JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli officials on Wednesday declined to comment on US President Donald Trump's comments that US Jews casting votes for the Democratic Party were "traitors."
In remarks to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, the US president commented on the two Democrats, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, whom Israel refused to allow them to visit under Trump's urging.
"Where did the Democratic Party go? Where did they go to defend these two women at the expense of the State of Israel? I think any Jewish person voting for a Democrat shows either complete ignorance or treason," Trump said in his comments.
Jewish groups in the United States were angered by Trump's statement, but the Israeli government, which has close ties to his administration, declined to give a say.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment on Trump's remarks.
"We should not interfere in political differences in the United States. We have good relations with Democrats and Republicans and we have to go on like this," Energy Secretary Yuval Steinitz told Radio Reshet Bett.
Trump and Netanyahu had a consensus on policies on Iran and the Palestinians.
Most Democrats disagree with the two lawmakers on Israel, but Trump's repeated attack on them has garnered support among them.
"It is a danger and shame that President Trump attacks the vast majority of the American Jewish community and calls it stupid and betrayed," said J Street, a liberal Jewish-American lobby group in a statement on Tuesday.
"But it is not surprising that the president's deceptive racist attacks on progressive, colorful women in Congress now move into a distortion that targets Jews."
The American Jewish Committee said it was furious at Trump's remarks.
"The president's comments are shockingly divisive and unworthy of the highest elected office," said David Harris, chief executive of the committee.
"American Jews, like all Americans, have diverse political views and priorities. His appreciation of their knowledge or loyalty based on their party preferences is inappropriate, unwelcome and dangerous in every sense of the word."
Historically, the Democratic Party has a majority of Jews who save 60% of its budget, and many are among its cadres.
Many American experts point out that Jews have penetrated the party as a party of immigrants, as well as being consistent with a large part of its democratic vision and treatment of rights and minorities, unlike the Republican Party, which did not welcome them when they came to America.