Trump's support for Israel
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The line about “absolute power over Congress” is cringeworthy. Yes, it is an anti-Semitic trope. Trump fits the canonical definition of a philo-Semite (an anti-Semite who likes Jews). He harbors some anti-Semitic prejudices about the extent of Jewish power. But he’s still a friend of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel. Before the 2016 election, an Israeli politician asked me what I thought of Trump (full disclosure: I worked for Ted Cruz in 2016). I said, “Imagine if Hitler had liked Jews!” I published that malicious remark. Nonetheless, I voted for Trump twice and defended him against the Deep State conspiracy to unseat him. There are anti-Semites and anti-Semites, but I’ll get to that.
As my friend Caroline Glick writes in Israel Hayom:
Trump was the most pro-Israel president in history. None of his predecessors, (and certainly not his successor President Joe Biden), come close….[he]stopped US financial support for the Palestinian Authority and shut down the PLO’s representative office in Washington, DC because Abbas funds and incites terrorism.
And of course, Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, and recognized the legality of Israel’s communities in Judea and Samaria…[and] stopped US funding for UNRWA because the UN agency funds terrorism. He pulled the US out of the UN Human Rights Committee because of its institutional antisemitism. He pulled the US out of the nuclear deal with Iran. He recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Let’s take Trump’s statement apart.
The authoritative Pew Survey published a poll of Jewish Americans’ attitudes towards Israel earlier this year. Only 34% of American Jewish adults say they strongly oppose boycott, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel and only 33% say the Israel government sincerely wants peace. To be sure, 60% say they have “a lot” or “some” in common with Israel. Translation: Liberal American Jews will entertain a degree of positive sentiment for Israel as long as Israel agrees to commit suicide to conform to their fantasy of what a Jewish State should be. Never mind that successive Israeli governments have offered the Arabs 90% of what they asked for, and had the door slammed in their faces.
The supposedly “moderate” Fatah faction of the Palestinians is kept alive by Israeli bayonets; left to its own devices, it would fall in a heartbeat to Hamas, as it did in Gaza in 2007. Hamas has perpetrated more than 80 terror attacks in Israel and murdered about 1,000 Israelis. The Hamas charter rejects any negotiated solution and demands instead jihad to destroy the State of Israel.
This requires Israel to maintain control over parts of Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank) that lie within rocket range of Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion airport, and critical infrastructure. To return to the 1948 armistice lines would be an act of suicide. 90% of Arabs live under the political control of the Palestinian Authority, but Israel has no choice but to rule directly some small portion of the Arab population, and that sometimes is unpleasant. Which offends the universalist sensibilities of liberal American Jews.
A majority of American Jews, therefore, says to Israel in so many words, “We have some sentimental attachment to you, but we think you’re wicked warmongers and won’t do anything to stop attempts to strangle you economically.”
Sadly, Trump is right about American Jews. Without evangelical and other Christians (including many conservative Catholics), Israel’s cause would be lost in the United States.
Related: Biden Administration Continues to Show Its Disdain for Israel and Support of Iran
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As I have written before, I have never really understood Jew-hatred. I have had several Jewish friends for most of my life beginning in childhood and to this day. Like Trump, I do not understand why liberal American Jews do not support Israel. I see the so-called Palestinians as Arabs who are not indigenous to the land of Israel. They are part of the Arabian conquest of the Middle East and North Africa who have never forgiven Jews for rejecting Islam. There are a lot of people in this world who have rejected Islam. The Jews are not alone in that regard.
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