Trump is Godless

I’m a Jewish Jew, Jewish by birth as well as by practice. I have family in Israel, speak Hebrew (more or less,) study the ancient texts, and support the State of Israel in its ongoing quest to remain both a refuge for and the homeland of Jews everywhere. Last year’s eruptions of so-called pro-Palestinian demonstrations on university campuses literally turned my stomach. Though no fan (to say the least) of Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, I applauded her grilling of the three university presidents on whose campuses some of the worst anti-Israel demonstrations were occurring.

For those who don’t recall, the highlight of these hearings was when Stefanik asked: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] rules or code of conduct, yes or no?”

I must have watched that video a dozen times, heartened that at last someone had put the question, and understand why many Jews believe that the GOP in general and the GOP remade in Trump’s image represent a bulwark against antisemitism.

That said, not for one second do I believe that President Trump is a friend or ally of my people, here or abroad. How could he be? The man lacks a moral center. He is openly racist, demonstrating disregard for the baked-into-Judaism belief that all human beings are the children of one God. He is voracious. He is greedy. He is a serial adulterer. He is vindictive. He oppresses the poor, the sick, the homeless, and the stranger. He is, in a word, godless. How could a man whose only god appears to be his own whims be a true ally of the people who brought monotheism and ethics into the world? Indeed, the very heart of Judaism, as understood and refined through centuries of teachings, is that only God is God, and God demands not piety, but justice.

This just in: Trump tolerates and even encourages antisemitic rhetoric when it comes from his own political camp But as per right now, the loudest antisemitic voices come not from the far right but rather, the left, proving once again that when it comes to Jews, the far left and the far right join hands, finding common cause in their hatred. (Think, on the one hand, of the far right demonstrators shouting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, and on the other hand, of the Black Lives Matter movement casting Israel in the role of Nazis murdering innocent people of color.)

As much as I want to personally punch the lights out of every single student who has ever waved a “From the River to the Sea” placard, I don’t believe that squashing free speech on campus does anything but shove the problem underground, where it will fester. Organizing free speech, allowing it to spew forth under regulated conditions, is another matter entirely, and that’s because in America, no matter how noxious the view, we get to express it publicly, just so long as we don’t infringe on the rights of others. So go ahead, useful idiots on campus: scream and shout as loudly as you want about the big bad State of Israel, only you have to do it, say, on that one sliver of parkland on campus, and only during certain hours.

Regarding Columbia in particular: a pox on its ongoing antisemitism, its refusal to deal with its worst actors—including the pro-Palestinian grad student and activist Mamhoud Khalil–and its decades of turning a blind eye to antisemitic incidents large and small. But is cancelling $400 million in federal grants and projects, most of it earmarked for medical and scientific research, really the best way to protect Jewish scholars? What about those Jewish students and faculty who rely on such grants? What about the harm done to the future of medical breakthroughs, which typically take years, if not decades of research to complete? More to the point, how does having the biggest bully on the playground announcing that you’re his new best pal make you anything but noxious to the rest of the kids? Withdrawing grant money, suppressing noxious free speech, and jailing a permanent resident (again I refer to Mamhoud Khalil) married to an American because he expressed his political (if disgusting) opinions in the name of Jews is a recipe not for a diminution of antisemitism but an increase in it and is sure to backfire. And if all this is bad for the long-term health of the American Jewish community—and I believe it is—it stinks in the name of civil rights. Everyone’s civil rights. Because if we Jews are singled out for either special concern or special disfavor, eventually everyone suffers.

As for Israel: Trump talks big, and he talks tough. But so far, for all of his tough talk, all we’ve got on the table is a proposal to turn Gaza into luxury beachfront property sans Palestinians. And sure, it would be great if Egypt and Jordan and other Arab countries might help their brethren, taking them into their own nations and granting them citizenship, but in what world, other than fantasy, might this happen? In the meantime, he threatens.

I don’t believe in the literal truth of the Bible, but as a guide for how human beings behave, both in relation to each other and in relation to what the Bible posits as God, nothing beats it. If you want to get to the Promised Land, you need to have a leader who is humble before God. And if you want to keep it? The Prophets had a word or two on that subject. But Trump’s only God is himself, and rather than listen to voices of experience, expertise, and wisdom, he listens only to flattery.