Author Archives: Rabbi

Has Anything Changed?

Posted on January 17, 2025 | 8 comments

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

For all the government hype, spin, and bluster since October 8, 2023, in the end, has anything changed? The current hostage deal would seem to indicate that the conceptziya is alive and well. This is not the agreement of either a victorious nation or a nation poised for victory in six weeks. Hamas is not defeated. Gaza will continue to pose a security threat to Israeli citizens, and all the hostages will likely not be released. For why would Hamas release all of them? Hamas is evil but not foolish. The hostages are Hamas’ best asset, because Hamas knows its incarceration of Israeli hostages leads our people and government to act emotionally, which is to say self-destructively and recklessly.

There will be joy at the release of the freed hostages, at least by the families of those released. I will feel relief, not joy. The joy will appear on the faces of the Arabs who have once again seen their psychopath-terrorists murder Jews and literally get away with it., They will be whooping it up, handing out sweets, and plotting their next massacre of an “unwise and foolish people” (Devarim 32:6). Indeed, I imagine this is the same feeling that Jews had after the Holocaust when the survivors were liberated – not joy but relief. How can there have been joy, knowing what they suffered in captivity, knowing how many did not survive?

Relief, not joy, but at least when the Holocaust survivors were freed, the Nazis were defeated. Here, in our case, we have empowered these Nazis to fight and murder us another day, we have even emptied our prisons of more homicidal Nazis so they should be able to resume their life’s work of murdering Jews. Imagine winning the release of survivors by granting freedom to Goebbels, Goring, Hoess and Eichmann. That is our choice, and our fate.

Today, ours is not the face of victory. Have we squandered the lives of our precious soldiers just to restore the status quo of October 6, 2023? Have we elated our enemies just because we think that now Trump and the Americans will give us a free hand to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities? Most importantly, if the war resumes after the end of the cease fire, how many our soldiers will be killed once again conquering the same swaths of Gaza, now fully booby-trapped and mined? Why would any soldier want to go back there, especially knowing how ephemeral are any gains we make and how permanent is their loss of life?

For all the talk, we will still be prolonging the war and strengthening our enemies by lavishing even more provisions on these “innocent civilians,” not one of whom embraced Israel’s offer of $5,000,000 and free passage in exchange for information leading to the return of our hostages. The war is still managed by defeatists in the General Staff and the intelligence services, who still want to mow the lawn and prepare for another battle in this endless war, despite Hamas now on the brink of defeat. Just like in the Second Lebanon War, we are still sending our soldiers – our finest youth – to be killed and maimed seizing territory on Monday that we will surrender to the enemy on Thursday. For what? For what did they die? And we wonder why Haredim refuse to serve in an army that, too often – it is painful to say – is cavalier about the lives of our soldiers, refusing to bomb from the air buildings where no civilians should be, forcing our soldiers to serve as sitting ducks for the enemy, and still refusing to cut off food, water, electricity, and internet from our enemies.

We are still being lied to by our government. As I wrote during the first week of the war, defeating Hamas and freeing all our hostages are both worthy objectives but they are incompatible absent a miracle, and yet those goals are still being trumpeted as realistic and impending. The opposition, meanwhile, is still focused on toppling Netanyahu, with victory over our foes and freedom for the hostages merely secondary considerations. The streets are still filled with protesters who contrive fears of a Netanyahu dictatorship while obviously, and vehemently, preferring an actual judicial dictatorship, notwithstanding that the former is subject to elections while the latter is not and wishes simply to perpetuate its power by any means necessary.

After all the promises of “absolute victory,” and after PM Netanyahu demonstrated resilience and resolve such as he had never exhibited before as prime minister, he reverted to form, caved under pressure, and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Certainly, we were – and are – traumatized by the invasion and massacre of October 7, but few lessons have been learned. Pressure from Biden or Trump should be meaningless if they weaken our core values and interests. That is how independent nations act: they define their interests and do everything to achieve them. True resolve causes even the most intense pressure to dissipate. Israel has never learned that lesson, which is why we have suffered consistent diplomatic defeats for more than fifty years, and time and again, we rehabilitate and strengthen our enemies.

