Trump Should Be A Nonstarter For Jewish Voters

By Ben Shapiro, JEWISH PRESS

Cruz1Next Tuesday, New York Republicans will be asked which candidate they favor for the Republican nomination. Jews – particularly Jews who care about Israel – have only two viable choices: Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Donald Trump ought to be a nonstarter.

He ought to be a nonstarter because not only does he know nothing about Israel, his statements about the Jewish state exude both apathy and arrogance – a devastating combination for an American ally reliant on the president’s recognition of its moral superiority.

Trump has no foreign policy worldview, and he has no baseline level of knowledge. He isn’t teachable; he isn’t malleable. He is, was, and always will be motivated chiefly by self-glorification, and he sees his role in the Middle East as that of Peacemaker.

Israel faced self-appointed peacemakers in Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Such peacemakers quickly come to realize they will find no flexibility from the Jew-hating Palestinian Authority, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. So, in their quest for continuing relevance, the peacemakers pressure Israel to concede to its enemies, all the while justifying such pressure by blaming Israel for its intransigence.

Trump will do the same. He is convinced of his own unstoppable capacity for cutting a deal between Israel and those who wish to wipe the Jews off the face of the planet.

“That’s probably the toughest deal in the world right now to make,” Trump blathered on MSNBC in February. “It’s possible it’s not makeable because, don’t forget, it has to last. A lot of people say an agreement can’t be made, which is OK, sometimes agreements can’t be made [and they are] not good. I will give it one hell of a shot. I would say if you can do that deal, you can do any deal.”

Asked last month by George Stephanopoulos about negotiating an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, Trump dropped the word “deal” no less than 14 times in less than two minutes. Because cutting a “deal” with an entity dedicated to the destruction of its supposed peace partner is impossible, Trump refuses to acknowledge reality. Instead, he’ll ignore the moral component of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict altogether.

He says he wants to remain neutral: “Let me be sort of a neutral guy. I have friends of mine that are tremendous businesspeople, that are really great negotiators, [and] they say it’s not doable. You understand a lot of people have gone down in flames trying to make that deal. So I don’t want to say whose fault it is – I don’t think that helps.”

Of course, it’s the only thing that helps. Failure to recognize evil means forcing good people into conceding to evil people. Trump’s comments are equivalent to stating that it will be nearly impossible to cut a deal with ISIS, but the only way to do so would be for the West to get off its high horse and stop proclaiming its moral superiority.

That strategy would get a lot of Westerners killed. In fact, it already has. Now Trump wants to try it on Israel, too.

The rest of his Mideast policy is similarly self-centered and principle-free. While Cruz and Kasich abhor the Iran deal, Trump says he’ll leave it in place and simply “enforce” it – nonsensical verbiage, since the deal itself does not contain any serious provisions for consequences snapping into place. Why not just kill the deal outright? Trump put on his dealmaker hat to explain: “I love to buy bad contracts….I will make that agreement so tough and if they break it, they will have hell to pay.”

This is verbal detritus.

But that’s just the start. Trump suggested this week that the way to stop Iran from utilizing its $150 billion windfall to fund terrorism would be to sell the Iranians defective missiles. Yes, really. He has suggested that the United States rely on the Russians to handle ISIS, then reversed himself and said he’d put thousands of troops on the ground, then reversed himself again.

Trump has a Jewish daughter. So what? Barack Obama had a Jewish chief of staff, and he’s the most anti-Israel president in American history.

Meanwhile, Senator Cruz is the most pro-Israel candidate in American history. Cruz has repeatedly stood up for Israel’s moral right to defend itself, has castigated Israel’s enemies as genocidal Jew-haters, has attempted to kill the Iran deal repeatedly, has pledged to move the American embassy to Jerusalem on the first day of his administration, has vowed to cut off all American aid to the Palestinian Authority, and says we should defund the United Nations and withdraw federal funding from any institution boycotting Israel.

