TEL AVIV – Comedian Roseanne Barr dismissed the claim that the rise in anti-Semitism in the U.S. directly correlates with the Trump presidency as nothing more than a cover.
“I’ve been fighting anti-Semitism my whole life and I don’t see it that way,” Barr said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in Tel Aviv on Monday evening. “I think they found the perfect cover,” she added.
Trump “loves Jewish people,” Barr said, and noted that his daughter, Ivanka (“Isn’t she lovely?”) and grandchildren are Jewish. “That’s why they hate him.”
“There has been a war against the Jewish people for thousands of years and every 70 years they rise up again, it never goes away,” the comedian said, and added that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is just the latest “incarnation” of that war.
Anti-Semitism, Barr claimed, is not even limited to non-Jews.
“You can barely make people listen to [the truth about BDS] because they’re so anti-Semitic,” she went on to charge, “including Jews in America on the left. They’re complete anti-Semites.”
Barr also slammed the notion suggested by Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory that “white Jews, as white people, uphold white supremacy,” with Mallory adding that at the same time “all Jews are targeted by it.”
“Well that’s a racist term because the cornerstone of white supremacy is anti-Semitism, Jew-hatred,” Barr told Breitbart News. “And then to blame Jews for it is actually very anti-Semitic.”
“Jews have no white privilege,” she added.
“I don’t identify as a white person, I only identify as a Jew,” she said, and added that “most of the Jews in the world are brown.”
Last week, Barr told an enthusiastic audience of some 500 Israelis and new immigrants that anti-Semitism is growing in the U.S. because it is “largely unopposed.”
“We need to be more vocal and be more organized and get out there and fight it,” she said at an event in Tel Aviv organized by the Tel Aviv International Salon in conjunction with the Times of Israel.
In remarks that were met with loud cheers, Barr said she voted for Trump because of his campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people.
If Trump were elected, she told people at the time, it would be “so cool because it would prove that Hillary [Clinton] doesn’t own everything.”
Trump called the star to congratulate her on the astounding success of the first episode of the revival of her since-cancelled eponymous sitcom, Roseanne, which pulled in 28 million viewers.
Roseanne recalled telling Trump on the phone, “I want to thank you so much for recognizing Jerusalem as our home, as our capital. I wanted to thank you for saying you’re for moving the embassy.”
To which the comedian said Trump answered, “I will do it. It’s a wrong that has long needed to be righted and I intend to do it.”
Barr also addressed Trump’s much-anticipated peace proposal, warning the president that “it better be good.”
“I only hope his peace plan is a good one because if it isn’t — if he makes God mad he’s going to make me mad too,” she quipped.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who accompanied Barr on her visit to Israel, lauded Trump for his actions defending Israel and the Jewish people.
While acknowledging that the president could have done more to condemn the violent Charlottesville march, Boteach went on to list the measures Trump has taken to defend Israel: The recognition of Jerusalem and subsequent embassy move, scrapping the nuclear deal with Iran, the appointment of staunch pro-Israel advocate Nikki Haley to the UN, and finally, Trump’s message to U.S. allies around the world that crossing Israel means crossing America.
“I think what Trump has done for Israel is make it clear to Arab Gulf states, whether it’s Saudi Arabia, whether it’s United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar or whether it’s counties around the world, is that if you don’t get along with Israel you’re not going to get along with the United States of America,” Boteach said.
“And that’s a very important statement,” he concluded.
Comments are closed