We still fall for Hamas’ psychological mind games – dangling hostage videos, murdering some, threatening others – all to achieve their aims, which they do. We know these are their tactics – and yet we still succumb to them. (Hamas demanded the release of more than one thousand of their terrorists? Why aren’t some of them being returned in body bags, like too many of our hostages?) We are easily manipulated, our enemies know it, and so they do it repeatedly. We learned nothing from the disastrous Shalit deal – nothing. That lopsided and immoral exchange not only murdered hundreds of us in the ensuing years but also guaranteed that the enemy would try to seize more hostages again, because, why not? It works. And it will work again in the future because the release of murderers in exchange for innocent civilians incentivizes the enemy to do it again. And again. The prattle about not releasing any of the murderers from the October 7 massacre in this round only guarantees that there will be future hostage-taking to win their freedom. Has anything changed?

It would be more plausible if many of those who disseminate the canard that “pidyon shvuyim,” the ransoming of captives, is the most important mitzvah in the Torah actually understood the concept, and perhaps even observed some of the other mitzvot in the Torah. (What the Sages meant is that “ransoming captives” is the highest form of tzedakah because it encompasses all dimensions of that mitzvah.) And as is well known to those who open a Gemara, we do not ransom hostages “for more than their value, for the betterment of the world” (Gittin 45a) because “overpaying” will ultimately bankrupt the community and encourage more hostage-taking. We do exactly what the Gemara says not to do, and obviously to our detriment.

Releasing bloodthirsty murderers is not just the “difficult price” we must pay, as the senseless and repetitive cliché uttered by numerous commentators and politicians puts it. It is not moral; it is immoral, because it has, does, and will put many others at risk. We do not endanger the entire community to save a small group. It is well meaning but also flat out stupid. And we need not speculate that this release might endanger the rest of us. It will! It always has. Terrorists leave our prisons more hardened and more hateful of Jews than they entered, and even more contemptuous of us because they know our weaknesses and how we cannot overcome them. More of us will be murdered, and still others of us will be taken hostage in the future. The only thing we don’t know are the names of the future victims.

Have we learned anything? Aryeh Deri announced that he would support “any deal.” And what if Hamas demanded that Yeshiva students must serve in the IDF? Would he pay that “difficult price”? Haredim should be embarrassed that they largely shirk army service but what is almost as embarrassing, this refusal has compromised their ability to present a true Torah view on “ransoming captives.” They lack any credibility, as they necessarily must prefer any option that does not involve the military in which they do not serve. That means you, Degel HaTorah, which has been forced to furl that flag and, in the process, muted the voice of Torah.

We are still tormented by a legal and judicial establishment that prioritizes the lives of our enemies over our own and which fetishizes the chimera known as “international law,” all progressive doctrines that favor the evildoers in any conflict and render victory impossible for those foolish enough to be guided by it. We are supposed to be the “light unto the nations.” We are the ones who should be teaching the true ethics of war to the world – not vice versa. We should be proudly and unabashedly disseminating the Torah’s ethic of war and not constraining ourselves by absurd moral notions concocted by human beings that cannot produce a better, more just world. Indeed, since the first Geneva Conventions were adopted in 1864, the world has experienced in the last 160 years unprecedented carnage and brutality. We have learned nothing from the evildoers’ exploitation of “international law,” that has effectively deprived the West of winning any war since World War II.

 We have learned nothing from the Oslo debacle, from the Gaza Expulsion catastrophe, from the half-hearted waging of the Second Lebanon War and the various eruptions in Gaza, from the “hostages for terrorists” exchanges now four decades old, and from our reluctance, even fear, of acknowledging the true character of our enemies and dealing with that reality. When the next attack comes – and it will – and we suffer again, and go to war again, we will be accompanied yet again by the same false promises, the same lofty words, the same “together we will win!” – even as we disdain any plan for real victory.

