On Monday, the Republican Jewish Coalition sent out an email condemning “Biden’s Abandonment of Israel at the United Nations,” and they were absolutely right, the Biden administration’s abstention on United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 was disgraceful.
But then, also on Monday, Israel Hayom’s Omer Lachmanovitch and Ariel Kahana published their interview with GOP presidential contender Donald Trump, in Mara Lago, Florida, and some of what was said there didn’t make me much happier about the former President winning in November.
Trump blames Joe Biden for the war in Israel. “He can’t talk. He’s a very dumb person. He’s a dumb person. His foreign policy throughout 50 years has been horrible. If you look at people that were in other administrations with him, they saw him as a weak, ineffective president, they [Hamas] would have never done that attack if I were there.”
The interviewers asked: “If you were president again, how would you counter the wave of antisemitism in the wake of the war’s outbreak?”
Trump responded: “Well, that’s because you fought back. And I think Israel made a very big mistake. I wanted to call [Israel] and say don’t do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, Oh, that’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad picture for the world. The world is seeing this…every night, I would watch buildings pour down on people.”
In other words, there is no daylight between the way Biden views the fallout from the Israeli war in Gaza and the way Trump does, except that Trump blames the war on the sitting president. So, what was Israel supposed to do? Remarkably, Trump’s answer is almost identical to that of Jake Sullivan and Antony Blinken:
“Go and do what you have to do. But you don’t do that. And I think that’s one of the reasons that there has been a lot of kickback. If people didn’t see that, every single night I’ve watched every single one of those. And I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.”
Am I getting this wrong? Is Trump not saying, go kill Hamas but make sure no one sees the buildings coming down? Or, don’t bring down the buildings, don’t blow up the tunnels, don’t expose the Hamas headquarters inside hospitals and schools, just catch Hamas some other way?
For Trump and Biden, war is what millions of viewers see on their television screens. As soon as Israelis stopped coming across as the tragic victims of Hamas atrocities, and instead fought back with all their might, they lost the war on public opinion. This was the constant complaint from the Americans over the past six months: “Too many Palestinians are getting killed.” But they won’t say what’s the appropriate number of killed Palestinians. Or, as Trump put it: “That’s because you fought back.”
Let’s face it, the world doesn’t like it when the Jews are winning. It hit us in the face every time. In 1967, France declared an arms embargo on Israel, its biggest client, and the Soviet Union and its satellite states severed diplomatic relations with the Jewish State. The secret to Jewish winning is losing.
Unlike Biden, Trump is not a fair-weather friend of Israel. He feels our pain, so to speak: “You have to finish up what you want this through,” he says in the interview. “We gotta’ get back to having that country again. The way it was so sad that this could have happened. The date of October 7 is gonna go down… and it bothers me so much when I see people, they don’t talk about the October 7 thing where they talk about how aggressive Israel is.”
He also warned, “You have a lot of a lot of people on the outside that are not friendly to Israel, and they’re never going to be friendly to Israel. And you have to be very careful. You’re in a very treacherous neighborhood that’s a little on the dangerous side, but they’re in a very dangerous neighborhood.”
THE RJC IS WRONG ON BIDEN
The RJC email skewered President Biden for his UN vote:
“Prior to today, President Biden had adhered to the long-standing bipartisan understanding that as Israel’s stalwart ally, America must use our veto in the UN Security Council as a shield to thwart the Jewish state’s unreasoning adversaries in the United Nations Security Council. He let it be known that he didn’t agree with President Obama’s decision to green-light the infamous anti-Israel UNSC 2334 in the waning days of that administration.
“That’s why today’s abstention on UNSC 2728 marks a new level of betrayal by this President and an ominous new low in the bilateral US-Israel relationship.”
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on December 23, 2016, states that Israel’s settlement activity in “Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem” constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity.” It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Of course, the Fourth Geneva Convention deals with an occupier moving its civilians to an area that was conquered from a recognized country. Neither the West Bank nor the Gaza Strip were ever recognized as parts of Jordan or Egypt respectively. This is why until the Clinton administration, those areas were referred to by the State Dept. as “disputed territories.”
The resolution passed in a 14–0 vote by members of the UNSC. Four members with veto power – China, France, Russia, and the UK – voted for the resolution, and the US abstained. The resolution passed.
According to a Tablet Magazine, December 28, 2016 report on the resolution, which was considered a final kick in the behind from President Obama to the hated PM Netanyahu, “one tangible consequence of the high-level US campaign was a phone call from Vice President Joseph Biden to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, which succeeded in changing Ukraine’s vote from an expected abstention to a yes.”
The RJC is wrong. Biden supported both US abstentions in anti-Israel UNSC votes.
TRUMP TOO WAS A DISAPPOINTING FRIEND
Folks, I don’t believe US Jews who wish to see Israel continue to thrive have a choice but to vote against Biden and for Trump come November 5. But having said that, I must remind you of the heady days of January 9, 2020, when Trump declared in the White House a plan that sounded as if he wanted Israel to declare sovereignty over the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria and, possibly, some settlements which were on the “wrong” side of the Samaria hills, as well as the Jordan Valley. Next, the United States would tell the world, including the enraged Arab world, that Israel had recognized a Palestinian State in all the areas it did not annex, which came to about 70%, and, finally, the PA Arabs would recognize what a good deal this is for them and acquiesce to reduce significantly the murders of Israeli civilians.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman followed President Donald Trump’s White House declaration of peace in our time between Israel and the Palestinians with this precious ditty: “If the Israelis apply Israeli law to the settlements and to the territory that you’ll see soon enough is allocated to Israel under the plan […] then we will recognize Israeli sovereignty.”
This whole thing lasted about 48 hours. In the end, both the Americans and PM Netanyahu reneged on everything. There was no sovereignty in the settlement blocks, and there wasn’t going to be. It was all just the excitable utterances of an ambassador who loved Israel more than any other American official since President Harry S. Truman.
I believe Trump will be a big improvement over Biden in the White House, especially if the Democrats lose both Houses of Congress (they’re not going to, it’s a huge problem). But I’m not bringing out the party noisemakers just yet. A Trump victory would be an improvement, that’s all.
I think it’s disgusting that I’m writing these sober words just one day after Purim in Jerusalem. Can’t wait for Shabbat.
