Rabbi Pruzansky's Blog

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.

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.