TRUMP: NOT A TRUE FRIEND OF ISRAEL.

For many Americans the 2024 US elections will once again not be a Republican versus Democrat issue. Biden’s resounding win (8 million popular votes more than Trump) in 2020 was not exactly a vote for Biden, but an emphatic referendum against Trump…what he stands for, and the danger he poses to America as a democracy.

Trump is totally unfit to serve as POTUS. Anyone who can dismiss his call for anarchy and the terrible attack he instigated against the Capitol on January 6th must be delusional to think that Trump is not capable of more of the same. “Make America Great Again” is an oxymoron. America was and is great and did not need making great again. Trump’s inauguration speech of doom and gloom was completely detached from reality; he had inherited an extremely healthy economy that had been on a steady expansion pace since being revived by Obama in 2009. But what he did succeed to do was to harness the support of people who are rampant racists. A study called “Activating Animus: The Uniquely Social Roots of Trump Support,” describes in detail the profile of his voter base that harbor strong anti African Americans, Anti Muslims and Anti Hispanics (particularly Mexican) bias also.

And then there are the Evangelists. Michael Cohen recalls in his book that Trump rolled his eyes at his first meeting with their representatives until he realised that they could be his ticket to the White House. There is nothing religious or spiritual about Trump, just political expediency.

As for being able to count on Trump’s support for Israel and the Jewish community, don’t hold your breath. Trump has been guilty on many occasions of using antisemitic Jewish tropes. He uses the fact that his daughter converted to Judaism and that he has ‘adorable Jewish grandchildren’ as a camouflage for his support of various antisemitic organizations. He proclaimed that there were “some very good people among the Neo-Nazi White Supremacists at Charlottsville. Likewise, Trumps acceptance of the PROUD BOYS and the OATHKEEPERS, groups whose manifestos hold deep-rooted antisemitism. Both groups have members that are ardent Trump supporters and who were instrumental in causing the violence at the Capitol on January 6th. Some of the perpetrators were given prison sentences, but Trump refuses to accept their guilt, refers to them as ‘hostages’ and promises to pardon them if he is elected.

The blatant and dangerous antisemitism of the QAnon conspiracy theorists is not taboo for Trump either, in fact he has embraced their despicable slogans and accepts their money for his legal bills.

The shocking rise of antisemitism we see today in the US actually started during Trump’s presidency when hitherto marginal groups found themselves able to freely express their views publicly without repercussions. According to the Anti Defamation League, “Anti-Semitic Incidents in U.S. Surged 76 Percent in First Half of 2017 The increase can be attributed to an environment in which ‘extremists feel emboldened,’ Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says”

For Donald Trump, support for Israel is only worthwhile if it grants him a political win.

Hence his lobbying of the GOP a few weeks ago to withhold the military aid to Israel, because the bi-partisan legislation included military aid to the Ukraine and a major plan to deal with the immigration problems on the borders.  Trump did not want Biden to be credited with fixing the border crisis, so he actually pushed to prevent the bill being approved…ostensibly holding back the much-needed military aid to Israel in the throes of a war.

Distorting facts and fabricating outright lies are a part of all political campaigns. But Trump used those tactics years before he was even on the campaign trail. Trump could not accept the possibility of a Black President. His antipathy to the idea of it culminated in a gigantic public effort on his part to smear the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth in the USA and render him ineligible to become President. Of course, his claims were totally bogus and eventually Trump begrudgingly uttered a public apology, but in the process, he had attracted millions of Americans who also didn’t like the idea of a Black president and thus became great fans of Donald Trump.

Last week Right Wing media excoriated Biden for his abstention on the Gaza ceasefire vote at the UN. It gave those media outlets the opportunity to portray Biden and the Democratic party as having abandoned/betrayed Israel.  Editorials were rife with accusations that their priority were Muslim votes and not the security of the Jewish State. They were however deafeningly silent when it was announced in recent days that the Biden administration had authorized the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel.

As per usual, the vitriol against Biden was coupled with contempt for Obama and the oft touted refrain that he had also been no friend to Israel. That opinion is erroneous considering that it was the Obama administration that signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2018 to Israel for the largest single pledge of military assistance in U.S. history ever.

“Donald Trump repeatedly claims that he was the most pro-Israel U.S. president ever.

On the face of it, Trump’s pro-Israel gestures during his presidency might seem to merit his claim. His recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy there, as well as recognizing the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory were important and resonant gestures. But they were largely rhetorical and symbolic. These were easy lifts for Trump, designed to burnish his credentials with evangelical Christians and to establish the Republican Party as Israel’s eternal friend.

Any serious examination makes clear that when it came to actions that strengthened Israeli security and well-being, Trump fell far short—and proved to be far more pro-Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than he was pro-Israel.

Trump’s decision to withdraw unilaterally from the admittedly flawed but still functional Iran nuclear agreement created a vacuum that has led to Iran ramping up its nuclear program.

As for the Palestinian issue, his efforts to marginalize the Palestinians, weaken an already dysfunctional Palestinian Authority, and enable Israeli settlement activity made a tough issue that much harder and has led to greater violence in the West Bank between the Palestinians and the Settlers.

His readiness to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria was viewed by many Israeli military officials as a blow to Israel’s efforts to combat Iran—prompting Maj. Gen. Amiram Levin, the former head of the Israel Defense Forces Northern Command, to remark that “as long as Trump is in power, Israel has no one to rely on.”

IN MANY WAYS, TRUMP’S ACTIONS ACTUALLY WEAKENED BOTH ISRAEL’S SECURITY AND THAT OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN THE UNITED STATES.