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.