Partisanship, the idea that we must vote for a particular political party always and forever, regardless of its current positions, leaders and tendencies, is a curious notion. There are Jews, even rabbis, who always support every Democrat as if there was a mandate from Sinai that “every Jew must vote Democrat forever!” That necessitates whitewashing much Democratic presidential malfeasance, whether from FDR, LBJ, Carter, Obama, etc.
Anyone with an open mind can see that the Democratic Party has trended in the last two decades to a view of the world that is antithetical to Israel and Jews—globalist, cosmopolitan, secular, with barely concealed tolerance for a Jewish nation state and for the traditional values on which America was founded and because of which Jews have prospered.
Why should American Jews vote for Donald Trump?
We should show our gratitude by voting to re-elect the most pro-Israel president in history. But concomitant with gratitude should be the realization that President Trump has incorporated Israel’s best interests into American domestic and foreign policy to an unprecedented degree.
Here is just a partial list: He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the American embassy there; recognized the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory and the legality of Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria; recognized the right of Israeli settlement as legal, reversing a tendentious legal opinion of the Carter State Department; pulled America out of the Iran nuclear deal and orchestrated peace treaties between Israel and three Arab states, with more to come; closed the PLO mission in Washington and halted aid to the PA that was funding the “pay for slay” travesty; unequivocally defended Israel in the United Nations and undid the damage of the anti-Israel resolution spearheaded by the Obama-Biden administration in its waning days that declared, among other things, that the Western Wall is sovereign Arab territory; has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism, and became the only president to sign an Executive Order combating anti-Semitism on American college campuses; and much more.
“Anyone” didn’t do it. Joe Biden didn’t do it. President Trump did—and without receiving significant support from liberal American Jews or deriving any political benefit from Jews for his staunch support of Israel. That speaks as well of him as it speaks poorly of Jews. Biden supports a certain type of Israel—the one that has to make concessions for “peace,” an Israel that is an American ward, accepts American money and therefore must bend to American dictates, and has no right to settle Jews in, of all places, the heartland of Israel.
In a Biden administration, expect a return to terror, American funding of the PA terrorists, condemning “violence on both sides” when Israel thwarts terror, resuscitating the folly of “land for peace” and castigating Jews for building in Shiloh.
True, President Trump’s temperament is not a reason to vote for him but certainly not a reason to vote against him. I, too, wish he would act more presidential, tweet less, cut out the nicknames, etc. But his greatest weakness is also his greatest strength: he is not a politician. Joe Biden is a politician. He speaks, acts, and profits like one.
But I do not seek moral guidance from any politician but only from the Torah. Harry Truman’s curses, anti-black and anti-Jewish slurs flowed like water over Niagara. No president was more vulgar than Lyndon Johnson. Most recent presidents have suffered from “women” problems, as does Joe Biden, whose predations against women were so thoroughly suppressed that he seems to have single handedly eradicated the MeToo movement.
Those who wish to “follow the science,” a poll-tested clich? of the Democrats, should note that the presidency is a high-stress job that requires daily multi-tasking and rapid decision-making on matters of great consequence. We all wish Biden well but he clearly lacks the vitality, vigor and mental acuity to function as president. Jewish Democrats who impute to Biden their nostalgia for “the moderate old Democrat” should consider how they would enjoy a President Harris, a creature of the radical left, whose views—on religion, culture, values, the economy, Israel, etc.—are inimical to everything that Jews should profess.
Politics has never been known for fairness, but certainly the vicious accusations against Trump’s handling of the virus are obviously unfair. Israel and many European countries are being battered by its second wave. No one truly knows what to do—not Trump, not Biden, not the scientists. Sure, follow the science. And what if the scientists are in dispute or just don’t know? Then a leader weighs the input of different sources, not merely the science, and determines what is best for the society. “Follow the science” is a great slogan for virtue-signaling secularists, but honest people realize there is no panacea.
Finally, the Charlottesville hoax, and the idea perpetrated by the media that Trump is a “dog-whistling Jew hater,” is preposterous and can be rebutted by any person who spends three minutes watching the press conference. The “fine people on both sides” referred to two views among protesting southerners on maintaining Confederate statues. A minute later, Trump explicitly condemned the “white supremacists,” but this hoary notion of the Republican candidate who secretly hates Jews also surfaces in every election cycle. And Jews fall for it time and again—and ignore the patent Jew hatred that has found a home in the Democratic Party.
We have grown accustomed to having an unabashedly pro-Israel administration, one that advocates for traditional values and freedoms and perceives Israel as a partner, friend and ally, one that endorses and promotes the traditional values on which America was founded, and has unleashed the American economy to remarkable achievement. We should not take that for granted. We will rue the day if and when it is no longer the case.
If Donald Trump is not your cup of tea, go have a coffee—and then vote for him. Vote for the man whose policies have strengthened both the United States of America and the nation of Israel, and who promises, credibly, more of the same.
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky recently made aliyah after serving as a pulpit rabbi in Teaneck, New Jersey, for 26 years. He is currently the Israel region vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values.
