Despite Trump's behavior we Israelis must remember who had our back

• Author: OPHIR FALK
• Published date: 17 January 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

January 6, 2021, was a dreadful day for democracy. Five Americans tragically lost their lives when democracy was attacked on Capitol Hill. Had the demonstrators succeeded, it would have undermined the world's strongest democracy and sent an awful message throughout the free world. It would have been an even worse message for oppressed peoples.

Thankfully, the thugs failed. President Trump made an inexcusable mistake in firing up the masses to take matters into their own hands. He used brinkmanship and exposed raw nerves. It was wrong and it backfired. It justly diminishes the slim possibility of Donald Trump ever holding public office again, and it minimizes further the probability of verifying future election integrity and transparency any time soon.

It also unjustly stereotyped Trump supporters. The mainstream media coverage, selective censorship, social media-platform banning, and the general environment in the US since January 6 are reminiscent of the public discourse and overall atmosphere in Israel in the aftermath of Rabin's assassination.

The Washington Post's slogan, "Democracy Dies in Darkness," has seldom been more relevant.

What happened on Capitol Hill should not be downplayed. At the same time, it should not be described as something it was not.

Windows were broken, but it was not Kristallnacht, nor anything close to what former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger compared it to. Kristallnacht 1938 in Germany involved the burning of nearly 300 synagogues, the destruction of 7,000 Jewish businesses, the deportation of 30,000 Jews to concentration camps, and was a backdrop to the Holocaust. That is not what happened on Capitol Hill last Wednesday.

Bruce Hoffman, a leading terrorism scholar, diagnosed what occurred at the Capitol as terrorism. Other scholars differ. Regardless, whoever applauded the riots and looting in Kenosha and Portland, calling them "peaceful protests" in the summer, and now categorically depicts Trump supporters as fascists, is hypocritical.

WHOEVER NOW taunts Trump supporters as terrorists but did not use the same terminology to describe BLM and Antifa extremists who ransacked the streets and stores of America in the middle of a pandemic, is applying a detrimental double standard that ignites anger just as much, if not more, than Trump fanned the flames.

With the demands to "defund the police" from one side and for a "transparent recount" from the other put to temporary rest, tensions will eventually subside...