Hating Donald Trump more than loving Israel

Armageddon! The Apocalypse! World War III! The end of the universe as we know it!

All the breathless predictions about impending immediate doom moments after the announcement three weeks ago about Jerusalem becoming what Jerusalem had already actually been for several millennia failed to materialize. Just more histrionics from the left toward anything Trump.

I was amused by one scene in particular on ABC’s This Week on December 10, where the moderator went via satellite to her correspondent at a violent rally. (Minute 32:12.) But there was no violence and no rally to be seen.

The reporter, decked out in a flak jacket adorned with the word “PRESS” (standing for, “Don’t hurt me, Palestinians! I’m with the press! I’m on your side! Throw your firebombs at the Jews!”) admitted the kinds of protests that were expected (by them and other ignorant, even hopeful-for-a-conflagration naysayers) didn’t happen.

But the embarrassed reporter did say Israeli soldiers had just fired “a huge volley of tear gas” at protesters behind him. No tear gas to be seen, hardly anyone behind the reporter. Laughable.

Now there was violence, I don’t want to say there was not, nor diminish what has occurred or will occur in Israel or elsewhere. But with many Palestinians, and their corrupt and morally bankrupt leaders, when is violence not encouraged? When is there no “day of rage?” And ISIS and Al-Qaeda never needed Israel to commit terrorism.

And as if even the most oblivious do not know, anything and everything is an excuse to intransigent Palestinians.

Sit down and talk peace? Nada. Stab children and babies while they sleep, shoot rabbis at prayer or study, drive trucks into grandmothers waiting for the bus, tunnel into Israeli towns to commit terror, throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at passing vehicles? Those are daily occurrences. No fancy excuse needed. Being Jewish is enough.

Look, I have no doubt there are those Jews and others of good will on the left who, with thoughtful and concerned reasoning, believed President Donald Trump’s decision to announce United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital along with his pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem was foolhardy and dangerous.

No matter it had been promised and encouraged for years by previous US presidents and lawmakers.

These skeptics made cogent, sober arguments and refrained from peppering any reasoning with the usual nasty hyperbole used to fire up the already too fired-up opposition.

But without question, there are those who opposed Trump’s declaration and position because, well, they hate the president and therefore hate everything he says and does.

These dissenters were easily recognizable; they gave themselves away too quickly. As soon as they criticized the Jerusalem decision with hand-wringing worry, they could not leave the argument without the usual hateful Trump-derangement syndrome vitriol, or history of his insensitivities and nasty, racially-tinged comments.

Yes, he did that and does that. But as is said, even a broken clock is right twice a day. In other words, credit where credit is due.

But not so, to the perpetually angry, and this includes elitist intelligentsia dressing up their overstatements with intellectual, big-worded language.

And we are repeatedly told that not only does Trump not really care about Israel or Jews — only his Evangelical base which also doesn’t really care about Israel and Jews but only wants to convert the Jews so the Apocalypse would finally come and Jesus would return — but Trump is an anti-Semite!

Trump is a lot of things, many of which I despise, but newsflash unhinged ones, the president is not an anti-Semite. Now if it makes you feel better to call him that, do so. But separate your hatred from the right decision, if you can. Hate the messenger if you must, but love the message. But you can’t and you won’t.

Know why? Because you are so filled with hatred toward the one who dashed all your dreams and who loves thumbing your nose in it, you hate him more than you love Israel. Yes, I said it. You hate Donald Trump more than you love Israel.

Now I know you will vehemently object. “How dare you?!” “I love Israel!” “Look at me at the Western Wall!” “I am a rabbi!” “I donate to Israel!” “I have been there 10 times!” “My family lives there!” And more. Sorry, I don’t buy it

I grit my teeth when I watch and read the predictable pundits and peruse the nutty social media posts, including those from non-Jews questioning the intelligence of “suckered-in” Jews who supported the decision. As if comments such as those from the “compassionate” inclusive left doesn’t border on the anti-Semitic.

By the way, to his credit. one of the “suckers” is none other than Senate Minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer who not only supported Trump’s decision, but criticized Trump for taking too long to make it. Of course, some on the left attacked him for that support.

I have also heard the nonsense about the US giving up its negotiating prowess and power to the Russians, ironically from those who cared not a lick when Obama did exactly that with the Syrian civil war. It would be meaningless even if it happened. Israel and the US would never agree to any Russian one-sided deal.

And another fear-mongering reason making the rounds on news shows and disseminated talking points is that the Jerusalem declaration would endanger Israel’s burgeoning relationship with the Saudis. Silliness. The Saudis care much more about the Iranians than the Palestinians, and anyone who doesn’t know that doesn’t know much about the Middle East at all.

To some who cannot control their Trump-hatred, I do not deny their love for Israel. In fact, when they are not hyperventilating about  Trump’s latest lunacy, they actually take the time to say or write something supportive about Israel. And I commend them for that.

But at the same time, they can love the Jewish State, but not as much as they hate the president.

Want more proof? These cynics cannot even begrudgingly admire Trump’s heroic US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley for standing up for Israel like no other US Ambassador to the UN ever has, taking on the anti-Semitic, hypocritical despots, and the cowardly, terrorist-tolerant Europeans. In fact, the cynics condemn her.

“Resistance,” after all, calls for complete and unyielding subjugation to the cause, no exceptions.

President Trump didn’t give up something for nothing from the Israelis as some have said. Love him or hate him, he reversed a reversed US policy at the anniversary of former President Obama’s sticking it to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, changing US (and world) policy on Jerusalem by allowing the passage of a UN Security Council resolution surrendering longstanding understandings of Jewish East Jerusalem including the Western Wall.

A bitter Obama changed the equation; Trump changed it back. And now other countries are considering following America’s lead.

That, along with the disclosure that Obama surrendered a major component of the war on drugs — Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist proxy in Lebanon, pouring cocaine into the United States making money from the addiction and deaths of Americans — so that Iran would go along with a deeply flawed and dangerous nuclear agreement.

Outrage from the left for Trump’s Jerusalem decision. “Crickets” from the left for Obama’s giving Hezbollah and Iran the worst types of passes imaginable.

Ah, politics. For some, it is more important than the heart and soul of the Jewish people. But what would I know? I got suckered in.

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I edited this column shortly after publication to include the news about other countries potentially following America’s lead about moving their embassies to Jerusalem, Israel.