How Israel’s Mizrahi Jews are “Making Israel Great Again”

Trump and Netanyahu mirror each other, but so do the electoral groups who support them.

Much has been written about how Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are similar in their demeanour and their relationship with their electoral base.

S. Tobin, editor of the Jewish News Syndicate, summed it up nicely:

“Both men [Trump and Netanyahu] and their supporters view themselves as being locked in a war with their political foes in which no quarter can be given or received”.

[Source: CNN]

Identity trumps religiosity

Both Trump and Netanyahu enjoy the support of deeply religious conservatives, even though they themselves are not that religious. For their supporters, however, this is not a problem, because in each case, the two leaders are willing to pay lip service to the respective religions, while — more importantly — turning that religious orientation into a cultural identity.

A conservative Netanyahu supporter explained:

“The question Netanyahu and all of us ask ourselves is: how do you define yourself? Are you first Jewish or first Israeli? If you define yourself firstly as Jewish, then we are in an identity story and not a religious one…