Washington: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed concerns about perceived anti-Semitism surrounding the soon-to-be Trump administration.
Critics of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign argue that it gave a platform to bigots, white supremacists and anti-Semites who were invigorated by Trump’s populist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Trump also received the backing of fringe figures, such as former KKK leader David Duke, and did little to genuinely distance himself from the white nationalists cheering his rise.
But in an interview with on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Netanyahu said he knew Trump very well and “I think his attitude, his support for Israel is very clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people. There’s no question about that.”
Host Lesley Stahl pressed the right-wing Israeli leader for his thoughts on a coterie of Trump’s advisers, including Steve Bannon, ideologue of the so-called alt-right and former head of the far-right Breitbart News website who is tapped for a senior position in the White House. Netanyahu said he didn’t know Bannon, but he wasn’t worried.
Read the full article by Ishaan Tharoor in WAtoday.