Many in the media have jumped on the fact that former President and current GOP candidate Donald Trump was holding a rally at Madison Square Garden, arguing that it was referential to a 1939 Nazi rally there. But the more apt comparison is to another pre-war 1930s rally at the same Madison Square Garden when it was located at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, rather than the current location above Penn Station.
This is how the 1939 rally was described in a National Park Service (NPS) history of Madison Square Garden.
“On a cold February night in 1939, a Nazi leader named Fritz Julius Kuhn addressed a crowd of 20,000 people who had packed into New York City’s Madison Square Garden arena. He represented the German American Bund, an organization that promoted support in the United States for Adolf Hitler’s regime. The Bund had arranged what it called a ‘pro-Americanism rally’ to coincide with George Washington’s birthday.”
Hillary Clinton said Trump was “re-enacting” that event, and much of the media followed right along.
However, a much better historical parallel for the Trump rally at The Garden occurred in 1933. The NPS described it as such:
“After Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany in early 1933, civic leaders with the American Jewish Congress began to coordinate a response. Led by Rabbi Stephen Wise, the Congress organized a boycott of German-made goods. It began in March 1933 and lasted until the US entered WWII in December 1941. The AJC also spearheaded a National Day of Protest on March 27. Just five days earlier, the Nazis had opened the regime’s first concentration camp at Dachau. After a day of fasting and prayer, more than 55,000 people flooded MSG III and the streets surrounding it for the largest rally. Jewish leaders, union presidents, politicians, and Christian clergy addressed the crowd. They denounced the Nazis and compared the persecution of European Jews to the terror of the Ku Klux Klan.”
People may dislike Trump for a number of reasons, but it is vile and absurd to compare Trump to Hitler or in any way suggest he is a Nazi. Yes, retired Marine General John Kelly, who also served as Trump’s chief of staff, has indeed claimed that Trump wanted his generals to resemble Hitler’s. But it is clear that Kelly, along with retired General Mark Milley, are sounding a warning about reelecting Trump. They don’t like him, but many others in a position to know have disputed their accounts.
Whatever one thinks of Trump, he was the most pro-Israel president in decades. He moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a promise others had made but never fulfilled, and he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He established the Abraham Accords, securing diplomatic and business relations among Israel and several nearby Arab countries for the first time. Plus, he is a father and grandfather to Orthodox Jews.
Additionally, he did more than any other U.S. president to isolate Iran, the closest modern equivalent to Nazi Germany. He largely cut them off from the world, pulling out of the badly flawed Iran nuclear deal, imposing strict sanctions on its ability to sell oil and do other business in the world, and he took out one of their top military leaders, Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s secretive Quds Force.
The other side is the Biden-Harris administration, which enriched Iran by paying them a ransom of $6 billion and five Iranians held in U.S. jails in exchange for five American hostages. Prior to that, the Barack Obama-Biden administration had paid a ransom of $500,000 per hostage for three Americans they held in 2009, and $340 million per person in 2016 for five American hostages.
When Iran seized more hostages, the Trump administration gained their freedom through prisoner swaps instead of ransom payments.
In addition, by the Biden administration’s relaxing the enforcement of sanctions on Iran, they were enriched by tens of billions of dollars, with estimates ranging from $40 billion to more than $100 billion in oil sales to China, fueling their multi-front war against Israel and their attacks on U.S. assets and various ships operating in the region. Another sanction waiver last year enriched Iran by $10 billion more.
An article published at the Gatestone Institute website argues that “the Biden-Harris administration is enabling Iran to become the next nuclear state.” They cite the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which says that “Iran has significantly enlarged its stockpile of enriched uranium, and brought it to enrichment levels dangerously close to weapons-grade.”
While the Biden-Harris administration has certainly come to the aid of Israel in its war with Iran and its proxies, both offensively and defensively, it has also continually pressed Israel to stop fighting short of defeat of their enemies with threats to cut off certain weapons if they don’t. But while Israel has agreed on several occasions to immediate temporary ceasefires and exchange of prisoners for hostages, Hamas has said no, time and again, even this week.
CNN has suggested that no ceasefire is imminent between either Israel and Hamas or Israel and Lebanon because Israel is waiting to see who wins the presidential election before deciding on their next move. CNN has been harshly critical of Israel during its wars with Hezbollah and Hamas, but the network deserves credit for pointing out how Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is sending different messages to different constituencies on her position regarding the war in Gaza.
An editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal wrote on Friday, “If personnel is policy, a Trump administration will be solidly pro-Israel. Harris staffers will reflect today’s Democratic Party: uniformly hostile to Israel’s government and increasingly hostile to Israel’s security needs, with a sizable wing hostile to Israel’s existence. It says something that Israeli officials consider Mr. Biden the most pro-Israel member of his administration.”
He points to a recent poll in Israel showing that Israelis prefer Trump to Kamala Harris by a margin of 66% to 17%, or nearly 4 to 1.
Israel doesn’t see a ceasefire as the endgame in this war, but rather as a chance for its enemies to regroup and re-arm. But they’ve said yes to it on several occasions, while Hamas has consistently said no. Israel’s goal is to end the threat to its people and its existence.
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
