Last week, at the IAC Conference in DC, former president Donald Trump made two comments that angered many American Jews. The first, let’s be clear, was highly inappropriate. Without him, he said, Israel would be done for in two years.
Now, I’m not doubting for one moment that Trump would be better for Israel as a US president than Vice President Kamala Harris, given the control that people like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib exert over the Democratic party. But Israel finished in two years? That definitely wasn’t the wisest thing to say to a people who just 80 years ago experienced one Holocaust. And wasn’t the whole point of Zionism that Jews – even accepting that we need strong allies – defend themselves? That we don’t rely on popes, princes, or even the benevolent presidents to protect us?
The second Trump comment was even more incendiary. He said that were he to lose the election, it would be ungrateful Jews who would be to blame. Now, I’ve always believed that the American Jewish community should show far greater gratitude to the most pro-Israel president in history. But to suggest that they can control the election? In swing states such as Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arizona where their numbers are tiny? Come on.
Yet, with all that, a recent poll in Israel reflected that if Israelis could vote in the US elections, Trump would beat Harris by well over 60%. I believe it would be much higher.
Why? It all comes down to Iran.
Only Trump, Israelis know, is strong enough to stop Iran, which is not only the most evil government on Earth but the source of all mayhem in the Middle East.
Firstly, Iran’s plots to assassinate a former US president (Yes, we’re back to Trump), confirmed by Attorney General Merrick Garland – who was appointed by President Joe Biden – is a declaration of war against the US and fundamentally undermines the social and democratic fabric of America.
How has Biden not struck Tehran militarily when they are actively trying to murder a former and possibly future American president? Talk about weakness!
I believe that Trump would handle things differently. Yes, Trump is always railing against the forever wars. I know he’s an isolationist. But Iran also perceives him as crazy. It’s back to the Nixonian madman theory so expertly cultivated by Henry Kissinger. And besides, Trump got close to bankrupting the mullahs while Kamala and Joe have allowed them to sell over $150 billion in oil revenue to nefarious governments like China.
When Trump was president, we all witnessed firsthand how effectively American strength and resolve held back Iranian aggression. This hit its apogee when Trump decided to send Qassim Soleimani, the world’s foremost terrorist, to roast forever on a spit in hell.
Now, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeting president Trump and Israel besieged by Iran’s terrorists in the Middle East, we’re seeing American weakness set the world aflame.
As is always the case with presidential misconduct, innocents are paying the price. Israel, our most vital ally in the Middle East suffered the deadliest terrorist attack in its history at the hands of bloodthirsty Hamas death squads paid for and trained by Iran.
One thousand two hundred men, women, and children were butchered, and 251 people were taken hostage by an Iranian proxy army, while 100 remain in the brutal captivity of terrorists loyal to the ayatollah.
Iran's active proxies
Since then, Iran has activated its Axis of Resistance, using its terrorist militias in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen to pound Israel and US bases with thousands of rockets, while sinking ships and blocking trade routes. These countries are plagued by the predictable symptoms of Iranian dominance: Women are persecuted; food is scarce; people wait in lines to fill jerry cans with water; and political persecution is all-encompassing.
But this is all child’s play. Iran might soon fuel conflict and chaos far beyond the Middle East because, according to the best estimates of American intelligence, the murderous mullahs are on the very brink of obtaining the means to launch a nuclear world war.
Iran’s resurgence provides the context of its plots to assassinate president Trump – and the motive: when Trump enters the Oval Office, Iran’s reign of terror comes to an end.
Much of the world believes that Trump is crazy. The ones who fear that the most are Iran. What Iran most fears is a non-rational actor who will utterly destroy a nation that regularly engages in asymmetrical warfare.
While Biden and Harris are content to play charades and let the mullahs hide behind heinous hired guns like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, Trump held Iran rightly accountable for the actions of its blood-soaked proxies. He understood that funding, arming, directing, and protecting terrorist activity constitutes complicity. Angel of Death Qasem Soleimani visited his militias in Iraq days after they murdered an American and expected the US to just play along. He turned out to be dead wrong, literally.
Trump also left the mullahs too broke and isolated to sponsor proxies, understanding that the path to preventing Iran’s pursuit of regional dominance passed through their purse. China, he made clear, could buy Iranian oil or do business with the United States. It could not do both.
President Biden, with his vice president at his side, instead paid handsome ransoms and provided sanctions waivers, letting Iran export 1.7 million barrels of oil a day – more than five times the 300,000 barrels they were selling daily under Trump. The influx of cash to Iran explains the influx of regional terror.
Trump also understood that a nation that believes kidnapping and murder pass for prudent policy cannot be trusted with fighter jets and advanced missile systems. Former US ambassadors to the United Nations Nikki Haley and (my close friend) Kelly Craft personally led the Trump administration’s tooth-and-nail fight at the UN to extend the international arms embargo on Iran, one that is crumbling under the Biden-Harris administration.
Under Biden and Harris, crucial restrictions on Iranian missile and drone imports were allowed to quietly expire last November, and Putin provided advanced air defense and radar equipment to Iran just last month. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has been too busy defending Joe Biden’s decision to block essential arms shipments needed for Israel’s war of survival.
Harris would argue that these concessions to Iran will reduce tensions and may achieve peace. How then to explain that President Biden – just this month – sent thousands of US troops, carrier groups, a missile submarine, and a squadron of F-22s to the Mediterranean? Policies of appeasement don’t mitigate the chance of conflict. On the contrary, war with Iran appears closer today than ever before.
Donald Trump understood that when deterrence fades the risks will only escalate and that, especially in the Middle East, weakness leads to one outcome: war.
But gripped by global stage fright, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden seek to achieve security by showing insecurity and to avert conflict by making enemies love instead of fear us. Their timidity has only bred contempt – and the expansion of Iran’s infernal reach.
Iran’s reckless adventurism in targeting a presidential nominee shows they don’t fear Harris – even while she serves as second-in-command of the United States of America. But, like Ronald Reagan, who secured the release of 52 American hostages from Tehran hours before entering the Oval Office, Trump is striking fear in Iran before he even takes the reigns, which is why they are literally trying to kill him.
Let me be clear. Those who say that Harris hates Israel – as Trump has said – are, of course, completely wrong. She is married to a very proud Jew and a mensch, Doug Emhoff, who has valiantly, proudly, and publicly fought antisemitism as second gentleman for the last three years. Rather, the problem with Kamala is not that she doesn’t love Israel, it’s that she doesn’t hate Iran.
The writer is the international best-selling author of The Israel Warrior, a newly-published guide to fighting back for Israel. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley.