A Trump-Netanyahu rerun would be a disaster, empowering both the Republican candidate's overt, serial antisemitism and a corrupt Israeli leader credibly accused of war crimes – which is why most American Jews reject both the antisemite and his Israeli enabler

There are few things more dangerous to a nation than a messianic leader who believes his interests and views both represent and supersede those of the people he would lead.

It is a problem with which both Israel and the United States are too familiar at the moment. They are not alone, of course. We live in a moment in which such leaders have proliferated, supporting one another in their excesses and abuses. In Russia, China, India, Turkey, Hungary and many other states, similarly narcissistic, power-mad leaders are a burden and a threat to the future well-being of their countries, their neighbors and the world.

The collaboration of such leaders has fueled a global move toward authoritarianism and ethno-nationalism. But in the case of the collaboration between Israel's prime minister-for-life and self-appointed savior Benjamin Netanyahu, and America's once and would-be future president who asserts he is the only man that stands between us all and global catastrophe, there are even darker forces at work when it comes to the intersecting interests of both countries.

On the one hand, Netanyahu not only asserts that he alone knows what is best for the people of Israel, but he has also often claimed that as Israel's leader he speaks for all the world's Jews (including those of us in the U.S. and elsewhere who would beg to differ). At the same time, Trump is once again contending that America is broken and "(he) alone can fix it" while postulating that if he does not win not only will it spell disaster for the U.S., "Israel will not exist in two years."

Furthermore, the two have both effectively entered into a pact to do whatever they can to help each other retain or gain power. And when I say "whatever they can," I mean that. In the case of Netanyahu, that means prolonging regional conflicts and resisting a cease-fire that might be seen as a victory for the Biden-Harris administration. In the case of Trump, that means offering a long-term blank check to Netanyahu to do what he wants in the region.

Perversely, however, and perniciously on top of that, Netanyahu, champion of world Jewry that he says he is, has decided to look the other way (again) as Trump seeks to get himself elected by overtly, repeatedly and nauseatingly, embracing antisemitism in a way that no other mainstream American or western leader has since World War II.

Netanyahu has entered into a marriage of convenience with a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist whose own running mate once described him as "America's Hitler," just as Trump has joined forces with a corrupt Israeli leader credibly accused of war crimes who, at almost every turn, undermines the national interests and violates the express values of the United States.

It is a marriage made in Hell. Should it succeed in aiding the causes of either man, it will foment a disaster for both countries, for their people and for Jews worldwide.

The Hitler accusation leveled by Trump's vice-presidential pick Ohio Senator J.D. Vance eight years ago is, if anything, more on target and worrisome today than it was when he first offered it. Yes, back then it was known that Trump kept a volume of Hitler's speeches by his bed. Yes, it was also known that he regularly made antisemitic comments.

But since then, we have seen him actively and repeatedly associate with and defend hardcore antisemitic white supremacists.

Trump dined with Adolf Hitler fan boy Nick Fuentes. He argued that there were "very fine people" among the mob that chanted "Jews will not replace us" in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. He has often endorsed the antisemitic canard that American Jews labor under a dual loyalty to Israel and the United States – or twists it even further, to say that U.S. Jews' first loyalty should be to Israel.

During the current campaign for president, Trump's echoes of Hitler and his ties to him and his tactics have grown only worse. Like Hitler, he has referred to "migrants" as "animals." He has proposed rounding them up and putting them in concentration camps.

He and Vance have spread spurious stories that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, and then his supporters including the notorious "Proud Boys" descended on that town and handed out fliers printed in a type font similar to Nazi hand-outs of the 1930s and used Nazi language referring to the immigrants as "filth."

Trump's hand-picked candidate for governor of North Carolina has, it turns out, identified himself as a "Black Nazi." Then, speaking to a group allegedly gathered to help combat antisemitism, Trump not only reiterated his dual loyalty assertions, but went on to say that if he did not win in November, it would be the fault of the Jews. He then repeated the line again in a different setting. It was a kind of scapegoating that Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus accurately asserted crossed a "dangerous line" in Trumpian antisemitism.

So, you'd think that Trump overtly mimicking Hitler and embracing his noxious antisemitic ideology might just be something that Benjamin 'self-anointed defender of the world's Jews' Netanyahu would call out and criticize. But…nope. Not a peep.

Because in the logic of the messianic leader, the only true measure of what is good for his people or his country is what benefits him and by extension, those who threaten him are bad. Trump, being a pro-Netanyahu antisemite, like Putin and Orban to pick two other examples, is on the side of the angels that play the trumpets in Bibi's head every time he enters a room.

Fortunately, although the GOP presidential candidate asserts that any Jew who does not support his presidential campaign ought to have his head examined, there are plenty of American Jews who are more than willing to ignore Dr. Trump's diagnosis.

In fact, according to a recent poll, roughly three-quarters of American Jews do not support Trump. In the same poll, more than 9 out of 10 of American Jewish voters believed "one can be pro-Israel and critical of Israeli government policies" and nearly two-thirds hold an unfavorable view of Netanyahu.

What is more, it is not just that American Jews are disgusted by Trump and his antisemitism. They actively support his opponent Kamala Harris.

There are many reasons for this. She is an exceptionally strong candidate who has repeatedly demonstrated her superiority over Trump on a wide range of domestic and international issues. She is experienced and, better than any other U.S. political leader, she has expressed the necessary balance between supporting Israel and Israel's right to defend itself and the desire to win the release of the hostages, arrive at a cease-fire in Gaza and achieve a just and lasting peace in the region. She has also actively campaigned against antisemitism, as has her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff.

In other words, the vast majority of American Jews have not only not fallen for the self-serving messianic claptrap of either Trump or Netanyahu, they also reject both the antisemite and his Israeli enabler. And just as important, here in the U.S., unlike in Israel at the moment, there is a vastly better alternative, a proven and supremely capable leader who seeks to serve rather than supplant, subordinate and often ignore the will and the interests of voters.