We are victims of a terrible failure of vision, and of leadership, in the government and the opposition, in the upper echelons of the military and legal establishments. This deal is a classic example of “stage one thinking,” a visceral reaction that does not consider “stage two,” the real-world consequences of that emotional decision. Watch the glee on the faces of our enemies – and the agony on ours – and determine who thinks they won, and who thinks they lost.

It is especially galling that we take pride in our humiliation. Our enemies have not been deterred. They have been emboldened, inspired, and heartened by our surrender. They do not care about life – even their own. They care about murdering Jews and destroying the State of Israel, and we – wittingly or unwittingly – are abetting them.

Sadly, nothing has really changed. As a nation, we have been repeatedly let down by our leaders. The only redeeming value of the current government is that any potential replacement would be far worse. That is our fate – and a good reason we pray daily for judges and counsellors as of old, those who can hasten the coming of Moshiach and the kingdom of G-d on earth. May Moshiach come soon and may Hashem in His mercy spare us the harshest consequences of our folly.

8 Comments

Tagged , , , ,

We the People

Posted on January 8, 2025 | 1 comment

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

Israelis do not usually agree on much but there is consensus on two related issues. Most Israelis feel there is a need for a commission of inquiry to investigate the catastrophic Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023 and its aftermath, and most Israelis feel that such a commission of inquiry will not be objective, impartial, or fair. Hence the stalemate – and both points have substantial merit.

Obviously, the systemic breakdowns that allowed the invasion, massacre, torture, and hostage-taking to occur – an epic failure – need to be scrutinized if only to preclude a future recurrence. Yet, there is no foreseeable circumstance in which an objective tribunal can be formed because there is no element of military, political, and judicial apparatus that is untainted, and no establishment organ that has clean hands in this disaster. Any investigation will necessarily seek to deflect blame from the sponsors of the investigation, point fingers at the “other,” and exploit the conclusions for crass electoral purposes. The blameworthy are being asked to investigate themselves, a pattern familiar to Israel and occurring now in the purported investigation by the military prosecutor’s office of the military prosecutor’s office and its alleged fabrication of evidence in the Sde Teiman fiasco.

Who is guiltless in the wake of the Hamas massacre? Certainly not the military leadership who failed to anticipate the invasion or respond to the initial encroachments effectively. Israel’s vaunted intelligence – whose craftiness and ingenuity have been astonishing in the last year – failed miserably in the weeks before October 7. Repeated reports by the reconnaissance scouts of unusual Hamas activity as late as the morning of October 7 were studiously ignored. Vital intelligence was not passed up the chain of command, and definitely not to the political decision-makers, another recurring phenomenon in Israel. The military’s embrace of a small, smart army relying on technology was an abject failure. The few generals and commanders who vocally objected to the complacency and indifference were edged aside, reassigned, or dismissed. Groupthink prevailed and the echo chamber was deafening. Accountability will not be readily forthcoming, a disservice to our dedicated soldiers whose bravery and professionalism will inspire generations to come.

Led by the military’s analysts, the political class assumed that Hamas was deterred and would not dare to attack. The politicians, including the Prime Minister (but notably excluding some of the leading Religious Zionist leaders), were guilty of abetting Hamas, allowing unrestricted funding, building, plotting, and finally execution of Hamas’ nefarious plans. The politicians failed in one of the most basic calculations in military strategy – fighting a definite war today with X casualties versus fighting a potential war in the near future with 5X casualties. The “quiet for quiet” gambit was an abysmal failure. They all guessed wrong and for more than a decade, letting Hamas fester and its capabilities metastasize, with devastating consequences to life, health, families, and not least to the Israeli psyche.

Few objected to the Hamas buildup, with prominent exceptions, among others, Betzalel Smotrich and Michael ben Ari, with the latter even being banned from political life. Almost every political party left, right, and center, has a role in this debacle, including the Haredi parties whose repudiation of military service for their constituents leaves them without a coherent or credible voice on security-related matters. Of course, Binyamin Netanyahu shares this guilt as well – but so does almost every other conceivable candidate for prime minister for the next decade. The conceptziya devoured an entire generation of Israeli generals and politicians, even as they try to avoid the day of reckoning.

