Israelis’ Trump Love On The Rocks

Israelis are waking up. They see that President Donald Trump is not the bosom buddy they insisted he was.  

As his peace negotiations with Iran have shown, the man is an egotistical, self-serving snake oil salesman. While sidelining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , he has cobbled together a Memo of Understanding (MOU) with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei that undermines Israel’s security.

Why am I not surprised? Simple. I’ve been wise to Trump for decades.

When I moved to Israel from the US seven years ago, I was appalled to discover that three quarters of Israelis adored the man. From conservative cab drivers to liberal animal rights activists, when people heard my American-accented Hebrew, their immediate reaction was “Go Trump!” Though disgusted, I understood.

During his first term in the White House, Trump gave Israel the keys to the car with no restrictions on speeding or drinking behind the wheel. You want us to move the US embassy to Jerusalem? Done. You want to establish more settlements in the disputed territories? Build with my blessings, kinderlach. When he took all the credit for the Abraham Accords, Israelis let him.  

I remembered Trump when I lived in New York in the 1970s and 80s. Back then, he was an obnoxious show-off who was the darling of gossip columnists and talk-show hosts. I remembered his full-page newspaper ad demanding the death penalty for five young black men accused of brutalizing and raping a woman jogger in Central Park. They were ultimately exonerated, but Trump never retraced his words.

I remembered Ivana divorcing him for his extra-marital affair with actress Marla Maples, his subsequent marriage and divorce from Maples, his casino bankruptcies in Atlantic City, and how he stiffed contractors who did jobs for him. The tabloids feasted on that stuff. But what difference did it make to Israelis when they had a former prime minister sent to prison for corruption, fraud, and obstruction of justice, and a former president locked up for rape?

During his first presidential campaign, I remembered Trump questioning Barack Obama’s American citizenship. The “Birther” conspiracy theory was proven false, but Trump never disowned his racist rhetoric. I remembered him publicly mocking a disabled journalist and the infamous Hollywood tapes in which he boasted about having a celebrity’s power to grab women where he pleased. The jury findings of civil liability for sexual abuse and defamation against writer E. Jean Carrol? Piffle.

Again, why should Israelis care? They live in a tiny country surrounded by enemies bent on destroying them. They have fought war after war since the founding of the modern Jewish State. What matters to them is American might and support. 

President Barack Obama was no friend. He reached out to the Muslim world when he first became president. He had the temerity to criticize Israel’s expansionist policies in the West Bank. Netanyahu ridiculed his Iran Nuclear Deal of 2015. When Trump ripped it up, Bibi and his crowd cheered.

When Trump lost a bid for re-election, claiming that the election was rigged, how many Israelis doubted him? When he incited his followers to reject the results and storm the US Capitol, how many Israelis condemned him?

President Joe Biden was a genuine friend of Israel, in particular after the Hamas October 7, 2023 invasion. But when he voiced concerns about Israel’s tactics in the Gaza War, Israelis dissed him.

When Trump returned to office and joined Israel in attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities and defense system, Israelis celebrated him. No matter that he falsely claimed to have totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear sites. Israelis loved his tough talk about bombing Iran back to the stone age and toppling its radical Islamic regime.

However much I might dislike Trump, as an American-Israeli I had to give the man his due. He had knocked Iran on its butt.

Meanwhile, I didn’t believe he had the sitzfleisch to see the job through. The guy would show his true colors and abandon Israel when the going for him got rough.  And so it has come to pass.

When Iran launched missiles at US allies in the region and closed the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices around the world, and inflation in America, soaring, Trump blinked. 

Now we have his US-Iran MOU, a retread of Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal, plus a 300-billion-dollar payoff. On top of that, we have his vice president JD Vance insisting that Israelis should support the plan, because America is their only friend left in the world. 

Vance’s threat be damned. Israelis aren’t buying his boss’s elixir. A recent poll conducted by Israel’s channel 12 has found that 71% of Israelis don’t trust Trump to look out for them in the Iran deal.  

The cad has caved. How I wish I felt more pleasure in saying I told you so.