A Trump victory will have horrendous consequences for Israel – opinion

The US presidential elections will at long last take place tomorrow. 

Opinion polls show the two candidates – Vice President Kamala Harris, and former president Donald Trump – running neck to neck. Opinion polls in Israel show that if these elections were held here, well over 60% would vote for Trump and just around 20% for Harris.

The common answer one gets from Israelis who support Trump when asked about their choice is that “Trump is better for Israel.”

On the surface this appears to be a perfectly logical reply. 

First of all, the reality is that in Israel today a majority of the Jewish population is neither liberal nor progressive, so that ab initio, Kamala Harris doesn’t stand a chance, while the conservative (or rather illiberal and regressive) Trump has an inbuilt advantage.

Secondly, the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has an obvious preference for Trump, and an unamiable relationship with Harris, who deliberately stayed away from his appearance before a joint session of Congress on July 24, certainly has an effect on large sections of public opinion in Israel.

However, I think that the proposition that Trump is preferable for Israel requires more serious examination. True, Trump has an appeal to certain population groups due to his illiberalism and non-progressive positions.

However, I have quite a few illiberal and non-progressive friends and acquaintances, who are pleasant, and trustworthy persons. That is not something one can say about Trump.

He is definitely an unpleasant person, vulgar, crude, a racist (especially when it comes to non-white immigrants), a misogynist, and a constant liar and fabricator of fake news. 

Trump’s statements suggest he’s partial to fascists and Nazis 

To those who still maintain that Trump is good for Israel, all I can say is: With friends like that, who needs enemies?

I AM NOT sure I would call Trump a fascist as Harris has done, nor a Nazi as others have, but some of his utterings and statements definitely suggest that he is partial to both fascists and Nazis. 

Thus, as president back in August 2017, he defended white nationalists and neo-Nazis, who participated in a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a woman demonstrating against the rally was run-over and killed by a neo-Nazi driver, saying that extreme right-wingers included “some very fine people.” 

Trump was also reported by one of his former chiefs of staff during his presidency – retired Marine Gen. John Kelly – of having said on several occasions that “Hitler did some good things,” and that he needed some generals like Hitler’s generals, because they were loyal and obedient.

It has been suggested by some of Trump’s critics, that calling him a fascist or a Nazi is counterproductive, because, in fact, “he is part of a ‘new authoritarianism’ that subverts democracy from within and solidifies power through administrative, rather than paramilitary means. 

This brand of new authoritarianism… looks like something else – for example, right-wing populism that is anti-liberal, but not yet anti-democratic. 

And then suddenly, it shows itself as anti-democratic extremism, as Trump did in refusing to accept the 2020 election result, and encouraging the storming of the Capitol” (Geoff M. Boucher, The Conversation, October 28, 2024). 

It should be recalled that only last week Trump referred to the traumatic storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which six persons died, as “a day of love.”

Two important points regarding Netanyahu-Trump

WHEN IT comes to Netanyahu’s pro-Trump bias in the elections, I believe two points should be made. 

The first is that this bias might be connected to the fact that Netanyahu himself might be viewed as a “new authoritarian” in the making, and finds it congenial to deal with leaders of the same ilk.

However, it appears that the relationship between the two is not a mutual admiration society. 

The Netanyahus’ visit to Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago in July, following Bibi’s UN appearance, was initiated by Netanyahu – not by Trump. 

In addition, Trump has informed the media on several occasions that Netanyahu keeps calling him up, and that Bibi does not listen to president Biden when the latter requests that Israel restrain itself in the current war.

Of course, we do not know exactly what is said in the conversations between Netanyahu and Trump. 

Perhaps Trump has made promises that have not been reported to the public. 

However, it is no secret that Trump has isolationist inclinations that do not tally with a continued deep American involvement in the support of Israel in its current war against Iran and its proxies. 

Trump is also opposed to massive American financial support for allies of various sorts (such as the Ukraine), and has expressed his disappointment with Netanyahu’s conduct regarding the 2020 presidential election results (when Netanyahu congratulated Biden upon his victory, which Trump denied and continues to deny).

TRUMP HAS also been reported as having called upon Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon, and the mutual blows with Iran as rapidly as possible, before he enters office in January 2025, assuming he wins the upcoming presidential election. 

Though many Israelis (including myself) would welcome such a development, Netanyahu and his government are categorically opposed to the conflict ending before a “total Israeli victory.”

The fact, that in the last stage of his election campaign Trump decided to court the Muslim voters in several pivotal states, promising that “unlike the clowns who are currently running the show in the Middle East” (i.e. the Biden administration) he will bring peace to the region immediately, cannot but cause concern in Israeli government circles, since it is known that Trump views the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process. 

Furthermore, he has already announced that if Kamala Harris will be declared the victor in the election, it will be the fault of the Jewish voters, and all this after stating that any Jew who votes for the Democrats should have his head examined.

I also cannot see how the fact that Trump denies that there is a potentially disastrous global climate change in the making, and that the existence of NATO is still essential for the welfare of the free world, and seems intent on breaking up the post-Second World War world economic order, is “good for Israel.”

Yes, I know that Kamala Harris is not an ideal candidate for the presidency – neither from an American perspective nor from an Israeli perspective. 

However, it is either Trump or her who will emerge victorious from tomorrow’s election, and as I see it, a Trump victory will have horrendous consequences for the US, the free world, and for Israel, not least of all from a democratic perspective. 

A Trump defeat might lead to a period of unrest and even violence in the US should he once again refuse to recognize the election results. However, that, in my opinion, is preferable to the results of a Trump victory.

The writer worked in the Knesset for many years as a researcher, and has published extensively both journalistic and academic articles on current affairs and Israeli politics. Her most recent book, Israel’s Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job, was published by Routledge.