The mainstream media are also culpable, for unquestioningly parroting the establishment views, and especially for their relentless and obsessive hatred of PM Netanyahu as the gravest threat to the Israeli polity. As it turned out, they were wrong: the gravest threat to the Israeli polity was located in Gaza, and Lebanon, and Syria, and Iran, and in the Arabs of Judea and Samaria. The media also misconstrued the temporary calm in Gaza as something permanent and irrevocable and favored short-term solutions to Israel’s military challenges so as to better focus on their most important agenda item: getting rid of Netanyahu.

The legal and judicial establishment – particularly those nominally charged with appointing a commission of inquiry – is also guilty. They are guilty of micromanaging the IDF’s response to everything, guilty of favoring the lives of terrorists and enemy civilians over the well-being of our own soldiers, guilty of tying the army’s hands, and guilty of persecuting the Prime Minister over legal and literal nonsense. The Attorney General has assumed dictatorial powers, with the entire land of Israel her fiefdom. The military advocates allowed the enemy to approach the Gaza border unmolested, continue to hamstring the soldiers and are also anti-Netanyahu activists. Is there any chance their culpability will be exposed? Not as long as the judges play a role – or actually participate – in any investigation. And the Kaplan protesters redefined democracy – now construed as “rule by the self-appointed elites” – and desperately, illegally, and occasionally violently protect the hegemony of the legal and judicial establishment in defiance of all democratic norms.

At the risk of offending readers, another component of society is also responsible for this calamity – we the people. We the people who prefer an illusory calm to dealing with real threats, we the people who seek quick fixes (and encourage the politicians to do the same, even as their popularity continues to be foolishly measured in weekly polls), we the people who supported the Oslo cataclysm and the Gaza expulsion, we the people who would rather be soothed by the elegant words of false prophets of “peace now” than confront the harsh reality of the neighborhood in which we live, we the people who might again be seduced by lullabies sung to us by whoever succeeds Mahmoud Abbas, we the people whose rabid support for political parties and personalities rather than ideas and policies mimics the fervor of football fans and their favorite teams.

Who can judge, when everyone is guilty, including the judges?

Perhaps, then, we should learn a lesson from Yosef. Ramban, the venerated biblical commentator, assumed that Yaakov never found out what happened to Yosef (Commentary to Breisheet 45:27). How is that even possible – wasn’t he curious, didn’t he ask, wasn’t he told?

It seems that Yosef sent Yaakov a clue at their very first interaction: “And [Yaakov} saw the wagons that Yosef sent” (ibid), on which Rashi comments, utilizing the play on words of agalot (wagons) and eglot (heifers), “Yosef informed Yaakov of the religious subject he had been studying with his father at the time when he left him, to wit, the section of the axed heifer.”

The symbolism is dramatic. As the Torah relates (Devarim 21:1-9), a heifer has its neck broken as part of the rite accompanying the expiation of an unsolved murder – a crime for which there was only a victim but no accused, no evidence, and no witnesses. In that scenario, it is the society that assumes the guilt, not any individual or faction. This was a subtle message to Yaakov not to investigate what happened to Yosef. In essence, Yosef told Yaakov we are all guilty – you for favoring me, me for disrespecting my brothers, they for selling me. The fewer details you know, the better, because our society could not survive a fair and complete investigation. No one will walk away unscathed. The same is true today. Even if three unbiased people could be found in the entire country, the elitists will never allow an investigation whose conclusions are not preordained.

To be sure, there must be an investigation at a certain point of the October 7 devastation, if only to draw operational conclusions of what went wrong, why, and how the flawed process can be rectified. Future military and intelligence leaders must ensure that their ranks are filled with a diversity of views, especially views that challenge conventional wisdom. And there needs to be reflection on the goals we seek to achieve as a society, given our enemies across the region and our profound yearning for peace – so profound that it has often engendered the pursuit of fantasies and illusions and a headlong rush from reality. Those goals should feature the creation of a more Jewish state, a nation proud of our uniqueness and our identity, something that ironically the war has catapulted to center stage.