Kasich, too, represents a far stronger pro-Israel voice than Trump. Here’s Kasich in February: “Israel has given a lot of stuff back. They gave Gaza back. How is that working out? They have everything launching into Israel. I don’t know how you get a two-state solution when people are walking into your country and stabbing people…. we are not going to bully Israel; it’s their survival.”

Kasich has also defended Israeli settlements: “Why are they building more apartments? Because it’s land; it’s security. I would never, ever, ever jeopardize the security of that country. Never.”

This is not a difficult call for those who are pro-Israel. Trump’s value system revolves around himself. His support for Israel ebbs and flows – but no person who declares himself neutral in a moral battle between Israel and its enemies deserves Jewish votes.

April 14, 2016 | 20 Comments »

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  1. Trump defeated would mean the previous elites are unchallenged. They are deadly for Israel. In that situation the Israeli elites will speed up the surrender of Israel on all fronts to Arabism. This Is already far advanced. Cruz is very definitely a man of the Establishment. Cruz is the most dangerous of all because he can betray the most.

  2. @ Felix Quigley:
    I do not think that Israel’s future depends upon an American election of any specific presidential candidate. But I am certain that if Trump is elected, he will be careful to avoid an expensive and unsustainable cold war with Russia.

    Russia is re-establishing its power in eastern Europe. What we have seen with Georgia, Chechniya, and eastern and southern Ukraine is indicative of what will occur elsewhere around Russia’s borders. I think it is only a matter of time before Ukraine east of the Dneipr river is reclaimed, and Russian power fully re-asserted in the Baltic at the expense of the breakaway states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

    In south central Asia, Russia will achieve a strong Eurasian Union, and regardless of what Kerry or Obama imagine, Russia will continue its encirclement of Turkey and an independent Kurdish state.

    As you know from my writings, I think strong Israeli relations with Russia would be beneficial to the interests o both countries.

    As for the USA, the time has come for rebuilding the economy of this country and avoidance of fomenting wars in other countries in the name of democracy or any other cause.

    Arnold Harris, Outspeaker

  3. No matter what happens in the conventions, my wife and I, along with about 35% of the Republican-leaning voters, will vote for Trump and only for Trump. I understand something similar is happening with Bernie’s supporters on the Democrat side.

    In no case will we vote for Cruz, Kasich, Bush, Ryan or whomever.

    We don’t care any more about the main American political parties. From here on out, we vote only for candidates, not parties.

    Speaking of which, I checked out the American Nationalist Party. Their platform sounds as though Trump either wrote it for them, or possibly, that Trump got his ideas from the American Nationalist Party. Either way, I approve of both.

    Arnold Harris, Outspeaker

  4. Though Van Susteren didn’t name anyone in particular, her criticism was perhaps directed at individuals like former Breitbart columnist Ben Shapiro, who on March 2, declared on Megyn Kelly’s program that he had personally “encouraged” Fields to file a police report.

    “I had a conversation with Michelle for an hour last night where she told me this whole story. I did encourage her to go to the police,” Shapiro said, adding, “I strongly urged her to go and file a police report.”

    Shapiro, a Harvard Law School graduate, offered his legal analysis of the story last night on Twitter:
    http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/14/greta-van-susteren-anyone-media-telling-michelle-fields-prosecute-claim-using/

    It appears that Ben Shapiro, the author of this hit piece article on Trump may have been the one to have paid Fields to stage the fake assault on Fields on behalf of the Cruz campaign and the GOP establishment in order to defame Trump and damage the management of his campaign. IMO the Breitbart walkout was also a pre arranged event including Jaimie Weinstein, an editor of the Daily Caller, who is also a boyfriend of the liar Michelle Fields. I smell a pre planned orchestrated rat coming from Cruz and the GOP establishment.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3540520/No-charges-Trump-campaign-manager-reporter-battery-case-investigators-say-reacting-touched-Trump-did-needed-do.html#ixzz45uiji9RE

  5. Close to half of all super PAC money comes from 50 donors
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-new-gilded-age-close-to-half-of-all-super-pac-money-comes-from-50-donors/2016/04/15/63dc363c-01b4-11e6-9d36-33d198ea26c5_story.html

    In other words we can reasonably conclude, knowing that influence over a group can occur at 10% like the communist party in the USSR,…… that 50 donors run the USA…… and this does not include the hundreds of millions they invested in the NGO’s pretending to be non profits but supporting things like open borders.
    Looks like Trump is right again…. one must marvel how a man with such crude and simple language is so often correct even when he has little knowledge of the details. I have always said that “good judgement trumps IQ” and is not always related.

