Is Trump good for Israel?

Ever since winning the presidential elections in 2016, I always thought that Donald Trump wouldn’t be good for Israel and believe that more strongly today. Despite the “adoration” expressed by many in our community as well as the Israeli PM that Trump has been the best friend of Israel and the Jews ever.

Despite the relocating of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of the Golan, the normalization of relations with some Gulf States, Sudan and Morocco (which all came at a price one way or another), Trump is not and will not be good for Israel and the Jews. None of these were done out of sincerity or national interest but for self-serving aggrandizement and to win support from the Evangelical bible belt of the Midwest US.

Whilst the Israeli PM continues to “brown nose” Trump, this doesn’t do any good for Israel’s image – in fact just the opposite as will become apparent in the coming months when the world will judge Israel on her genuine search for a lasting peace rather than hide behind that false messiah. While Israel still basking in the anticipation of “the deal of the century” that was nothing but a mirror of the old South African Bantustan and reaped nothing but a harder line from the Palestinian leadership, only now with Trump on the way out are Palestinian voices beginning to talk about renewed peace negotiations. Netanyahu continues to hails Trump as a peacemaker highlights his own shallowness. The only peacemakers are both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership and if the deal was attractive enough for Trump he would sell Israel down the river in a heartbeat.

Those who think that family ties would drive a good deal were mistaken – Trump has no affiliation to anyone other than Trump himself which is demonstrated daily and openly. His open partisan stand has alienated the US from the majority of the Arab world which is neither good for the US or Israel and it leaves little trust and even less confidence that the US would broker a fair deal. Not that this has ever entered into the Trump thought process as the only deal that has any meaning is a deal where he can score one over his opponent. Sadly this again will not help Israel in anyway when wanting to move forward from the current status quo which suits the hard line Israeli government.

The reality of today’s world is that the occupation must end and a Two State Solution must evolve with the formation of a viable Palestinian state if Israel is to remain a democratic Jewish State and a member of the international brotherhood of nations. Lets not forget those images of the anti-Semitic t shirts on display by trump supporters during the recent events in Washington last week.