There will come a time when the assumption of personal and collective responsibility will be in order, without such being bogged down in politics. That time is not now. The rival committees now investigating will do little other than stoke the flames of discord by pointing the finger of guilt at their respective political adversaries. There will be an unseemly search for convenient scapegoats and a mad scramble to avoid personal responsibility. For now, it suffices to say, as Yosef implied, we are one nation, we all have much to regret, we all have much we did wrong, we all have much to be proud of – and we all have a grand and majestic destiny to which we look forward.

1 Comment

Tagged , ,

A Vision for a Second Trump Term

Posted on December 20, 2024 | 1 comment

by Chaim Silberstein and Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq.

President-elect Donald Trump’s first term was noted for its remarkable accomplishments in stabilizing the Middle East, strengthening Israel’s strategic position, and especially embracing creative thinking and policies that transformed the reality on the ground. Decisions such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem paved the way to the historic breakthrough of the Abraham Accords.  All this was achieved largely to the consternation and even dismay of the foreign policy establishment, whose reassertion of traditional diplomacy in the last four years has contributed to the outbreak of violence in this region and other parts of the world.

The proposed nominees for the critical positions that will determine US foreign policy in the coming four years have gratified supporters of Israel. Marco Rubio, Mike Walz, Mike Huckabee and others have been steadfast supporters of a strong Israel that is a genuine friend and trusted ally of the United States. While the plate of any new administration is full, and the most pressing matters in Israel today concern the need for decisive defeats of Hamas and Hezbollah and the return of all Israeli hostages, there are several items worthy of the new administration’s agenda that can solidify the advances made in the first Trump administration and further promote peace and security in the region.

These proposals focus on securing the future of Jerusalem. It should be lost on no one that Hamas called its invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, the “Al-Aksa Flood,” as it and all Israel’s enemies perceive the conquest of Jerusalem as the ultimate objective. What can be done to reinforce Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem? There are five proposals, some merely restoration of Trump policy in his first term, others a blueprint for preserving Jerusalem into the future.

First, shutter (again) the US Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA) in Jerusalem. The OPA functions in violation of American, Israeli, and international law as a quasi-diplomatic mission in the heart of Israel’s capital that deals exclusively with the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. It reports not to the US Embassy in Jerusalem but directly to the State Department. This mission was closed by President Trump after the embassy was moved to Jerusalem but was reopened by President Biden shortly after he assumed office in 2021 notwithstanding Israel’s objection and denial of recognition.

The OPA encroaches on Israel’s sovereignty and, by bypassing the serving US ambassador to Israel, undermines his effectiveness and the integrity of his mission. As was demonstrated during the first Trump term, handling Palestinian affairs from the US Embassy in Jerusalem is efficient, proper, and comports with international law and diplomatic norms. The OPA should be closed and its activities subsumed by the Embassy.

 Second, restore “Jerusalem, Israel,” as an official place of birth on American passports. For decades, American citizens living in Israel whose children were born in Jerusalem could not register their child’s place of birth as “Jerusalem, Israel,” due to the State Department’s claim that Jerusalem’s status as part of Israel was disputed. The place of birth was simply recorded as “Jerusalem.”

The US Embassy website in Israel notes: “Applicants born in Jerusalem are able to request either “Jerusalem” or “Israel” as their place of birth (POB) on U.S. passports ….  If you write “Jerusalem, Israel” as the POB on the passport, consular staff will ask you whether you prefer the U.S. passport to be printed with a POB of either “Jerusalem” or “Israel.”

This, too, purports to undermine Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and contradicts the spirit of the US recognition of Jerusalem’s as Israel’s capital city. This policy should be repudiated, and US citizens who so desire should be allowed to have their place of birth recorded as “Jerusalem, Israel.”

