We Cannot Trust Donald Trump on Israel
By Steve Sheffey
Israel is facing unprecedented challenges, including from Hamas in the south, Hezbollah in the north, and Iran. Now more than ever, we cannot take chances with Israel’s security. Voting for Donald Trump is voting to gamble with Israel’s future. The stakes are too high to stay home.
We don’t have to speculate about what Trump would do in his second term because we saw what he did during his first term, yet his supporters, through a combination of misleading and false assertions, would have us believe otherwise. Let’s look at the facts:
Jerusalem: Trump’s moving the embassy to Jerusalem made Israel neither safer nor more secure. Few cared where the embassy was until Republicans decided it would bolster the presidential candidacy of Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS). Now it’s Trump’s antisemitic dog-whistle to right-wing Evangelicals.
Buried within Trump’s statement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was this: “We are not taking a position of any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders.” In other words, the definition of “Jerusalem” itself is still up for negotiation, as it always had been.
Golan Heights: Anshel Pfeffer wrote that Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights was an empty gesture–“just as his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was. It won’t change the status of the Golan in international law and with the exception of a few client-states in Latin America, no other country is going to follow suit.” The Golan Heights was not an issue until Trump made it an issue. Nothing changed as a result of his announcement.
Iran: Trump walked away from the Iran Deal while the deal was working and Iran was still in compliance. Then his “maximum pressure” strategy failed, his efforts at the UN to continue the arms embargo against Iran failed, and his efforts at the UN to snap back sanctions against Iran failed. Trump’s Iran policy was a disaster. Iran was much closer to nuclear weapons when Trump left office than it was when he took office.
On September 5, 2024, Trump flip-flopped and suggested that he’d lift sanctions on Iran. He added that he wants “to use sanctions as little as possible.” Trump’s incoherence allows him and his supporters to backtrack and explain away anything he says, so watch for yourself what he said.
Trump is not serious about stopping Iran–or Russia. He doesn’t care about Israel. As former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton said, “Trump’s support for Israel in the first term is not guaranteed in the second term, because Trump’s positions are made on the basis of what’s good for Donald Trump, not on some coherent theory of national security.”
The Biden-Harris administration has not lifted any sanctions on Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Instead, the Biden-Harris Administration has imposed more than 600 new sanctions on Iran and its destabilizing terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Yet Trump and his Republican allies falsely accuse Biden of giving money to Iran.
Israel and the hostages after October 7. Trump attacked Israel and its leaders days after October 7. Trump said nothing while Republicans were blocking vital emergency aid to Israel for six months. During that same period, the Biden-Harris administration approved over 100 arms sales to Israel.
When Biden and Harris talk about the “hostages” they are working to bring home, they are talking about the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. When Trump talks about “the hostages” who are treated “horrifically,” he’s talking about January 6 insurrectionists held in U.S. prisons who he plans to pardon. Trump has shown no sympathy–only callousness–for the hostages.
Following Hamas’s murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, President Biden and Vice President Harris issued statements on August 31 that reflected our support for Israel and our shared values. Their statements contained no partisanship.
Trump issued a political rant about the hostages on September 1. On September 5, speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition (a group you’d think might care), Trump could not even get Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s name right.
(Walz, himself a strong friend of Israel and the Jewish community, issued a statement on September 1. JD Vance said nothing until asked about the murders in a September 4 interview.)
Abraham Accords. The Abraham Accords were not peace deals. They are economic normalization agreements sweetened by arms sales with Gulf monarchies over 1,000 miles from Israel. Israel was not at war with those countries and as we see every day, the Abraham Accords did not bring the region closer to peace. Normalization agreements are good, and the Abraham Accords brought into the open economic openings already underway, but the Abraham Accords hardly compensate for Trump’s overall failed Middle East policies.
Trump is a proven failure on Israel. He does not deserve a second chance, and we cannot afford to give him one.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are outstanding on all of our issues, especially Israel. If you are concerned about Israel, Harris/Walz is the clear choice.
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