  6. Life is a succession of good and bad deals. Only in politics it is “dirty” deals at the expense of the tax payers.
    Why is a Trump deal dirty suddenly?
    An independent.

  7. babushka Said:

    You are being outsmarted and out-organized in one state after another by a Cuban from the Great White North

    HMMM, whats the score right now in votes and states won by votes? without the GOP establishment interference Cruz would hardly be a blip, like rubio.
    babushka Said:

    An increasing number of voters now realize you are so inept that you couldn’t negotiate a food services contract with the Donner Party.

    You’re fired.

    and yet he has proven to have already done much more than that and much more than lying ted whose only accomplishment of boast is a fillibuster…. like a kid boasting in the little league. Cruz and rubio will get their daily instructions and a regular to do list if they win from their donors and the handlers they appoint to be the intermediaries.

  8. watsa46 Said:

    The fact is that Trump will not allow to be manipulated by Lt or Rt!!!

    all the others have to first figure out how everyone will react, Trump just does what he thinks is right and relevant. there are loads of things I dont like about Trump, I would not take him to lunch… but he is way ahead of the sniveling do nothing liars trying to get a job which is way above their groveling abilities… thats why we always have the dregs in presidency… no real achiever would take the job. Trump is doing it because he is also sick and tired of their BS.

  9. babushka Said:

    The two Trump supporters on this site who make the most sense?

    no need to send us videos of your performances, we are all familiar with your talent.

  10. Didn’t Shapiro quit Breibart after the pseudo-scandal on the reporter Field?
    The fact is that Trump will not allow to be manipulated by Lt or Rt!!!

  11. Charges against Trump campaign manager to be dropped

    ..Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, said the charges against Lewandowski were proof on a “pattern of abusive behavior” by the Trump campaign.

    Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he would have immediately fired Lewandowski, and implied Trump should do the same.

    The media joined in the outrage as well.

    Slate said a presidential candidate who “possessed an iota of decency” would fire Lewandowski — and implied that Trump’s refusal to do so was shameful.

    Politico ran an article accusing Lewandowski of being “rough with reporters and sexually suggestive with female journalists” throughout his career.

    The Daily Beast said not calling for Lewandowski’s head was “rolling over” to the Trump campaign.

    Calm as ever, Trump replied to the criticism with a series of Tweets….Lewandowski said he’s innocent. Trump supported him.

    His opponents won’t say it — it would likely pain them it’s time to admit — but it looks like Trump was right. Again.

    https://thehornnews.com/dropped-trumps-campaign-manager-cleared/

    I doubt that I would be as supportive of Trump as I am if I did not see the transparently obvious libel and slander campaign against him and his family….. just like the one against Israel.

  12. Because cutting a “deal” with an entity dedicated to the destruction of its supposed peace partner is impossible, Trump refuses to acknowledge reality. Instead, he’ll ignore the moral component of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict altogether.

    more lies…. Trump has said from the beginning that he will not force a deal and has no problem walking away from a deal that cannot be made. He is not invested in making a deal.

    He says he wants to remain neutral

    again, repeating the same lie… he is not nuetral on Israel that is abundantly clear… he talked about the role of a mediator whom by definition must operate nuetrally. Only the ignorant and the dishonest continue to float that canard.

    For sure, Cruz would never support his daughter marrying an orthodox jew. Its obvious to me in watching the full interview with Trump and his family that he is NOT the lunatic all the liars are trying to push. Unlike the typical bible thumper like cruz he is unrehearsed with his family whereas cruz has to keep rehearsing his family in his ads. Did you see that interview in full?

