with him? This is not some imaginary scenario. None other than President Donald Trump issued such an invitation to the White House on July 8. Apparently, he is not outraged by Ben Garrison’s caricatures, one of which depicts the presidents of the United States and Russia peeking from the skull of the angel of death who has a Star of David drawn on his nose and the word “War” boldly emblazoned on his forehead. Another of Garrison’s cartoons shows the US national security adviser and the head of the CIA as puppets of Jewish billionaires George Soros and the Rothschild family. All attempts to locate a smidgen of condemnation on Balfour Street (Netanyahu’s official Jerusalem residence) were in vain.

Just a week earlier on June 30, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) presented Netanyahu and his ministers with its annual report on the state of the Jewish people around the world. After the meeting, Netanyahu’s office reported that he had accepted the institute’s recommendation to establish a special body equipped with all the appropriate tools for multidisciplinary action against anti-Semitism.

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