Full articleI don ' t know if Steve Bannon , Donald Trump ' s chief strategist , is antiSemitic . I can ' t see inside his soul . What I do know is this Citing his support for Israel doesn ' t exonerate him of the charge . You can believe that Jews are a malevolent force in the United States and still love the Jewish state . It ' s easy . It ' s easy because for Bannon , and many on the Trumpian right , the crucial political divide in today ' s world is between internationalists who they call globalists and nationalists . Internationalists believe in universal principles like human rights , international law and free trade . They see their countries less as ends in and of themselves than as means for achieving these broader principles . That ' s why they support foreign aid and humanitarian wars even when they don ' t serve any direct national interest . It ' s why they support admitting refugees even if vetting and settling them poses a challenge . It ' s why they support free trade , which they believe enhances global prosperity and peace , even if it dislocates people at home . Not all internationalists believe in all the same principles . Leftwing internationalists like Bernie Sanders support foreign aid and refugee resettlement but not humanitarian intervention and free trade . For rightwing internationalists like Bill Kristol , it ' s closer to the reverse . But while they fight about which principles the United States should champion , left and right internationalists agree that the United States is a vehicle for causes greater than itself . They see America as not merely a nation but an idea . Bannon and Trump reject that . They believe that when American elites pursue their universalist agendas , ordinary Americans get screwed . American kids die in military interventions . American workers lose their jobs as the result of trade deals . Americans lose their lives because refugees commit terrorism . Nationalists like Bannon and Trump think that when internationalists appeal to moral principle , they ' re utterly phony . It ' s a cover for their own interests . As economic elites , they benefit from freer trade and immigration . It ' s not their kids who fight the nation ' s wars . Seen from this perspective , American Jews and Israel look utterly different . American Jews are among the most internationalist populations in the United States . Their historical memory makes them sympathetic to immigrants . And given their class position , they rarely compete with lowskilled immigrants for jobs . Their historical memory also makes them fear isolationism . Mickey Mouse , The Most Famous Cartoon of All TimeSponsored By ConnatixIt has been more than eight decades since the famous mouse appeared on the TV scene in our homes . The evolution of Mickey . Trump ' s slogan , America First , which strikes his supporters are common sense , chills many American Jews with its echoes of Charles Lindbergh ' s antiSemitic opposition to American entry into World War II . Given the kinds of jobs they do , American Jews also disproportionately benefit from free trade . Bannon and company may have Jewish friends they love dearly . But politically , they see most Americans Jews as their adversaries . And while this doesn ' t constitute antiSemitism , the line sometimes blurs . In his final campaign aid , Trump showed images of George Soros , Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein , all internationalistminded Jews , alongside the words global special interests , global power structure and handful of large corporations . In her book Adios America , Trump booster Ann Coulter says the United States is letting in terrorprone , jobstealing immigrants so Mark Zuckerberg can underpay his employees . To most Trumpians , however , Israel looks completely different . In his fight against internationalism , Bannon is seeking alliances with nationalists across the globe . He loves the U . K . Independence Party . He loves France ' s National Front . And he loves Benjamin Netanyahu ' s Israel . Why ? Because Netanyahu ' s Israel scorns international law . It refuses refugees . Its foreign policy is ultrarealist . Most Trumpians love Israel . And they resent that fact that most American Jews , who love Israel too , don ' t support Israelistyle policies in the U . S . In Coulter ' s words , Palestinians demand a right to return to their pre 1967 homes , but Israel says , quite correctly , that changing Israel ' s ethnicity would change the idea of Israel . Well , changing America ' s ethnicity changes the idea of America , too . Show me in a straight line why we can ' t do what Israel does . Is Israel special ? For some of us , America is special too . Bannon and the Trumpian right have discovered what Jews have known for a century That Zionism is built , in part , on the rejection of Diaspora Jewish identity . That ' s especially true today , as a rising Orthodox population pushes Israel toward greater nationalism and secular millennial Jews push American Jewry further away from nationalism . The real question isn ' t How can Steve Bannon oppose American Jewish political culture while embracing Israeli political culture ? That ' s easy . The real question is how long liberal American Jewish Zionists can straddle the divide the between the two .