At the White House Chanukah party on Dec. 16, I got a firsthand look at U.S. President Donald Trump, who once again showed that he is a philo-semite, a lover of Jews and Israel. He literally said at the second Chanukah party that he loves Israel, and his policies show that love.
Trump laments the situation in America today in which the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, no longer has the power it once had at a time when many Democrats now run for office on the platform that they are not aligned with it. Trump properly sees the weakening of AIPAC as being not just bad for Israel but bad for America.
At a time when many outrageously accuse Jews of dual loyalty, Trump believes that a pro-Israel policy is in America’s interest. He laments the fact that not enough American Jews care more about Israel. He has repeatedly said that Jews should love Israel more. He cannot understand why more Jews do not support him, despite his being the most pro-Jewish and pro-Israel president in history.
Though polls show that American Jews are more pro-Israel than any other American ethnic group, it was outrageous that 30% of American Jews in New York City voted for mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Trump, who likely got between 40% to 50% of the American Jewish vote, still didn’t garner the majority of the Jewish vote. More Jews voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, then U.S. vice president.
Trump has seen firsthand that his pro-Israel policies have been greatly beneficial to America. He discussed the world’s opposition to his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and how critics in his first term told him it would lead to massive bloodshed. Instead, he saw that it helped lead to the 2020 Abraham Accords and four Muslim-majority countries normalizing relations with Israel.
Critics in this second term said that his ending the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and imposing massive sanctions on Tehran would lead to a nuclear Iran. When the Biden administration eased those sanctions, Iran’s economy boomed, and it was able to massively increase funding to Hamas and Hezbollah before the Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Trump came back into office and massively sanctioned Iran and then bombed their nuclear facilities. Critics opposed the military action and claimed that it would lead to “World War III.” Instead, Trump saw that the decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear reactor helped weaken Iran and lead to the eventual deal to release the remaining 20 living hostages Hamas kidnapped and dragged to Gaza on Oct. 7. So far, all but one of the hostage bodies have been retrieved.
At a time of rising antisemitism, Trump and his administration have confronted the main instigators of the attacks on Jews, many of them foreign antisemitic students, by taking away their student visas. He has further withheld federal funds from universities until they commit to protecting the Jewish students on campus and end deals some made with those leading encampments on campuses throughout the United States. The result is that the encampments on college campuses have pretty much disappeared, and the situation has improved for Jewish students, though there is still much more that needs to be done.
The Trump administration invited two families of former hostages to speak at the Chanukah party, where they expressed their gratitude to the president. In large part, the hostages were returned to Israel because Trump supported Israel’s military actions in Gaza, including restoring the arms that the Biden administration illegally stopped supplying Israel, despite the passage of a law providing such arms to Israel.
Trump also supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, bringing troops into Gaza City, the last stronghold of Hamas, which was the main pressure that led to Hamas agreeing to release the remaining hostages. It is noteworthy that Israel was able to maintain control over all the borders of Gaza in this ceasefire deal, which helped prevent Hamas from smuggling in weapons, when it was known that Hamas may not keep its legal obligation to disarm.
Trump has shown that he is willing to stand up for Israel and against antisemitism. And so, it was important at the Chanukah parties with him this week to hear that the Jewish community feels very fortunate that at this critical time, a friend of Israel and the Jewish people sits in the White House.
