Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of
the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
Donald Trump has many times reiterated the claim that what happened
on October 7 in Israel would not have happened had he won the 2020 election. I
completely agree. Which is why, to a degree, I blame Donald Trump for what
happened on and in the wake of October 7.
If Trump hadn’t been such a rude bully, perhaps Joe Biden
would not now be pretending to be executive in chief with Kamala Harris waiting
in the wings while contemplating the great significance of the passage of time (why
Joe wasn’t pushed down a flight of stairs and said to be dead from COVID long
ago, I have no idea).
You don’t need me to tell you that Trump is (in)famous for
his ad hominem attacks on his opponents. Trump delights in inventing creative attack
nicknames for his competitors, among them:
·
Little Marco
·
Lyin’ Ted
·
Crooked Hillary
·
Ron DeSanctimonious
·
Low Energy Jeb
·
Pocahontas
·
Crazy Joe Biden
·
Sleepy Joe
·
Comrade Kamala
·
Tampon Tim
The mean nicknames no doubt delight many Trump voters. For
them, it’s all a part of Donald Trump’s charm. But what about those who take
offense at the name-calling? They also vote. If Donald Trump really cares about
America, shouldn’t he want their votes, too?
Aside from the rude and childish name-calling, there was his mockery of the way the now-deceased John McCain used his hands. Love or hate Donald Trump, you have to admit that making fun of the disabled is repugnant, pure and simple. But it’s even worse when that disabled person is a former prisoner of war and war hero, whose disability is the result of maltreatment and torture. Is someone who mocks the disabled, someone who behaves in this fashion, worthy of being elected to the highest office in the land—a land that John McCain defended with his body?
My dad was an American hero. An icon. A patriot that will be remembered throughout history. I cannot buy a bagel without someone approaching me about how much they loved and miss him.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) January 7, 2024
Trump is a piece of shit, election denying, huckster whose own wife won't campaign with him. https://t.co/f3RlWLqT9B
The name-calling, crude references to manhood/menstruation,
and public mimicry of the disabled are all problematic and, it must be acknowledged,
at least in part to blame for Trump’s loss to Biden in 2020. Many are now
warning Trump that here too in 2024, he stands to lose voters because of his coarse
behavior. And then we’re really in trouble, because God forbid, we’d end up
with two YUGE antisemites running the show, Kamala Harris and Tim
Walz.
As Victor Davis Hanson explains it, there is only a short
window for Donald Trump to define himself for the voters. When Trump calls
Harris “stupid” without saying why, he only looks churlish. It’s a missed
opportunity to present his case at a time when time is running out, or as
Hanson put it, “No time for invective.”
Despite his at times unpresidential behavior, Trump was a damned
good president according to just about every measure this author can think of.
Think back to what your grocery cart looked like then compared to now, under the
Bidenomics of which Kamala is so proud. Picture the signing of the Abraham
Accords, and then see in your mind’s eye how Biden, instead of fostering peace,
gave Iran the wherewithal to finance Hamas brutality while staying Israel’s
hand from its own defense:
“I will end every single international crisis that the
current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and
Ukraine — which would have never happened if I was president — and the war
caused by the attack on Israel, which would have never happened if I was
president,” said Trump at the RNC.
“Iran was broke. Iran had no money. Now Iran has $250
billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years,” he adds, saying
the Biden administration has provided Tehran sanctions relief.
“I told China and other countries if you buy from Iran, we
will not let you do any business in this country.”
These are not empty boasts. I believe Trump when he says
these things. And he’s right; Hamas would not have attacked Israel on October 7
had he been in office. They wouldn’t have dared; and now they remember all too
well how things were when Trump was in office—and tremble. As they
should.
Trump starved Iran of money, making it impossible for the
Ayatollah to support his proxies, including the one in Gaza, Hamas. Joe Biden,
on the other hand, has fed Iran a constant diet of cash, even as he stays Israel’s
hand from obliterating this cruel enemy. There’s no reason to think this policy
of emboldening those who murder, rape, and brutalize Jews won’t continue under
a Kamala Harris presidency. And by now we must acknowledge that Joe cannot
possibly be running the show. The unseen handler of Joe is likely to become the
handler of Kamala Harris as well, if Trump fails to make his case.
Here in Israel, we feel the terrible strain of the hostage situation.
We pray for the best, but anticipate the worst, and it is unbearable. That
makes me—and I’d venture a lot of other Israeli Jews—feel kind of desperate about
the American presidential election. We are desperate for Donald Trump to win.
And angry that this might all have been avoided, had Trump behaved a little
better in the run up to the last election. Who knows how many lives would have
been saved had Trump kept a civil tongue in his mouth? It makes me ache to
think of it. A good president who won’t behave, and people died.
And still, it is a pragmatic fact that Trump must win,
because he is the president who will act decisively, and extract a price from
Hamas for what it did and continues to do to Americans and American allies both
dead and alive in Gaza. In spite of his rough behavior, it’s obvious that Trump
has a strong sense of right and wrong. He feels the disgrace of what it means
for Biden to have allowed this state of affairs to continue even as Joe helps
it along—helps the terrorists along. Trump also feels the disgrace of
America throwing an ally, Israel, under the bus.
Kamala, on the other hand, will be worse than Joe. She has
expressed sympathy for supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah, again and again.
So we watch and worry. We worry that Trump will say more
nasty, childish thing and that this will affect his chances at the polls. What
will be of our hostages if Trump can’t shut his mouth and restrain himself. “Save
it for Putin!” we want to shout.
Yet we know that in spite of any mean-spirited behavior to
the contrary, in the bigger scheme of things, Trump has more morality in his
little finger than there is in the entire Biden White House.
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