Last week, it was reported that President Donald J. Trump had a heated phone call with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. In the phone call, Trump, referring to Israel’s continued incursion into Beirut, supposedly lost it with Bibi and said something like, “Are you ******* crazy? If not for me, you would be in jail! Now the whole world hates you.”
I saw an interview with Netanyahu where, essentially, he confirmed the conversation. He tried soft-pedaling it by saying that often friends have disagreements, but eventually they patch things up.
What the media does not report about the events in Lebanon is Hezbollah’s constant violation of the “ceasefire” and the killing of Israeli troops daily through their updated drones. The media focuses on the Israeli bombardment of Beirut without any context.
But Trump’s rhetoric with Netanyahu was pretty tough to swallow. Is that how a friend talks to another? Is that how a president behaves? Does that signal a thaw in the relationship between the two?
Nonetheless, Trump remains the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House. What would the alternative have been? Kamala Harris? She already said she believes Israel has committed genocide. She would not have stood by Israel’s side in its conflict with Hamas. And by now, Iran would have developed a nuclear bomb, given her record with the Biden administration of coddling the Iranians.
Aside from her word salads, in which she makes no sense, she would have been a total disaster as a politically correct and even woke president. Remember her saying she wants a discussion in which there are no bad ideas? One of her ideas was to pack the Supreme Court to ensure that left-leaning judges have a majority. She also said she wants Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico to have the status of states. This will ensure Democratic control over Congress.
And what has become of her Democrats? They have turned a blind eye to anti-Semitism in their own ranks and let Democratic politicians get away with saying the vilest anti-Jewish statements, including that woman running for Congress who said she wants to incarcerate all Zionists. Forty Democratic senators voted to ban all arms sales to Israel.
So, all in all, we must be very grateful that Donald Trump and his ruling Republicans are in control of Congress. Trump may have rough edges, but he sure beats the alternative.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.