Trump and the American Jewish Community

President addressing the Knesset upon the hostage release - illustrative (C-SPAN)

There’s a lot of hate out there right now for the president. Surely there are many things that make that hate very understandable - if not at all appropriate. I have not been reticent to criticize his many failings in the past. Many times. But I do not hate him. Far from it.

From the very beginning of his announcement as a candidate for the presidency, I thought there were few people less qualified for the job than Donald J. Trump. Which is why I held my nose and voted for his opponent, Hillary Clinton, the first time in 2016. As much as I didn’t like her policies, I nevertheless saw her as the lesser of two evils.

With respect to Israel, she would have continued the policies of her predecessor, Barack Obama, who - although seriously mistaken in his approach and attitude toward the Jewish state - believed he was helping rather than harming it. Clinton would’ve maintained that policy. Which would likely have gone nowhere in any case, since Israel would never have agreed to it. Even then, before October 7^th. I thought that Trump would be a major disaster in just about every area: completely inexperienced and incompetent to be the commander in chief of the United States and the leader of the free world.

As we all know, he won the election then and surprised me by doing something for Israel that no other president had ever done. Even after they had all campaigned on promises to do so. The president moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and has stood steadfast with Israel ever since, even though at times he has offered some pretty harsh criticism of its prime minister.

In other areas, the reviews have been mixed. I am totally displeased with some of his economic policies (i.e., tariffs) and am outraged by his pardon of the January 6th rioters. On the other hand, some of his domestic policies have been very positive for observant Jews who derive their values from the Bible. One of these was ensuring that retiring or deceased liberal Supreme Court justices - who favored humanistic values over biblical ones - were replaced by conservative justices for whom the reverse was true.

This, of course, did not please heterodox and secular Jews, who consider progressive values - such as those associated with LGBTQ advocacy - superior to the religious values. Those Jews were among the harshest critics of the president over the course of his first term and into the second, up to this point.

The president, who does not hide his feelings, strongly condemned these progressive Jews for not voting for him. Which they took as antisemitic attacks. Just as they did many other remarks about events and people that could easily be read that way.

The president is not only NOT an antisemite; he is, in fact, a philosemite...

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