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David E. Weisberg

Who Knows Best?

The Time of Israel has very recently published two featured blogs, one written by Abraham Foxman (here), and one by Anita Friedman (here).  Both bloggers live in America, and they both contend that fellow Jewish Americans who care about Israel should cast their votes in the upcoming election for Kamala Harris rather than Donald Trump.  And that opinion is echoed in numerous other non-featured blogs in the ToI.

But neither of the two featured blogs—or virtually any of the non-featured ones—even mentions the possibility that Israel’s own citizens might have a very different view as to which candidate would be better from an Israeli perspective.  And that turns out to be more than just a possibility; it’s an inconvenient truth.

A recent poll conducted for the Mitvim Institute reports that, among the 85% of Israelis (both Jews and Arabs) who had an opinion, 68% believed that Donald Trump would better serve Israel’s interests, while 14% believed that Harris would.  (See, page 16 of the report.)  Thus, Israelis who have an opinion believe that Trump is preferable to Harris by a margin of almost 5 to 1.

As I’ve said, this very significant fact is not even mentioned in any of the two featured pro-Harris blogs, and I don’t believe any non-featured blog mentions it either.  Perhaps it never occurred to any of the pro-Harris authors that the opinions of Israelis might be relevant to Jewish Americans who are concerned about Israel, but I think it would occur to most of the rest of us.  After all, who knows best what is best for Israel: perhaps a dozen Jewish American bloggers who favor Harris, or 68% of millions of Israelis who favor Trump?

Why would Israelis, by a margin of almost 5 to 1, prefer to see Trump in the White House rather than Harris?  Are Israelis so blind that they cannot foresee the enormous benefits to Israel that pro-Harris bloggers are sure would follow upon a Harris presidency?  Or is it perhaps possible that Israelis overwhelmingly prefer Trump because he actually would be better?

Let’s consider what each candidate’s possible future administration might portend for Israel’s interests.

We know that Vice President Harris repeatedly affirms that she supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but she immediately follows that affirmation with the caution that how Israel defends itself matters.  That caution should literally go without saying, because it is a truism that any country’s right to defend itself does not give that country a license to commit war crimes.  The very fact that Harris says what goes without saying reveals a great deal.

Any fair-minded observer knows that Israel does not need advice from Vice President Harris, or indeed from anyone, regarding how to fight terrorists without committing war crimes.  No other army in history has made greater efforts than the I.D.F. to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza and Lebanon while engaging in intense urban warfare against enemies whose fundamental battlefield tactic is to conceal their combatants among and beneath the civilian population and infrastructure.  It is rather Israel’s enemies who continually perpetrate war crimes, because no combatant is permitted to use civilian populations or infrastructure as shields.

In contrast, the I.D.F. routinely warns civilians to move away from areas where it intends to conduct operations.  These warnings give an advantage to the enemy and put Israeli troops at greater risk, but they are nevertheless issued to minimize harm to civilians.  Israel knows how to comply with the laws of war—and, in fact, to go well beyond mere compliance—without any lectures from Kamala Harris.

One more point: this last Thursday, when Harris was confronted in Wisconsin by a protester who demanded that she label Israel’s counter-attack in Gaza a “genocide,” Harris told the crowd: “Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real.  That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice.”  So, rather than ignoring the protester’s comments or clearly rejecting his grotesquely false claim of genocide, Harris announced that the subject he raised is “real” and that she “respect(s) his voice.”

I would submit that the equivocal statements Harris regularly asserts regarding Israel’s counter-attacks reflect her desire to pacify the Democratic party’s most extreme far-left progressive wing, which idolizes Palestinian “resistance fighters” and is profoundly indifferent, to put it mildly, to Israel’s continued existence.  Why would anyone believe that, if she were to become president, Harris would suddenly abandon the far-left instincts that have served her so well in California politics and on the road to the White House?

Donald Trump, on the other hand, has a concrete record as a former president that explains why 68% of Israelis hope he wins the upcoming election.  After numerous presidents made unfulfilled promises, Trump actually did recognize a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol.  His administration recognized Israel’s claim over the strategically-vital Golan Heights.  His administration presided over the Abraham Accords, which one hopes are only the beginning of better relations between Israel and moderate Arab countries.

Finally, and perhaps what is most important to Israeli citizens, in the four years of the Trump administration there was no full-scale invasion of Israel like the one Hamas mounted on October 7, 2023.  The Middle East is a difficult neighborhood, and weakness invites attack.  Israelis may well feel that part of the motivation for Hamas to launch its invasion was the sense that the Biden/Harris administration would not support Israel as strongly as another U.S. administration might.  With the Biden/Harris administration constantly lecturing Israel about how to defend itself, and limiting or slow-walking the delivery of weaponry, and insisting on cease-fires that would let Hamas rebuild its combat capability, the administration seems at best ambivalent in its support of Israel.  Trump’s record displays no such ambivalence.

Who knows what’s best for Israel?  Maybe, just maybe, Israelis do.

About the Author
David E. Weisberg is a semi-retired attorney and a member of the N.Y. Bar; he also has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The University of Michigan (1971). He now lives in Cary, NC. His scholarly papers on U.S. constitutional law can be read on the Social Science Research Network at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2523973
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