Napoleon, Trump, and the mirage of Jewish salvation

In 1799, as Napoleon Bonaparte marched toward the Levant, he made an astonishing proclamation: he would grant the Jews the land of Israel. It was an offer unlike anything the Jewish people had received in nearly 2,000 years, a sudden, electrifying promise of redemption. But reality didn’t cooperate. Napoleon’s forces were defeated in Acre, his ambitions in the region collapsed, and the Jewish hope he had kindled was snatched away before it could become real.

A few years later, in 1807, Napoleon convened a new Sanhedrin, not to offer the Jews a homeland, but to demand their assimilation. In exchange for full rights as French citizens, Jews had to renounce their identity as a separate nation. Broken by centuries of exile, worn down by relentless struggle, and perhaps still reeling from the lost hope of 1799, they agreed. That is the kind of deal only a defeated people make.

And now, more than two centuries later, a new global emperor is making another grandiose offer to the Jewish people, one that is equally intoxicating and equally detached from reality.

The temptation of Trump’s Gaza plan

Donald Trump has declared that he wants to “own Gaza”, flatten it, force the Palestinians to leave, and remake the land into something new – a Gazan Las Vegas, a “Gazalago.”

It’s an absurd idea. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t tempting.

After October 7, Israelis have been grappling with an impossible reality – a reality in which no matter how much we fight, how much we secure our borders, how much we sacrifice, we are still one bad intelligence failure away from another massacre. The idea that someone, anyone, could come in and remove this threat entirely, that they could wave a hand and make it all disappear, is irresistible.

Trump, like Napoleon, has dangled before us an impossible dream: a future without those who wish to destroy us. A future where we do not have to live on edge, waiting for the next October 7.

But nothing in life is free. And nothing is ever free from Donald Trump.

What’s the price of this deal?

If Trump were actually able to deliver on his promise – if he were able to remove Hamas, remove Gaza’s population, and somehow prevent the entire world from retaliating against us – what would Israel have to give up in return?

• Would we owe him our political loyalty? Would we become beholden to his vision of the Middle East, forced to accept future demands and concessions at his whim?
• Would we owe him our morality? Would we be willing to do what has been done to us – forcibly expel an entire people from their homeland – in the name of security? Would we be willing to say that our right to exist outweighs theirs?
• Would we owe him our soul? Would we, for the sake of survival, sever ourselves from the values that have defined us for thousands of years? Or have we reached the point in Jewish history where self-preservation is the highest moral calling?

A Napoleonic warning: The trap of false hope

Napoleon’s 1799 promise to the Jews wasn’t just an empty gesture – it was a psychological turning point. For the first time in modern history, Jews weren’t just dreaming of a return to Israel; they almost had it. And when it was taken away, it left them vulnerable.

By the time Napoleon convened the Sanhedrin in 1807, the Jewish people were exhausted, broken, and willing to make a deal they never would have considered before. They were ready to sign away their nationhood because, after a taste of hope, the despair of losing it was too much to bear.

And that is where the real danger lies for Israel today.

If we allow ourselves to believe in Trump’s fantasy, if we allow ourselves to build our hopes upon the words of a man whose promises always outweigh reality, what happens when he doesn’t deliver?

• What happens when Gaza remains a problem?
• What happens when the terror does not vanish?
• What happens when we are left not with a GAZALAGO, but with a shattered dream?

What kind of deal would we then be willing to make?

Israel: Do not get attached

It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.

Right now, Trump is offering us a vision of total victory. But history has shown that there is nothing more dangerous than a false redemption.

Napoleon offered the Jews everything, only to leave them with nothing. And when a people lose hope, they make choices out of desperation. They sign away things they never thought they would.

So take this as a warning: Don’t get attached, Israel.

Don’t get attached to Trump’s vision.
Don’t get attached to the favor of the most powerful man in the world.
Don’t get attached to anything that is not in your own hands.

If history has taught us anything, it’s that when a foreign leader offers you the world, the cost is almost always your own soul.

Over To You

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