Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 40 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Israel Post-Election
I’m an American, and I’m probably pretty typically American in my America-centric perspective. I think we’re a uniquely great, albeit imperfect, country and a great force for good in the world, and I’m very glad that I was fortunate enough to be born here and not in some third-world hellhole or, say, France.
I have a soft spot for the Anglosphere (excluding Quebec, but that’s another story), and particularly for Britain and Australia, but no nation other than my own is quite as dear to me as Israel.
During the recent campaigns, I was told, on more than one occasion, that Europeans very much preferred Harris. That’s nice: you can measure the depth and breadth of my regard for European political opinion in Planck units — in fact I generally consider a European endorsement of a candidate to be a warning sign. (I dropped my subscription to The Economist when it endorsed either Obama or Clinton, I forget which.)
As I recall, back during the dark ages of Obama, there was exactly one nation in the developed world that did not poll in favor of the “lightbringer,” and that was Israel.
My regard for a president is shaped in part by his relationship with Israel: his treatment of Israel is why I forgave Nixon many of his sins; Obama’s is, at least in part, why I heap special scorn on that execrable man; and Trump’s defined one of the shining moments of his first term.
It pleases me that Israelis favored Trump in this recent election and did so by a wide margin. A friend of mine, a Jewish professor at Rutgers who travels frequently to Israel, told me yesterday that Israelis are literally dancing in the street in celebration. She sent me these video clips from Israeli news and I wanted to share them. I don’t speak Hebrew, but one needn’t understand the words to hear the sentiment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PohpmtWcoII&ab_channel=%D7%A2%D7%9B%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9514
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLzhrfhKirA&ab_channel=%D7%A2%D7%9B%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9514
Published in Elections
This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet members.
Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community
of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.
There are 14 comments.
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
That was fun! The Jews/Israelis know how to celebrate! Trump will be extremely helpful to their cause.
Or?
I don’t know about Israel. According to the exit polls, American Jews supported Harris, 79%-21%.
Israel was founded by secular socialist Jews, and remained so for most of your lifetime (and mine). Yet you think that they’re just the best. Curious.
American Jews do tend left. I’ve read various theories about why that’s true. But I’m speaking of the nation of Israel, not about Jews in general.
What I like about Israel is that it’s an outpost of western civilization, of my civilization, in a barbarous region hostile to the values I cherish.
“I don’t know about Israel.” Truer words were never spoken.
By him? Likely not. By others? Certainly.
Good post, Henry. Thanks.
Israel is similar in its politics to Jews everywhere. They are left of center. The difference in my understanding is that they also live with a constant threat of extinction. Living under that sort of duress can make many of the “critical” issues created by our progressives seem petty, to say the least.
What I don’t know, and meant in this context, is whether Israeli Jews are supportive of Trump. American Jews are not.
I know quite a bit about Israel, little of it good. I used to accept the same pack of falsehoods that the rest of you probably believe.
As minor examples, Israel has segregated schools and anti-miscegenation laws, sharing values with the Jim Crow South. I don’t expect that most of you like those values, but you probably don’t know. Moreover, even if you knew, I don’t expect that it would change your mind.
Israel does slaughter large numbers of women and children, by aerial bombardment. It does have this in common with our country, alas.
I don’t think Israel has “anti-miscegenation laws.” I think that’s a partisan misinterpretation of specific laws Israel has enacted against terrorism-inspired rape.
I also suspect the schools are not formally “segregated,” but rather are oriented toward the communities in which they are located. Communities in which Hebrew is the primary language will have schools (secular or religious) that teach in Hebrew, while communities with lots of Arab students will have schools that teach in Arabic. There are schools that have both Arab and Jewish students, and I don’t think there are any laws preventing Jewish kids from going to Arab schools or vice versa.
I’d argue that there’s a difference between catering to two very different demographics by orienting public school systems to the specific language and cultural needs prevalent in their communities, on the one hand, and telling people who speak the same language and are part of the same culture that because they’re black they have to go to black schools, on the other.
As for the ongoing war against the genocidal Islamist terrorists who are trying to destroy Israel, the reality is that Israel fights urban wars more conscientiously than essentially anyone else, with a lower civilian-to-combatant ratio than other nations achieve.
It’s tragic that the Iran-backed genocidal maniacs continue to bring war to Israel. I continue to support Israel’s efforts to win that war.
Yet you think the Hamas terrorists are just the best. Even more curious.
Great summary in a few words.
So I think my last comment on this site was a month or two back where I wrote out why I was probably going to vote third party for the first time in my life, as I didn’t feel like I could vote for Trump after what he did in the 2020 election aftermath.
A week or two before the election, though, I started wavering. Basically right up until the night before the election I was at war with myself over whether I’d vote for Trump or not. I did finally decide to vote for him the third time. And part of that was because I was thinking about Israel and its war against Hamas and Hezbollah, and that I think Trump would be a much better person to entrust with dealing with that situation than Kamala.
One of the things that I did really appreciate Trump doing during his first term was finally getting the U.S. embassy moved to Jerusalem. If I remember right Trump had to do his Trump-thing and badmouth Netanyahu when he congratulated Biden on his 2020 win, but I do think Trump has been and will be a much more genuine ally to the Israeli’s than the Democrats will ever be.
This is not correct. Israel is rather right wing–note the continued electoral success of Netanyahu, et al, and the virtual extinction of the labor and left-wing parties. Much like the US, though, the “elites”–which includes the media, academia, the Supreme Court, too many in the higher positions of the military, and many in the high tech sector–are on the left. They make more noise, but are a minority. Israeli Jews are also much more religiously observant than American Jews, often in an easy-going traditionalist non-Orthodox sort of way.
Bravo, Henry. As my father, of blessed memory, once said. “You can tell the true character of a man by how he feels about Jews” — and, by extension, about Israel.