Some rabbis and Jewish leaders plan boycott of Donald Trump at pro-Israeli group meeting
Donald Trump is not known for being nuanced in his fight to win the nomination to be the Republican Party's presidential candidate except maybe when it comes to the Israel and Palestine question.
Although Trump is seen as supporting Israel he has questioned its commitment to peace and has touted neutrality in Middle Eastern deal making, Quartz reports.
Trump's presence at a pro-Israeli lobby group this week has made some American Jewish groups uncomfortable and even hostile.
From early in his campaign, Trump has questioned Israel's commitment to peace with the Palestinians and put the onus on it to move forward.
"A lot will have to do with Israel and whether or not Israel wants to make the deal - whether or not Israel's willing to sacrifice certain things," Quartz quoted him as saying in an interview with the Associated Press published in December.
His chief opponent in the Republican Party's campaign, Ted Cruz has capitalized on this saying, "On Israel, Donald has said he wants to be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians. As president, I will not be neutral."
Still, some of Trump's hatemongering remarks on migrants and minorities have worried liberals in the US. Jewish community.
Several groups of rabbis and Jewish religious leaders are planning to protest Trump's speech to a major pro-Israel conference in Washington on March 21 accusing the presidential candidate of encouraging hatred.
Trump is scheduled to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, and several groups are organizing boycotts of the speech.
Rabbis David Paskin and Jesse Olitzky organized one such campaign, called Come Together Against Hate, a play on the conference's theme of "Come Together," CNN reports.
The pair and their allies have created a website and Facebook group to organize a protest that they say is not designed to disrupt AIPAC but to signal their condemnation of Trump.
"This is not about policies, this is not about parties, this is about one particular person, Donald Trump, who has encouraged and incited violence at his campaign rallies," said Paskin, a rabbi in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
"We are against the hatred, the incitement of hatred, the ugliness that has engulfed this political season."
AIPAC is a pro-Israel lobbying group. It works on energizing Americans around strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship and encouraging members of Congress to support its agenda.
At its conference each year politicians seeking it out as an influential group and it is the largest pro-Israel policy gathering held in the United States.
Other groups have also spoken out against Trump's attendance at AIPAC, though they haven't officially announced plans to protest.
The Union for Reform Judaism, represent the largest Jewish denomination in America, put out a statement denouncing Trump.
"At every turn, Mr. Trump has chosen to take the low road, sowing seeds of hatred and division in our body politic," said the URJ while saying it doesn't endorse candidates.
The American Jewish Committee, another large Jewish organization, in a statement condemned "presidential campaign violence," though it did not specifically name Trump.
"We do not draw analogies to the rise of communism and fascism lightly, but both of those tyrannical movements rose to power replacing democratically elected governments, by virtue of threats of, or actual, violence against their opponents," the AJC said.