Most of the U.S. Jewish groups that JNS contacted about U.S. President Donald Trump’s intention to refer to the Defense Department as the Department of War declined to comment on what that change—which appears to require congressional approval—might mean for Israel.
Several told JNS that the executive order to that effect, which Trump reportedly intends to sign on Friday, projects strength to U.S. enemies.
The name change “signals a profound shift in how America understands its role in the world,” Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told JNS.
“Defense conveys restraint, necessity and protection,” he said. “War suggests aggression, initiative and the projection of power. It is a blunt reminder to our adversaries that America will not be passive.”
The change could be risky if America loses the “moral clarity that comes with defending freedom rather than waging conflict,” Filitti told JNS.
It is both “reassuring and unsettling” for Israel, according to the Lawfare Project counsel.
“Israel has long sought an America that speaks with strength, unafraid to call enemies by their name and stand firm against Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror proxies,” he told JNS.
“A ‘War Department’ is aligned with that strength,” he said. “Yet, if America abandons the language of defense, Israel may find it harder to anchor its own security doctrine in the moral and legal framework of self-defense.”
Sam Markstein, national political and communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS that “Trump has shown that when the chips are down, he will take overwhelming and decisive action to defend America and our allies.”
“The Department of War has already put our enemies on notice,” he said. “Do not test the resolve of this president and the United States of America.”
Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that the “Department of War is more intimidating than the Department of Defense.”
“It sends a strong message to America’s enemies,” he said. “Don’t mess with the United States.”
