'The Wire' creator doubles down on Israel criticism after Pittsburgh attack

Jewish-American creator of “The Wire” and “The Deuce” David Simon has been highly vocal on Twitter in the wake of the deadly attack on Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, arguing Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to blame for the 11 Jews massacred while attending Saturday prayer service.

i24NEWS sat down with former Israeli diplomat, Avi Pazner, who called Simon’s claim that “the American-Jewish community is now bleeding at the hands” of Netanyahu “abhorrent.”

Simon’s remarks were made on Twitter in response to the Minister of the Jewish Diaspora Naftali Bennett, who tweeted an announcement he would visit Pittsburgh on Sunday “to be with our sisters and brothers on their darkest hour.”

“Go home,” Simon writes. “Netanyahu’s interventions in US politics aided in the election of Donald Trump and his raw and relentless validation of white nationalism and fascism.

“The American Jewish community is now bleeding at the hands of the Israeli prime minister. And many of us know it,” he added.

“I am appalled by this kind of reaction. When an Israeli minister comes to share the grief with the American community, there is no room for politics. We are all Jews,” Pazner tells i24NEWS The Spin Room’s host Ami Kaufman.

Simon tweeted a response to Pazner after the interview aired claiming that “Mr.Pazner” and “every other functionary of Mr. Netanyahu’s government” is “this generation’s equivalent of Franz Von Papen.”

“For political strategy, they’ve embraced alliance with white nationalism, racism, and now, virulent anti-Semitism,” Simon added.

Simon goes on to say his wording in previous tweets was both “accurate and precise.”

“I’m calling out Jews comfortable with a shameful silence about this alliance with white nationalism, race-baiting and now, violent anti-Semitism. Fascism is fascism. It won’t be good for the Jews, or so many vulnerable others,” Simon added.