Given the very positive record on Israel of the first Trump administration – 45 – and Israel’s often fraught relationship with President Biden’s – 46 – one would have thought that there would be an almost palpable, broadly based sigh of relief in our right of center Jewish communities over the impending return of Mr. Trump – 47 – to the presidency.
So we were surprised at some of the national political reporting The Jewish Press online picked up these past two weeks: There seems to be much more skepticism about his plans for the Middle East – think Gaza, Palestinian state and oft-stated general aversion to new wars – than would be expected over someone who broke with precedent and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, overturned U.S. Iran policy and imposed crippling economic sanctions on the Islamic republic and abandoned the pursuit of the Arab “Land for Peace Plan” in favor of incentivizing the Abraham Accords.
Despite all of this and his team already having declared that the Trump administration would provide the Israelis the transformative 2,000 pound bombs that President Biden denied them, have Israel’s back if it is attacked and withdraw economic sanctions on the Israeli settler movement imposed by the Biden Administration, there is still much apprehension as to how far President Trump is prepared to move in Israel’s direction in the light of his aforementioned well known desire to keep the U.S. away from any new military action.
We suspect that much of it has been occasioned by Mr. Trump’s now famous “threat” that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if the hostages were not released by the time of his inauguration. Some question who the intended target was and collaterally whether Israel was pressured into a very bad deal by the incoming U.S. president.
Undoubtedly, things will soon clarify and the complexities inherent in these issues become more apparent. We suggest that recent history with Mr. Trump certainly supports our adopting something along the lines of the “watchful waiting” policies of presidents Monroe and Wilson to get us through this uncertain period.