  13. babushka Said:

    The only candidate who opposes corporate welfare is Ted Cruz.

    😛 😛 😛
    I love your bare faced shamelessness
    the man pushing TPP and HB1 visas to replace americans as opposed to filling empty positions where americans arent available could hardly be said to oppose corporate welfare.

  14. Most of what Shapiro says is shrill frat party polemics, quite different from his usual carefully-thought-out and thoroughly documented analysis. When he starts ranting and raving about Trump, Shapiro isn’t giving analysis; he’s engaging in classical sophistry; black propaganda intended to confuse and demoralize. Interestingly, Shapiro is using many Alinsky tactics in his obsessive diatribes against Trump.

    The Jewish Establishment, both Observant and secular, is making a big mistake backing Cruz against Trump. It shows their determination to maintain the ‘Status Quo’ that provides economic benefits to a tiny group while slowly strangling the Jewish population. Worse, this ‘Status Quo’ undermines even the most basic principles of traditional Jewish identity. (‘The Status Quo’ means that genuinely patriotic Jews in Israel are increasingly marginalized and prevented from entering the growing ‘No Jew’ zones — such as Har Habayit — while Muslims are given support for their plan to create a totally Judenrein state within our ancient heartland. Muslim colonialism is the new focus, it seems. For those of us who live in Israel, we see this very clearly. For those not here, it’s impossible to understand what’s really going on.)

    Cruz will definitely maintain the ‘Status Quo’ and continue supporting the ‘Roadmap’ that’s systematically returning us to ‘Golden Age Dhimmitude’.

  15. Karl Rove is the bag man for the Fortune 500, aka THE ESTABLISHMENT:

    American Crossroads, the GOP establishment Super-Pac founded by none other than Karl Rove, is warming up to the idea of a Donald Trump nomination and quietly telling its donors Trump could win, reports Politico.

    Yes, the PAC started by Karl Rove, the man who recently suggested that Republicans would need to nominate a “fresh face” as the convention, has told its donors in a phone call that Trump could beat Hillary Clinton because the American people just don’t trust her.

    From Politico:

    The phone call — which featured Rove, Crossroads officials and a pollster — laid out swing state polling and electoral map analysis done by the group showing circumstances in which Trump could beat Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, in a general election, according to three sources briefed on the call.

    One source, a high-level operative with the Koch brothers’ conservative advocacy network, characterized the conversation as heralding “a softening of the anti-Trump position” within the big-money GOP establishment. The source added of Crossroads’ stance on Trump, “It’s not that they support him, only that if he’s the guy, we can do something to stop Hillary.”

    An alliance between Rove’s people and Donald Trump would be a stunning irony for the supposed anti-establishment credentials of the Trump campaign.

    https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/04/karl-rove-establishment-super-pac-lining-up-behind-trump#sthash.0rS0A1a7.dpuf

    The only candidate who opposes corporate welfare is Ted Cruz.

  16. “I love to buy bad contracts….I will make that agreement so tough and if they break it, they will have hell to pay.”

    No, you love to use the money inherited from Daddy to bribe politicians who provide corporate welfare. You are being outsmarted and out-organized in one state after another by a Cuban from the Great White North who you claim is the reincarnation of Pinocchio. How humiliating for you.

    You have recently been reduced to wallowing in self-pity because you are routinely getting schlonged like a cub scout at a meeting of NAMBLA. New York still embraces you, as do the other Soviet bloc states in the eastern corridor, but across Real America the swindle is finally winding down. An increasing number of voters now realize you are so inept that you couldn’t negotiate a food services contract with the Donner Party.

    You’re fired.

  17. Pretty strong arguments.

    The biggest worry though about Trump however is he would killed in the election and Hillary would become President. Talk about someone who say they are helping Israel and start bullying Israel about new building in Judah/Samaria and Jerusalem.