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America’s liberal, left-leaning Jews are ardently Democratic and profuse Trump-haters.
But, they should acknowledge that Donald Trump has done more for the State of Israel than any other
U.S. president. Without doubt, President Trump has turned out to be the best friend that Israel has ever had
in the White House.
While many of the liberal elite Jewish establishment are rabidly opposed to the
person, they need to consider the good that comes with the bad in terms of what the President has done and
is doing for the Jewish homeland. They may want to consider holding their noses against the stench drifting
out of the oval office and accept the good that has come Israel’s way since Trump took office.
Let’s remember that it was Donald Trump who recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
and began the process of moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On 25 March 2019, President Trump gave
the State of Israel another long-overdue gift. On that day, Donald “Trump signed a proclamation formally
recognizing the contested Golan Heights . . . as part of the state of Israel.
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" ‘Today I am taking historic action to promote Israel's ability to defend itself
and really to have a very powerful, very strong national security, which they're entitled to have,’ Trump
said before signing the measure.
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" ‘This was a long time in the making,’ Trump said. ‘Should have taken place many
decades ago.’ " (Ref. 1)
Trump’s action with regard to the Golan Heights was not his first action in support
of Israel. Back in 2017, at their first meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the
newly elected President Trump as a great supporter of Israel. saying: “There is no greater supporter of the
Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump.” (Ref. 2)
Since assuming office, President Trump’s actions have reinforced this perception.
President Trump demonstrated a willingness to discard totally unrealistic positions
regarding Israel and the recalcitrant terrorist regimes in Gaza and the West Bank when, in 2017, “Trump went
some distance to embrace Netanyahu’s views, upending decades of U.S. Middle East policy by dropping insistence
on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” (Ref. 2)
On 6 December 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the United States formally
recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would begin the process of moving its embassy from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem. In the announcement, President Trump stated what should have been obvious to his predecessors
and to the rest of the world: "We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions
and repeating the same failed strategies of the past.”
(Ref. 3)
President Trump went on to state the obvious: His announcement marked the
beginning of a new approach to the conflict between Israel and the so called “Palestinians”. Back in 1995,
Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act, urging the U.S. president to relocate the American embassy to
Jerusalem and to recognize that city as Israel's capital. That act passed Congress by an overwhelming
bipartisan majority and was reaffirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate in 2016. But, for over 20 years,
America’s presidents had exercised the law's waiver, refusing to move the US embassy to Jerusalem or to
recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital city.
U.S. Presidents had issued these waivers under the naive belief that delaying
the recognition of Jerusalem would advance the cause of peace – they were wrong! After
more than two decades of waivers, there has been not even a hint of a lasting peace agreement between
Israel and the “Palestinians”. Trump recognized that it would be folly to assume that repeating the exact
same formula would produce a different or better result. He stated that: “Israel is a sovereign nation
with the right like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital. Acknowledging this as a
fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace.” (Ref. 3)
In another demonstration of his support of Israel, in August of 2018, “President
Donald Trump ordered that more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority be cut . . .
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“The terror group Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip was partly to blame . . .
The measure ‘takes into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance
in Gaza, where Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza’s citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian
and economic situation’ . . .
“The Trump administration ha{d} already cut aid to the United Nations agency for
Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
“{Previously}, Trump slammed the PA over its refusal to deal with the US, saying
his administration should not continue to give ‘massive payments’ to the Palestinians when they are ‘no
longer willing to talk peace.’ “ (Ref. 4)
In 2018, the Trump administration announced that it would not continue subsidizing
the so-called ‘moderate’ and ‘non-violent’ Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership clique “in the vain hope
that throwing more good money after bad {would} help bring about real peace or provide genuine help for the
Palestinian people. This clique is made up of lying hypocrites, who fund and glorify terrorists while
corruptly diverting aid money and donations to their own personal benefit.
“. . . a State Department official announced . . . that it would redirect U.S.
financial assistance of more than $200 million originally intended for the Palestinian Authority and
projects in the West Bank and Gaza. This cut in bilateral aid is on top of the previously announced cut
of nearly $300 million in U.S. financial support for the discredited UN Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
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“The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) issued a report {in August 2018}
reviewing how Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his leadership clique have been enablers of
Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. On July 23, 2018, for example, at a ceremony honoring
the imprisoned terrorist suspects and the slain terrorists he referred to as ‘martyrs,’ Abbas said, ‘We will
neither reduce nor withhold the allowances of the families of martyrs, prisoners, and released prisoners, as
some want [us to do]; if we had only a single penny left, we would pay it to families of the martyrs and
prisoners.’ With that kind of perverted sense of priorities, not a penny of U.S. taxpayers’ money should end
up under the control of Abbas and his cohorts.
“{In March of 2018} Congress decided that it had enough of Palestinian duplicity
and passed the Taylor Force Act as part of a $1.3 trillion budget bill, named for an American stabbed to
death by a Palestinian terrorist in 2016. The Palestinian Authority praised the terrorist, killed by the
Israeli police following his dastardly attack, as a ‘heroic martyr.’ The terrorist’s family was rewarded
with lifelong financial compensation, a practice that the Taylor Force Act is intended to deter by cutting
off most U.S. funding to the PA until it stops such payments to Palestinian terrorists and their
families.” (Ref. 5) Until President Trump, U.S. citizens had been
subsidizing the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay for slay” policy of glorifying their murderers and terrorists
with streets, schools, and parks named in their honor, payments to them while they were in jail, and payments
to the families of those butchers who were killed while committing their atrocities.
“President Trump’s foreign policy has helped reinforce a bond between Israel and
the United States government that was badly damaged under the Obama regime, when top officials were
constantly threatening and harassing Israel and seemingly endorsing its enemies’ ambitions against it.