Third, President Trump should immediately defund UNRWA, as he did in his first term. UNRWA has long outlived its usefulness – it is the only refugee relief organization that seeks to perpetuate refugee status among its beneficiaries – and has been justly accused of being part of the Hamas terror network. Some UNRWA staff members participated in the atrocities of October 7, 2023, and many UNRWA facilities in Gaza harbored terrorists and concealed terror infrastructure. An Israeli court ordered UNRWA’s eviction from its facility in Jerusalem which UNRWA illegally occupied. The United States should support that eviction, halt (again) its funding of UNRWA, and urge the disbandment of the organization and the reassignment of its duties to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fourth, support the construction of new Jewish neighborhoods within the existing municipal boundaries of Jerusalem especially in the eastern section. The physical footprint of Jerusalem needs to grow in order to accommodate a growing population. There are several areas in Jerusalem’s environs that are available for Jewish residence and the development of new neighborhoods. Examples are Givat Hamatos to the east, Givat Hashaked to the south, and Atarot to the north. There are thousands of dunams available for development that can create housing for hundreds of thousands of new residents.

All these neighborhoods are within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries. Given the housing crisis in Israel, it is wrong that they remain vacant and undeveloped. President-elect Trump, a real estate maven, can take the lead in supporting these plans and enabling Israel to fulfill its vision for Jerusalem.

Fifth, support Israel’s consideration of the Greater Jerusalem Metropolis Plan. Jerusalem is today’s Israel’s most populous city, and urban and economic expansion are a national priority to ensure the capital’s economic, political and demographic security.

Today Jerusalem is geographically trapped with expansion options limited – Ramallah is to the north, Bethlehem is to the south, there is a ‘green’ ecosystem to the west. So far, the options are to expand vertically in existing expensive neighborhoods. That does not solve the severe problem of lack of affordable housing. Increasing the supply through expanding the municipal borders and establishing large new neighborhoods would significantly reduce prices and, together with increasing job opportunities, help reverse the negative immigration from Jerusalem. Over the past 30 years, over 400,000 Jews have left Jerusalem because of lack of affordable housing and job opportunities.

Incorporating the satellite cities surrounding Jerusalem will be a benefit for all the residents in both areas. It will free up hundreds of thousands of dunams for development of residential, commercial, tourism and leisure industries. Today Jews constitute approximately 60% of the population. Expanding the municipal borders will also contribute to securing its Jewish majority by adding over 200,000 residents to the city. The Greater Jerusalem proposal would include the city of Maalei Adumim to the east of Jerusalem and Gush Etzion to the south, Givat Zeev to the north  and possibly also Mevaseret Zion to the west.

Note that none of the proposals displace even one Arab and essentially just redraw Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries in a way that bolsters Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Expanding Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries need not impede the final status negotiations that have been a goal of American diplomacy for decades. Similarly, the mere prospect of future negotiations should not leave Jerusalem in permanent limbo unable to develop and flourish because of the veto power over negotiations exercised by Israel’s enemies. This logjam can be broken by creative diplomacy and a diplomatic green light by the US to Israel to pursue the expansion of Jerusalem.

These proposals will be to the immense benefit of all the residents of Jerusalem, Jews, Muslims and Christians and ensure Jerusalem remains the eternal capital of Israel and the Jewish people with a free, secure and flourishing future.

The implementation of these proposals would be a natural continuation of the policies of the first Trump administration and secure his historic legacy of support for the State of Israel and transformation of the Middle East.

Chaim Silberstein is founder and president of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy, where Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq, serves as Senior Research Associate.

1 Comment

The Trump Triumph

Posted on November 8, 2024 | 2 comments

It is impossible to underestimate the historic nature of Donald Trump’s victory, an epic personal and political triumph. For the first time since Grover Cleveland in 1892, a defeated president ran again and won a second, non-consecutive term. How rare is this? The only defeated presidential candidate even to run again was Richard Nixon in 1968 (of course, he won). No other defeated candidate has even run again; each loser has been one and done for the past century (except for Adlai Stevenson who lost twice in the 1950’s). Trump persevered.

