It was dinner time in
Jerusalem when Donald Trump addressed
his supporters waiting for him on the Ellipse just south of the White House.
We watched live as he spewed his lies, big and small. His stream-of-consciousness rant was unsettling. Here and there he forced himself to read verbatim what had been written for him. These sentences had subjects and predicates.
In an America that has
suffered 360,000 COVID-related deaths and 22 million cases, his audience was
mostly unmasked. No one in a position of authority had done more to play down
the pandemic's dangers than Trump. No one in charge set a worse public health example
for people around the world than Trump.
However, incitement, not COVID,
was on Trump's agenda yesterday.
Trump told the mob-to-be that
he had been cheated of victory and stabbed in the back by disloyal Republicans.
And that he would march with them to the Capitol (which was one of the smallest
fibs of his presidency). Then he got into his limousine and went back to the
White House.
Next, what Trump and his enablers had threatened would happen – happened. As his supporters marched on the Capitol,
others already there began storming the doors of Congress.
The next thing we knew, Trump's
cretins were disporting themselves on the House and Senate floors and in the Speaker's
offices (images that will forever sully the history books).
What, I wondered, are my
Trump-supporting family, friends, and former comrades making of all this.
Some of them drank the cool
aide. My Cousin A in Brooklyn thinks Trump is the best president in US history flaws and all. He hates everything and everyone Trump hates: socialists, leftists, Democrats,
and anti-Trump Jews. To keep pure, he watches only Fox, listens exclusively to Sean
Hannity and Mark Levin, and reads only The New York Post. Cousin A is
neither Jewishly observant nor rich; he feels empowered by Trump's aggrieved
message. He believes Trump. That the president is also pro-Israel only
solidifies A's absolute devotion.
My other better off Trumpian
friends and former comrades have fewer illusions about the man.
They have shilled for him and
contorted themselves to see past what he said or how he behaved because "he
was good for Israel" or upheld conservative causes or both. They have
embraced his inflammatory populism because, they said, it is the only way political
power can be wielded in the age we are in. And they generally like the
direction Trump's policies are taking America.
Some also identify with Trump's
opposition to healthcare, environmentalism, and appreciate his belligerent stance in America's culture war.
Every one of my friends,
family, and old comrades will have an alibi to explain why they linked up with
Trump. For almost all, pro-Israelism will play a role.
However, the claim of Trump's
pro-Israelism does not paper over his peccatum mortale.
I never denied that having
Trump in office was -- comparatively speaking -- good for Israel. I just never thought
that should be anyone's yardstick, given the stakes.
That Arnold Rothstein, Dutch
Schultz, Bugsy Siegel, and Meyer Lansky were good to their mothers did not
mitigate their criminality.
Whatever good Trump did for
Israel – and this is not the place to parse his policies or motives – the damage he has done to the US does not mitigate his trampling of the Madisonian
model of democracy.
That he was "good for
Israel" does mitigate the insurgency he led against the American political
system. It does not ease the damage he has caused to the fabric of democracy
and the terrible example he set for children.
Trump is the most successful demagogue
in American history – and having him as a "friend of Israel" has to
be a mixed blessing. An embarrassment,
actually.
The "good for Israel"
claim did not justify his manipulation of the federal government and the presidency
to harm his perceived political enemies.
The "good for Israel"
argument did not explain away Trump's flirtation with the extreme white/right.
No one in government authority has done more to catalyze repulsive conspiracy
theories than Trump.
I know CNN has a history of
anti-Israel bias (as do many media outlets), but the "good for Israel"
claim does not warrant intimidation of the media by a sitting president.
Trump's presence has been
corrosive to the stability of the American political system – and nothing can
be worse for Israel than an America brought to its knees by a rabble-rousing president
who has led it to the brink of civil war.
So, if you spent the past
five years making excuses for Donald Trump or defending him or winking at his
crimes and misdemeanors because he was ostensibly "good for Israel" – now is the time for soul-searching.
Consider that you may have been wrong for thinking so
little of the Zionist enterprise to imagine we could not have handled Hillary
Clinton's diplomatic pressure. Or that we can't take whatever Biden-Harris will
throw at us.
You are not to blame for Donald Trump's 1/6 attack against the United States of America, but neither should you wash your hands of any responsibility.
In a commitment wrapped in yet another lie, he released a statement today: “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th."
But God only knows what this arsonist-in-chief may yet do between now and then.
Let's just pray; it has
nothing to do with "helping Israel."