“By moving the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital, President Trump helped the Jewish state restore its rightful claims to sovereignty over
its lands. President Trump’s leadership on the Jerusalem issue, coupled with his unapologetic defense of
the U.S.-Israel alliance, has encouraged other countries — even Arab-Muslim states in the region — to forge
diplomatic cooperation with Israel, some for the first time. That only increases Israel’s economic
independence.
“Israel still faces many diplomatic and military challenges. Hezbollah and the
Iranian regime continue to encroach on its borders, heightening the prospect of a coming regional war of
unprecedented proportions. However, should Israel once again be forced to defend itself against radical
Islamist actors, it will find that it has no greater friend than President Trump in the White
House.” (Ref. 6)
President Trump made history with his appointment of Nikki Haley as ambassador to
the U.N. Her unabashed support of Israel in that anti-Semitic and anti-Israel body was a breath of fresh air.
“Haley has stood up for Israel at the UN and pulled out of the Human Rights Council because she {rightly}
accused it of having an anti-Israel bias.” (Ref. 7) In recognition of
Trump and Haley standing up for Israel in the United Nations, Haley received the Christians United for
Israel (CUFI) 2018 “Defender of Israel Award”. CUFI founder, John Hagee, praised Trump for what he has
done for Israel, stating: “[Trump has] boldly stepped into political immortality. At home and in Israel,
you will never be forgotten for what you have done for Israel and the Jewish people.”
(Ref. 7)
Most recently, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he thinks Donald Trump’s
administration is the most pro-Israel in history.
Around the time of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which celebrates saving the lives
of the Jews of Persia (today called Iran) by the Jewish Queen Esther, Pompeo “ was asked by an interviewer
from the Christian Broadcasting Network if U.S. President Donald Trump had been ‘raised for such a time as
this, just like Queen Esther to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?’
“Pompeo’s response went directly to the point: ‘As a Christian, I certainly
believe that is possible.’
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“Many heard this and mocked (with good reason) the notion that Trump could
possibly be compared to the heroine of the Purim story.
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“{The} signing by Trump of a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty on
the Golan Heights . . . sent a {strong} message to Iran, whose forces and Hezbollah auxiliaries are
occupying Syrian territory . . .
“Moreover, when placed in the context of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital, his unwillingness to accept—as did previous presidents—the Palestinian Authority’s
intransigence and financial support for terrorism, and his pulling out of the disastrous 2015 nuclear deal
with Iran brokered by his predecessor, there’s no longer any room to deny the depth of the support of this
administration for the Jewish state. [Emphasis mine]
“This isn’t to argue that this one aspect of his administration must cancel out
any other consideration . . . But it does mean that an honest discussion about Trump’s policy when it comes to Israel requires us to discard our partisan lens and understand that whatever his true motivation or how he arrived at his conclusions, what he has done has greatly strengthened Israel’s strategic position.
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“Trump has done more than merely reverse Obama’s goal of creating more ‘daylight’
between the United States and Israel. He has promoted policies that have discarded decades of foolish
conventional wisdom about the Middle East and replaced it with stances on the conflict that are rooted in
realpolitik and recognition of Israel’s rights and security needs.
“That doesn’t mean Trump is perfect and . . . his peace plan may cause more harm than
good. But it’s past time that his critics acknowledge that what he’s done with respect to Israel places him
above any other American president with respect to friendship for the Jewish state . . .
“That doesn’t make Trump Queen Esther. But . . . it is past time to stop pretending
that this administration’s policies towards Israel can be depicted as anything but a historic breakthrough
that should be properly noted and applauded.” (Ref. 8)
As I’ve said previously (Ref’s 3, 9): “Maybe,
just maybe, President Trump’s {actions are} the start of a new day in dealing with those Palestinian-Arabs
and other Arabs who have no real desire for a just Mid-East peace, who want to destroy the State of Israel,
who want only to kill all Jews and other ‘infidels’, and who have held their own brethren hostage since 1948.
Maybe we are witnessing the end of the ‘land for peace fantasy’. Maybe we are seeing the beginning of a truly
realistic approach, one of ‘applying the stick’, instead of ‘offering the carrot’. It’s time, long since
due, to change from a doomed and obviously failed approach to a new one. It’s also time for the rest of
the world to stop paying lip-service to the Israel-haters and the Arab apologists and to get solidly behind
a new program – it’s certainly worth a try. Repeated failure is not an option, it’s insanity.”
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References:
- Trump greets embattled Netanyahu, signs Golan Heights proclamation, wfmz.com,
25 March 2019.
- Trump greets Netanyahu with smiles, handshakes and a jolt or two, handshakes and a jolt or two,
Reuters,
15 February 2017.
- Trump transcript in full: Jerusalem is Israel's capital , Jeff Robbins, AL JAZEERA NEWS,
8 December 2017.
- Trump Cuts $200 Million In Aid To Palestinians, Deborah Danan, Breitbart,
28 August 2018.
- TRUMP CUTS PALESTINIAN FUNDING, Joseph Klein, Frontpage Mag, 28 August 2018.
- Bret Stephens is wrong. Donald Trump is great for Israel, Jordan Schachtel,
Conservative Review,
27 December 2018.
- Evangelicals cheer Trump administration's pro-Israel policies, Caleb Parke, Fox News,
26 July 2018.
- Opinion: Trump rises above all US presidents in Support of Israel, Jonathan S. Tobin,
World Israel News,
27 March 2019.
- Jerusalem IS the Capital of Israel, David Burton,
Son of Eliyahu: Article 314, 28 December 2017.
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