Israel Asks Forgiveness from Outgoing President Donald Trump, and Says Thanks

Israel asks forgiveness from outgoing President Donald Trump, and says thank you. Amazingly, we observe the good deeds Trump still does for Israel and the Jewish people, even during his last days in the White House. Thanks, Trump, and we are sorry that you were not reelected.

The American people did not want you. I, as an Israeli, cannot ask for forgiveness on behalf of Americans. I can only tell you that a dear, beloved friend in Israel said to me when the results of the elections became clear that he had a hole in the pit of his stomach.

Israelis feel bad that Trump was voted out. Israelis are not worried about President-elect Joe Biden, and most Israelis are sure that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows how to work with the new American government. We have already dealt with American presidents who did not really understand Israel. Still, most of us feel that in not being reelected, Trump has been done an injustice.

We want to ask him for forgiveness also in the name of American Jews. According to an analysis of how they voted, American Jews were among the groups who defeated Trump’s hopes for a second term. I am embarrassed by them.

It’s not only the Jews in Israel who feel that American Jews committed an injustice in not voting for Trump, but also a Druze who lives in Israel, Ayoob Kara. When he heard about the results of the elections, he tweeted what many Israelis were feeling. “I feel great disappointment that 72% of the Jews of the United States don’t give credit [to Trump] and they voted for Biden. I expected strong support for President Trump, who was the best American president that Israel had.” He added that the alienation of American Jews from Trump, despite his support, is astonishing to Israelis and reminds him of a phenomenon that he knows well. He said to me once, “I love the Jews, more than the Jews love themselves.”

Many American Jews reacted angrily to the things that Kara said in connection with how they voted, but he, the non-Jew, expressed, perhaps a little harshly, the sentiment of many Israeli Jews. Israeli support for Trump is the opposite of American Jewish opposition to him. According to the polls, 75% of Israelis hoped that he would be reelected. This means that if Israeli citizens had voted in the United States, Trump would have received a few more million votes. The issue is even more sad and painful when you know that the American evangelicals who love Israel voted for Trump. This means, at least it seems to me, that they support Israel more than the American Jews do.

It is true that there are other considerations for the American voter, and Israel is not the main issue, but support for Israel is also a choice in favor of morality, and if this moral choice is taken seriously by the evangelicals and not given enough weight by the American Jews, it seems that we have here a very deep rift between the Jews of the United States and Israel. I am afraid that if Israel depends on American Jews for support, it will not get it. Yet Israel will receive support from evangelical Christians.

For an Israeli, this situation is confusing and painful. Dangerous. Actually, every Jew in Israel feels like he or she lives in fear of dying. We protect ourselves from this fate with America’s support. In the Trump era, there was a feeling of understanding about the important issues of Israeli survival, about Israel’s right to exist, about the historical connection to Jerusalem and a Jewish homeland. Most Israelis, including me, are sad that this era is over, and we feel bad when we ask ourselves: How can our Jewish brothers and sisters in the diaspora be so ungrateful to a person who loves us?

It’s okay. Israel has better friends in the United States and many more friends than just Jews — the evangelicals. It is amazing and sad and embarrassing to read research that shows how American Jews do not like the evangelicals as much as the evangelicals like American Jews. The American Jewish community has less regard, not more, for evangelicals than other American citizens. On the other hand, the same research study made it clear that evangelicals love the Jews more than the average citizen does in the United States.

So again, sorry Mr. Trump, and thanks.