Moreover, the United States has shifted from relative stability in its leadership to great volatility. Three recent presidents (Clinton, Bush, and Obama) each served two full terms, the first time in almost two centuries (Jefferson, Madison, Monroe) that three presidents in a row each completed three terms. The most recent two-term threesome will now be succeeded by three one-term presidents (Trump, Biden, Trump), the first time that has happened since the aforementioned Grover Cleveland (Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland). These are indeed extraordinary times.

What is even more stunning and unexpected was Trump’s popular vote victory, only the second time in thirty-six years that a Republican outpolled a Democrat in a presidential election (Bush, 2004). Contrast that with Cleveland – to whom Trump will always be linked – who won the popular vote in all three of his elections. Trump did not come close to prevailing in the popular vote in his prior elections. His victory this week is personal vindication, as well as the product of political skills that tapped into something deep in the American electorate that has effected a re-alignment of the American political system. It is quite unusual for a politician to grow in popularity the longer he is exposed to the public. How did it happen? Reasons abound.

Americans instinctively recoil from limitations on their personal autonomy, so much so that there is no national ID number in the United States such as is ubiquitous in Israel. People resent being tracked by the government, often to a ridiculous extent, another reason the Coronavirus era is recalled so unfavorably by Americans. Most states even prohibit asking voters to verify their identity before they vote. And the woke excesses that Democrats championed (such as men dominating women’s sports – grated on many Americans. But most elections are won and lost because of the economy, and inflation and rising prices sapped the real income of American workers. Reagan’s rhetorical question from 1980 – “are you better off now than you were four years ago?” – still resonates, and Trump borrowed it to great effect. Americans recalled not just the chaos of the first Trump term, most of it orchestrated by the Democratic resistance, but also its relative peace and prosperity (until the pandemic). Few took seriously the notion of Trump as insurrectionist or dictator.

Of course, Trump benefited also from the turmoil in the Democratic party, especially the forced ouster of Joe Biden which (although everyone knows why) has never been satisfactorily explained, particularly how a president too enfeebled to run for re-election is still robust enough to handle affairs of state. The ongoing coverup of Biden’s debilitation orchestrated by Kamala Harris, the Democratic establishment, and the American media exasperated many Americans, and in the process made a mockery of the Democratic primaries.

Most of all, Trump was blessed with an inept opponent, famous only for failing upwards in her previous offices. She did little to distinguish herself as a senator or vice-president and was noted primarily for checking the right identity politics boxes, and a nervous cackle employed to mask vacuity and, away from the teleprompter, her persistent, halting verbal incoherence.

To be fair, she tried to run an unprecedentedly brief campaign, never having run a really contested campaign before. That she did so well owes more to Trump’s, shall we say, provocative personality. A different Democrat might have defeated Trump handily, although he or she would still be saddled by the immoderation of the Democratic party and the unpopular policies it pursued while in power. A different Republican would have trounced Harris even more soundly as even Trump routed her.

American Jews are stuck in a time warp and victims of their ideological and spiritual confusion. They remain wedded to a Democratic party that no longer represents anything that even remotely resembles Jewish values. Abortion on demand? Identity politics? Judging individuals not as individuals, and not on the content of their character, but solely based on their skin color and ethnic attachment? Moral relativism? Antagonism towards tradition? Schizophrenia towards Israel – assistance and hostility intermingled? Support for Israel – and our enemies?

The good news is there was a sizable increase in the Jewish vote for Trump, although it will not be reflected in the exit polls. I sense that many liberal Jews voted for Trump. Discomfited by the Harris’ flirtation and sympathy with our enemies, they voted for Trump but then could not bring themselves to admit to a pollster – or even to themselves. Obviously, the Orthodox vote for Trump was overwhelming, which bolstered his popular vote total. In Jewish districts in Brooklyn, Rockland County, NY, and New Jersey, the Trump tally was enormous. Once again, those Jews closest to tradition voted in ways that best reflect their deepest Jewish values.

