Washington:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Jewish Americans who vote Democratic hate their religion and Israel, drawing anger from the White House, Democratic Party and leaders of Jewish groups.

“Any Jew who votes Democratic hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” said Trump, who hopes to replace Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election .

“Democrats hate Israel,” he said in an interview with former adviser Sebastian Gorka posted on his website on Monday.

Organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Democratic Council condemned Trump’s comments linking religion to how people vote.

Asked to comment on Trump’s remarks, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday: “There is no excuse for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten our fellow citizens,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement express.

After Trump’s remarks, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, wrote on social media platform A collaborative approach strives to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship continues to inspire peace in the Middle East for generations to come.”

On Thursday, Schumer, the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official and a longtime supporter of Israel, criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace. The war in Gaza began with an attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 10, five months after he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace. 7.

Biden said many Americans share Schumer’s concerns. Netanyahu called Schumer’s speech inappropriate.

“Jewish Americans deserve better than Trump continuing his egregious attacks on the Jewish community,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Alex Floyd said in a statement Monday. “

Trump’s campaign stands by his remarks.

“The Democratic Party has become a full-blown anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist cabal,” Trump campaign spokesperson Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement.

The Republican Jewish Coalition defended Trump’s comments on Tuesday and retweeted them on X.

Responsible Jewelry Council spokesman Sam Markstein said he didn’t know what Trump meant when he said Jewish Americans who voted for Democrats hate their religion, but the Democratic position was problematic: “Given that All in all, what confuses a lot of Republicans is, how can there not be more outrage in the Jewish community?”

In 2017, while still president, Trump drew criticism from critics for equating white nationalists who chanted “Jews will not replace us” with anti-racism protesters who clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia. criticize. Trump said there were “good people on both sides.”

Trump also took the unprecedented step of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Since Trump left office, critics have cited his 2022 meeting with white supremacist Nick Fuentes at a Florida club, which Trump said happened unintentionally. Biden also criticized Trump for using the word “pest” to describe political opponents, echoing Nazis.

Biden has strongly backed Israel’s offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which Palestinian health officials say has killed 32,000 people since Hamas entered Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200, according to Israeli statistics. , and captured 253 hostages.

Under pressure from some Democrats over his staunch support for Israel, Biden has reversed course and pushed for a ceasefire and negotiations to achieve coexisting Israeli and Palestinian states.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted in 2020, when Trump and Biden first faced off, found that 71% of American Jews surveyed supported Democrats, while 26% leaned Republican.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)