An Open Letter to Jewish Trump Supporters

You likely support former President Donald Trump because he has done some positive things for Israel, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US consulate there, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and helping form the Abraham Accords. This is certainly understandable.  However, have you considered the two ways that Trump’s actions have greatly endangered Israel and, indeed, the entire world?

First, he pulled the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was working very well, according to professional inspectors and most nuclear and strategic experts. His unilateral decision enabled Iran to now be much closer to being able to create nuclear weapons and to be in a much better bargaining position for future negotiations.

Second,  Trump continues to call human-caused climate threats a hoax despite the overwhelming consensus of climate experts that the world is in great peril due to climate change and the recent significant increase in the frequency and severity of heat waves, wildfires, storms, floods, and other climate events. He would likely appoint other climate deniers to key environmental posts and make every effort to roll back regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if reelected, as he did during his presidency. He told a meeting of fossil fuel executives that he would continue doing their bidding if they collectively donated a billion dollars to his election campaign.

Israelis should be especially concerned. Our country is heating up even faster than the world average, and the hotter and drier Israeli future increases the likelihood of instability, terrorism, and war. Also, Israel’s coastal plain, which contains much of our population and infrastructure, might be inundated by a rising Mediterranean Sea.

Trump became hostile to Prime Minister Netanyahu for merely congratulating President Biden on winning the 2020 US presidential election. He also publicly disclosed confidential details about Israeli security and personnel to Russia’s ambassador to the US and foreign minister while hosting them in the Oval Office. So, can he be counted on to be helpful to Israel if he is reelected?

Along with the vast majority of Democratic congressional members, including all its leaders, Vice President Harris has consistently supported arms and other aid to Israel. After meeting with PM Netanyahu in Washington, Harris expressed to the press, as she has many other times, “an unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel” and her support for our right to defend ourselves. As a senator, Harris supported funding for the Iron Dome, co-sponsored legislation condemning BDS, and frequently emphasized the importance of the US-Israel relationship, referring to Israel as a “steadfast” ally. The Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has also consistently supported Israel. The 2024 Democratic platform strongly supports Israel and the National Democratic convention included a talk by the parents of then hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin but none by Israeli opponents.

Trump hosted notorious antisemites for dinner at Mar-a-Lago, forwarded antisemitic posts from neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, and called white supremacists chanting, ”Jews will not replace us,” “very fine people.” He also made antisemitic statements such as that US Jews care more about Israel than they do about the US and that Jews who do not support him are disloyal to Israel and Judaism. In sharp contrast, Vice President Harris and her Jewish husband have worked intensively to reduce antisemitism.

While Israel depends on a strong US democracy, a Trump presidency would threaten it. Trump has stated that if he is reelected, he would like to be a dictator “on day one.” He praises dictators, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, North Korea’s Kim Jung Un, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. He sparked a rebellion at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, aiming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He supports rioters who shouted “Hang Mike Pence” when his vice president defied Trump, followed the law, and certified the election results. Trump now says he would pardon those convicted of participating in the insurrection.

Can you support a serial liar? Trump made over 30,000 false and misleading statements during his administration and about 30 more during the presidential debate. Also, he is still telling the big lie that he won the US 2020 presidential election despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. How can anyone believe anything that Trump says?

Are you bothered that many of those who worked most intimately with him in his first term – including his vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, chief of staff, national security adviser, press secretary, communications director, and attorney general – have warned in speeches, interviews and memoirs that Trump is erratic, immoral and someone who must never be let near the White House again.

Are you concerned about Trump’s character and values?. Throughout his adult life, including his four years as President, Trump has been totally unprincipled and unscrupulous. He has shown no loyalty to people, organizations, or any set of values. In pursuit of self-gratification and self-aggrandizement, he has cheated countless people and institutions, including friends, wives, contractors, and banks. Despite his massive legacy of sexual assault victims, ruined careers, and bankrupt corporations, he has somehow convinced a sizable part of the American population that he is concerned about their well-being. There is no reason to believe that he has any concern for the welfare of Israeli citizens or the existence of Israel as a Jewish state beyond the degree to which those concerns affect his fortune. One should expect Trump to abandon Israel in a heartbeat if it suited his interests.

Trump is egotistical, erratic, and narcissistic. He never admits error and has shown little interest in facts, educating himself, or engaging in intelligent governance. His main focus, evidently, has been to enrich himself through a wide range of scams and thinly veiled bribes. He only chooses advisers and administrators who express and maintain total loyalty to him, which is a recipe for disaster when difficult, challenging decisions must be made. He has sought to corrupt every component of the government department to make them serve his personal and/or political ambitions, from the justice department to the military, to the scientific establishment, and even to the postal service and the weather service.

Trump’s approach to alliances is similarly self-serving and one-sided

.He rails against NATO and praises Putin. How can we have any confidence that Trump will not distance himself from Israel as he has from Ukraine if it suits his convenience and whim?

Jews depend on civil leadership to be sensible, thoughtful, decent, empathic, educated, visionary, and grounded. Trump is manifestly none of these. Chaos and disaster may well follow in his trail.

Further issues on which Trump’s positions should alarm Jews snd Israelis:

Reproductive rights:   Most Jewish authorities and organizations support fertilization treatments for couples striving to bear children.  Republicans threaten to outlaw IVF and declare that a fertilized egg is a full human being, which NO Jewish religious decisor endorses. They also ominously preview a ban on birth control. Jews want women carrying dead fetuses or encountering dangers to their health and lives during pregnancy to be free to undergo necessary medical procedures   . Many legislators and governors who back Trump want to keep those women in grave peril, even to intrusively monitor their conditions    Abortions for various reasons are permitted by Jewish law and in some situations are even legally obligated  Trump’s troops advocate a nationwide prohibition of abortion. Such extreme, draconian government stances could affect the mood in Israel as well 

The overwhelming majority of Jews in the US favor sensible measures to limit and restrict guns. We all remember the terrifying massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Public school mass  

shootings now recur every few weeks. Trump and the gun makers’ lobby seek to eliminate regulations that would save lives.  Domestic terrorists, vigilantes, and racists want to be able to buy any gun anywhere, at any age, for any purpose 

Jews are far more secure in nations governed by the rule of law and democracy.  Democrats (hence the name) want to ensure liberty snd justice. Trump wants one-man rule and manipulation of law enforcement and Supreme Court justices appointed by him and his Republican predecessors ferociously resist being constrained by ethics rules, as are all other judges and officials.  

As the sonnet by Jewish activist Emma Lazarus inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty proclaims, America is a nation of immigrants that welcomes and values refugees from everywhere. Innumerable Jews might have been rescued from the Shoah if America’s gates had not been slammed shut by antisemites and nativists.  Yet Trump invents phony statistics and conspiracies and puerile economic fairy tales to justify locking out immigrants and sending millions to concentration camps and then to mass deportation    . Not in America, which Jews prize and imagine!

Trump is wrong for America, for Israel, for Jews, and for a human future of generosity and safety.  We must repudiate him and his selfish, destructive worldview.

Please consider all of the above when making your final decision on who to support for president.

—————————-

---