It was wise that PM Netanyahu rushed to congratulate Trump, after being falsely accused of being among the first to congratulate Biden in 2020. (In fact, Netanyahu delayed so long that he was criticized in Israel for that tardiness.) Israelis are jubilant at the Trump triumph, which should be tempered by the realization that Trump was not elected prime minister of Israel but president of the United States. The interests of our two countries generally overlap but they also occasionally diverge and they will as well in the future. Trump naysayers will then (nay)say “We told you so!” but all that means is that every leader should act in his own country’s interests. And much depends on who is appointed to senior positions in the new administration. Floated names like Mike Pompeo, Marco Rubio, David Friedman, and others should gratify Jews and supporters of Israel, peace, freedom, and world stability.

Nevertheless, the immediate shift in tone was palpable. Biden’s support for Israel was always “ironclad” and “unshakeable,” in his words, but also heavily contingent on Israel acting in a way that frustrated our war objectives. For all the assistance lavished on Israel in the last year, Iran profited far more from its association with Biden, to our great detriment. Neither Biden or Harris ever saw the destruction of Hamas as warranted or necessary. They have gone to great lengths (under the guise of concern for “civilians”) to ensure Hamas’ survival to fight another day and they remain enthralled by the two-state delusion in a way that has become pathological.

Biden can do damage to Israel in the coming months, as did his patron Obama. In the waning days of the Obama administration in 2016, Obama pushed through a UN Security Council resolution declaring Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria illegal. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Biden will seek another UNSC resolution (as did Obama, thwarted only by Vladimir Putin) demanding the creation of a Palestinian state. By contrast, the Trump administration went on record as declaring the settlements “not inconsistent with international law” and Trump himself has stated his opposition to the two-state delusion.

If past is prologue, we might have some difficult months ahead, as Biden does have a vindictive side, and he will leave office bitter and dejected, having essentially been overthrown by his own party with his legacy in tatters.

Trump prizes and rewards loyalty. He should remember how most faithful Jews backed him and how Israelis appreciate him, his first term, and his achievements in office. Not least, his victory is a repudiation of the Democratic party’s slide towards neutrality in the Middle East, neutrality defined as seeing both sides – Israel’s side, and the side of those who want to exterminate us. That type of neutrality should be perceived as hostility to Israel. If Harris had prevailed, then Jew hatred, already mainstreamed in much of American society and among Democrats, would have been incentivized.

We can only hope for the lessening of the rancor in American politics, which has unfortunately become a staple of democracies (in Israel, too). That Trump should be consistently and casually referred to as “Hitler” and his supporters as “Nazis,” and his recent rally at Madison Square of reminiscent of the Bund rally in 1939, is beyond the pale. Shame on the ADL, which has functioned for years as a constituent of the Democrats, for remaining silent. In the past the ADL hastened to denounce anyone who even mentioned Hitler or Nazis in any context with which it disapproved, decrying the “abuse of the Holocaust on the memory of the victims.” A person who, outside the confines of a baseball stadium, even uttered the syllable “Hit…”  would be immediately lambasted by the ADL. The ADL’s obsession with locating Jew hatred on only one side of the political spectrum, and its silence here, in service of the Democrats, are embarrassing, and harms Jews. They too, and this too, shall pass.

Donald Trump’s physical survival is near miraculous and his political resurrection is astonishing. It is an opportunity to do important things.

In the best circumstances, the Trump triumph is good for America, good for the Jews, and good for Israel. It brings ultimate victory over our enemies closer, if we have the psychological and political stamina to see it through. Iran and its proxies should be fearful – not that America will attack (it won’t) but that President Trump will provide us with the tools and support to prevail and perhaps even bring about regime change. With the help of the Almighty, there can be a sea change in the Middle East – a strong Israel, more Jewish and confident, with a military and civilian presence in lands conquered from our enemies who invaded us, and at peace with an Arab world mostly deradicalized and defanged.

And we can pray that this should be a harbinger of ultimate redemption, speedily and in our days.

2 Comments