Israel Needs Kamala Harris As President Of The United States

I am a dual US/Israeli citizen, born and raised in Philadelphia in a Jewish family where I received a solid grounding in Jewish values. In 1996 I accepted an offer to work in Israel, subsequently married and raised my family here. Within the last 2 years our children have both completed their military service and, after 7-October, one of them accepted a posting in the professional military. I am deeply grateful for everything the state of Israel has given me and am very proud to be an Israeli.

This article explains why I am asking American Jews to vote for Kamala Harris for President. My basic argument is simple: a second Trump Presidency would be disastrous for America, and that in turn would be disastrous for Israel and probably the rest of the world as well.

Donald Trump has demonstrated time and time again that his only real interest is Donald Trump. Clearly, his support for Israel is opportunistic, and there should be no question that he would walk away from Israel in a moment if a better offer came along – and the Saudis might well decide to give him a better offer. While it is true that Trump did take some actions which might appear to be good for Israel, a deeper look at those actions really doesn’t show anything significant at all. His recognition of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel might seem positive at first, until one realizes that no other global power supported that recognition, and that the question of Jerusalem remains open if there are other going to be meaningful negotiations towards a final status agreement with the Palestinians. While his canceling of the nuclear agreement with Iran might at first seem positive, the reality is that Trump made no further effort to stop Iranian nuclear research and development. Iran is now closer to the being able to build nuclear weapons then they ever have been before. Donald Trump’s ostensible support for Israel looked good on Fox News, but – like many Trump ventures – was totally devoid of substance.

Virtually all American historians agree that Donald Trump was a very poor President, if not the worst in our nation’s history. Beyond an economic policy whose only beneficiary was the billionaire class and which resulted in a national debt equal to America’s GDP, Trump demonstrated almost complete administrative incompetence in his first term as President. Consider how he handled the Covid crisis – allowing hundreds of thousands of Americans to die while waiting for some imaginary “herd immunity” solution; not taking any action which might negatively impact the economy during his re-election campaign. Look at how Trump handled the George Floyd protests, refusing even to address the event which triggered some of the worst rioting in American history. Look at his refusal to extend any assistance whatsoever to the people of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, claiming that there was simply no money in the budget to help them – and ignoring the fundamental fact that a President of the United States is supposed to create
budgets that allow for unexpected emergencies like hurricanes. Donald Trump never even bothered to try to do the right thing as President, unless the matter directly affected him.

Does America really want a President who is a convicted criminal – who has been convicted of felony financial manipulations as well as of sexual assault? Does America really want a President who is now legally prohibited from doing business in state of New York? Does American really want a President whose financial resume is so full of distortions and questionable transactions that no American bank will do business with him, which has forced him to turn to foreign institutions for financial funding?

Does America really want a President who – alone in American history – refused to accept the results of a national election, first trying every conceivable legal avenue to block the results and then – after every single one of those judicial challenges failed (every single one!) – assembled an armed mob and sent them off to the capital with instructions to block the Electoral College confirmation by whatever means necessary?
Does America really want a President who was impeached twice during his first administration?

Over 100 ranking members of Donald Trump’s first administration are openly opposed to his candidacy. Many respected Republicans are publicly campaigning against him. Clearly these are people who have witnessed Trump in action; their thinking should be respected. They understand through direct experience just how evil Donald Trump is.

In contrast to Donald Trump’s scheming and manipulations, Kamala Harris has served her city, her state and now her country with honorable and effective intentions. The platform of the Democratic Party acknowledges the issues that confront the country and proposes workable solutions that benefit all of the American people, and not just the super-rich. (The platform of the Republican Party blames everything on immigrants.) Kamala Harris has defined plans for the American electorate to review, while Donald Trump admits only to having “concepts of a plan”. An overwhelming majority of American economists – including 23 Nobel laurates – have endorsed Kamala Harris’ economic platform and warned of the very serious damage that will result from Donald Trump’s economic policies. An economically weak United States can be of little help to Israel.

It is true that there has arisen within the Democratic Party a pro-Palestinian/anti-Zionist faction, and I understand that this a concern to American Jewish voters. However, the platform of the Democratic Party remains strongly pro-Israel and strongly supportive of Israel’s response to the tragedy of October 7. It is also true that several of the most notoriously anti-Zionist congress persons have already been defeated in the primaries. Support for Israel remains overwhelming in the Democratic Party.

While there has been much concern expressed about anti-Zionist elements in the Democratic Party, it remains true that the values of the Democratic Party are much more consistent with traditional Jewish values than are the values of the Republican Party. We should not ignore the fact that the core constituency of the Republican Party is an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian community which firmly believes that all Jews are doomed to eternal damnation. While American Jews may have disagreements with some Democrats over Israel and Palestine, we generally share our core values with those Democrats. We share none of our core values with a Republican Party dominated by Christian Nationalists.

Obviously, the current situation in the Middle East requires that Israel and the United States maintain a strong relationship. A prerequisite for that strong, effective relationship is that the United States itself should remain a strong, respected international power and able to exert global leadership. This can only be done if the United States remains true to its founding ideals, and also maintains a strong economy. I believe that Kamala Harris will be a much better President in both of these areas, and will be a much better President with respect to Israel.

I feel much more optimistic about getting our hostages out of Gaza with Kamala as President.

Please vote for Kamala Harris on November 5.