Netanyahu's Tweet Creates Havoc for Mexican Jews

Jerusalem, 29 January, 2017 (TPS) -- Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Tweet on Saturday night praising US President Donald Trump’s directive to begin construction on a 1,900-mile wall along the US-Mexico border has caused a standoff with the government of Mexico and created a difficult position for the 60,000-strong Mexican Jewish community.

Saturday night, Netanyahu tweeted, “President Trump is right. I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea,” prompting the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs to quickly contact the Israeli embassy in Mexico City to express “the Mexican government’s absolute shock, disappointment in, and rejection of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement regarding the construction of a wall on the border.

“Mexico is a friend of Israel and should be treated as such by its Prime Minister,” the statement said, and added that Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso expressed his deep affection for Israel at an event marking International Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday.

In addition, the Central Committee of the Jewish Community in Mexico broke with normative community policy by slamming Netanyahu, with one comment even comparing Trump’s proposed wall to the electrified fences that surrounded Nazi concentration camps during the second World War.

In many ways, Netanyahu’s support for Trump’s proposed border wall has placed Mexican Jews in a bind: On one hand, the community is wealthy, well-organized and strongly supportive of Israel and Zionism.

On the other hand, President Trump’s is deeply unpopular in the country as a result of his repeated condemnations of Mexicans and his characterization of Mexican immigrants as “drug dealers, criminals and prostitutes.” Trump’s plan to build a border wall, and especially his demand that Mexico pay for it, is seen as both a national insult to south of the border as well as a threat that could lead to the collapse of the Mexican economy.

“Look, Trump has horrible name in Mexico,” said Dr. Gustavo Perednik, a native of Buenos Aires and the author of 15 books on Jewish and Latin American affair. “Now, along comes Netanyahu and says ‘good idea’ to Trump for building the wall. I actually don’t think Netanyahu said anything wrong – his comment was only about blocking illegal immigration, it had nothing to do with Mexico or Mexicans per se. That is what Trump should have spoken about all along.

“But the Jewish community doesn’t want to be associated with the wall or to be seen as pro-Trump,” he said.