Last week, the author of a letter to the editor attempted—somewhat desperately—to frame President Joe Biden’s “support” for Israel as superior to the support of several Republican presidents, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr., as well as Henry Kissinger, secretary of state in the administration of Republican President Gerald Ford (“A Look Back at US-Israel Relations,” May 9, 2024). The author sought to distract us from the failures of our current president by comparing him to those who occupied his office many decades ago. Our choice this November, however, is not between President Joe Biden and any of those individuals; our choice is between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
A mere six weeks ago, the Biden administration refused to vote against a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate Gaza cease-fire for the month of Ramadan, instead only abstaining. In response, the Israeli government canceled its delegation’s trip to Washington, D.C. President Biden has also been served with a lawsuit that alleges that his administration illegally reversed the Trump Administration’s ban on Palestinian funding, spending approximately $500 million for “Economic Support Funds” in Gaza and in the West Bank, and another $1 billion for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to directly benefit the Palestinian Authority. The complaint further alleges that the Biden administration knowingly subsidized the PA’s “pay-to-slay” bounty system, the expansion of Hamas’ military capabilities in Gaza, and UNRWA’s material support for Palestinian terrorism.
Regardless of his actions, President Biden’s rhetoric has emboldened antisemites across the country to take over our universities. He pays lip service to Hamas and pressures Israel, seemingly for the sole purpose of securing the support of Muslim extremists in Dearborn, Michigan, and their 15 electoral votes.
Finally, the author desired for us to misconstrue former President Trump’s recent comments. Nothing Mr. Trump said, however, is untrue. Israel is losing a lot of the world. Israel is losing a lot of support. Israel does have to finish up the war. Moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings are very bad pictures for the world. Trump’s most egregious statement, that he wanted to call Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and say, “Don’t do it,” is certainly questionable at best, but it is no worse than President Biden’s rhetoric.
We are lucky that our choice in November is between two candidates we know very well. On the one hand, we have Joe Biden, whose support for Israel can, at best, be described as tepid. On the other hand, we have Donald Trump, who, despite his myriad political and moral shortcomings, proved to be the unwavering and staunch supporter of Israel that the author desired us to consider Joe Biden to be. President Trump finally moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, cementing our country’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He ended the Obama/Biden administration’s disastrous Iran nuclear deal. He brokered the Abraham Accords, which normalized ties between Israel and several Arab nations, some of whom became the first to recognize Israel’s sovereignty.
In the end, it comes down to a simple question: Are Jews (both here and in Israel) safer today than they were four years ago? The answer could not be clearer.
