Some say that President Trump is stoking extremism in the United States; others contend that the media has been irresponsible in the way it covers the president and his supporters. In Pittsburgh, we saw the terrible results of extremism, and 11 people are dead.

What do you think is contributing to extremism in the United States? Is it President Trump’s rhetoric? Or does the media bear any blame?

Daniel Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel 

“At a time of significant social and technological change and economic dislocation, it is not unusual or surprising that extremists emerge and let their voices be heard. We have seen in other eras that those who feel alienated by change or fall behind economically look for someone to blame.

“Trump is as much a symptom as a cause of these tensions. But his words and signals contribute to an atmosphere in which hate against others’ — Muslims, Mexicans, and yes, Jews — is normalized. He sends messages, intended or not, to extremists that they have space to express their hateful views. And a few very extreme or unstable people may take that as a signal to act. A president should try to calm those tensions, not stoke them. He is not doing that.

“The media, of course, has a responsibility to report facts accurately and avoid giving demagogues a platform to spread their hate. But blaming the media is not much of an answer. Some would argue that Fox News spreads untruths that gin up anger and extremism, just as President Trump argues that CNN and other outlets do.

“But no one has a bigger megaphone than the president of the United States. His condemnation of attacks after the fact is not enough. He needs to make racists and anti-Semites feel like their views are unacceptable. He does the opposite.”

 Gil Troy, professor of history, McGill University

“First of all we have to be extremely careful not to read too much into the evil acts of one deranged person. But people like that are inflamed by demagogues, and so I would say that, yes, Donald Trump all too often chooses to be an arsonist feeding the flames of partisan extremism.

“But it’s a highly flammable environment thanks to an Internet that gives haters and extremists a loud podium, media sensationalists that rile people up, and partisans from both sides who prefer to demonize their opponents on almost every issue rather than humanizing [them].”

 Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder, Simon Wiesenthal Center

“President Trump is not to blame for what happened in Pittsburgh, and you just have to look at Europe to understand that. For the last 20 years there’s been a steep rise in anti-Semitism in Europe, and Jews there have had to live with a reality like Pittsburgh. You wear a yarmulke at your own risk in areas of France and Sweden— and yet there’s no Trump in Europe. Where did this environment of anti-Semitism come from? It’s Jew-hatred, emanating from the Muslims and anti-Israel left. That has come across here to the US, and it’s not because of Trump or an atmosphere he’s created.

“Obviously Donald Trump, like all other presidents, has made mistakes. Most of his tweets are not necessary, and his rhetoric has sometimes been too harsh. What he said after Charlottesville, blaming both sides, was a major blunder. But it’s preposterous to suggest, as some have, that the president is an anti-Semite.

“By focusing on Trump, the media are guilty of double standards. When President Clinton recently shared a platform at a funeral with Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite, how much was this covered in the New York Times or the Washington Post? Which is more embarrassing? How much coverage was there in the American press of the fact that Obama was giving billions of dollars to Iran, the worst Holocaust deniers in the world?

“The bottom line is that we like to believe that anti-Semitism was created here in the US, but what we are experiencing has nothing to do with Trump and instead has come across the Atlantic.”

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, president, Coalition for Jewish Values

“I feel that the left, led by the mainstream media, has abandoned all standards and sense of fairness. The right didn’t do to President Obama what the left is doing to President Trump. Right-wingers are not innocent, but they have not been throwing people out of restaurants or sending people to Capitol Hill to verbally assault senators and congressmen who disagree with them. Hillary Clinton herself said recently that Democrats cannot be civil until they retake control of government.

“This is happening all over, including, of course, in Israel. After the terrible events in Pittsburgh, a journalist deliberately took Israeli Chief Rabbi Lau’s remarks out of context, making it sound as if he refused to use the term beit knesset when referring to a Conservative synagogue, when the first thing he said was that it should be irrelevant what kind of synagogue it was. I say deliberately, because it is impossible to read the full interview and not see the inverse of what the reporter said. It was, and remains, a deliberate lie that spread internationally.

“The same is true of the left’s treatment of President Trump and the right. Figures on the right have said some stupid things, but in a normal environment, they would barely be noticed. It’s the media and the left that build it up.

“So I really do not think both sides are equally to blame. The left has abandoned fairness, and has gone so far to the left that the middle looks extreme.” (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 734)