Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of
the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
When Donald Trump won the election, there was great relief
in Israel, something like a collective sigh. There was also anxiety. It’s a
long time until January, and we don’t know how much longer the hostages can
hang on. But there was, and is, a further cause for anxiety, and that concerns
Trump’s cabinet picks, which here in Israel we can’t help but think: are these
anointed ones good or bad for the Jews and for Israel?
Matt Gaetz
We might as well begin our examination with Matt Gaetz,
Trump’s pick for attorney general, a bad choice by all accounts. Gaetz has what
we call in Hebrew, “panim doresh steerot,” a face that needs slapping. There is
a lot of noise about his sexual peccadilloes, corruption, and illicit drug use.
We remember how Gaetz forced Kevin McCarthy out of his role as House speaker. It’s
not as if Gaetz didn’t have plenty of support for the ousting of McCarthy.
Nonethless, McCarthy insisted that Gaetz had led the charge against him specifically
to wiggle
out of an ethics investigation:
“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker. Because one person, a member of
Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old,
an ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s
illegal and I’m not gonna get in the middle of it.
“Now, did he do it or not? I don’t know. But ethics was
looking at it. There’s other people in jail because of it. And he wanted me to
influence it.”
Indeed there are plenty of reasons to dislike Gaetz, but
from the standpoint of the Jewish people, the main issue should be his horrid
antisemitsm. Gaetz
voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, saying that International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism would hold
the bible itself as antisemitic because, Gaetz claimed, Christian scripture
dictates that the Jews are responsible for Jesus’s death.
Um no. That would be the Romans. Which makes Gaetz a
horrible person for pinning this death on the Jews. It’s that kind of slander
that leads and has always led, to the letting of Jewish blood. There can be no
benign reason for an educated person to say such things. Matt Gaetz hates Jews.
“This evening, I will vote AGAINST the ridiculous hate
speech bill called the ‘Antisemitism Awareness Act,’” said Gaetz prior to the
vote. “Antisemitism is wrong, but this legislation is written without regard
for the Constitution, common sense, or even the common understanding of the
meaning of words. The Gospel itself would meet the definition of antisemitism
under the terms of this bill!”
Matt Gaetz, in addition to blaming the Jews for what the
Romans did, invited Charles Johnson, a Holocaust denier and white nationalist,
to be his guest at a 2018 State of the Union address. Gaetz claimed he hadn’t
know these things about Johnson, then subsequently defended him, and denied the
accusations. Johnson, said Gaetz, is “not a Holocaust denier. He’s not a white
supremacist.” But Johnson is both.
When crazy Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene compared COVID public
safety measures to the Holocaust, Gaetz defended her. “[Greene] defends Israel
and attacks Democrats. Media falsely slams [Greene] as antisemitic. Some
Republicans take the bait, sadly,” said Gaetz.
Our attorney general-to-be has been known to hire staff
members who hang with white nationalists, and say white nationalist things. He called
the ADL “racist” when that body called for Tucker Carlson to be fired from Fox News
on account of Carlson pushing the Great Replacement theory. Matt Gaetz said
that Carlson is “CORRECT about Replacement Theory.”
The Great Replacement
theory, as described by the ADL, “claims there is an intentional effort, led by
Jews, to promote mass non-white immigration, inter-racial marriage, and other efforts
that would lead to the ‘extinction of whites.’”
RFK Jr.
Moving along, we come to RFK Jr., Trump’s pick for secretary
of the Department of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr. is another one for
conspiracy theories. While dining with journalists, Bobby Kennedy Jr. aired a
nutty conspiracy theory positing that COVID was designed to spare Ashkenazi
Jews and Chinese people.
“COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically
targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. COVID-19 is
targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are
Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.
“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” said Kennedy, who also claimed that vaccine mandates made people less free than Anne Frank under Nazi rule.
VIDEO:
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) July 15, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims coronavirus was an "ethnically targeted" bioweapon designed to be more deadly for caucasians and blacks — and spare Jews and Chinese https://t.co/xfAdovs0sY pic.twitter.com/og4xHdKs7x
After the footage was leaked, Kennedy went into damage
control mode, claiming that he never EVER suggested the virus was designed to
spare Jews.
“I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was
targeted to spare Jews,” wrote Kennedy. “I accurately pointed out — during an
off-the-record conversation — that the US and other governments are developing
ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus
shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since
the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and
least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns and Ashkenazi Jews.”
RFK Jr.’s friendship with Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan was cemented through just such views as these. Bobby Jr. in fact, called
Farrakhan a “truly great partner” for helping him spread the idea that vaccines
cause autism. Andrew Wakefield, now disgraced, concocted this “theory” in 1998
and was subsequently exposed as a fraud. When COVID hit, Farrakhan urged his
congregants to "follow Robert Kennedy," claiming that scientists
developed the coronavirus vaccine in order to "depopulate the Earth."
If RFK Jr. and Farrakhan agree on these nutty conspiracy
theories, what other views might they share in common?
Of course, RFK Jr. was wise to quickly disavow his affinity
for Farrakhan the antisemite at the outset of his presidential campaign. When
asked about the relationship between during his campaign, Kennedy said he is an
“opponent” of Farrakhan and "never endorsed anything that Louis Farrakhan
has said," which of course, is a lie.
Should Jews look the other way on RFK Jr.? Perhaps. Bobby Jr., speaking to Reuters,
expressed support for Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza, and for the return
of the hostages. Asked if he was in favor of a temporary Gaza ceasefire,
Kennedy said, "I don't even know what that means right now,"
commenting that every previous ceasefire was “used by Hamas to rearm, to
rebuild and then launch another surprise attack. So what would be different
this time?
"Any other nation that was adjacent to a neighboring
nation that was bombing it with rockets, sending commandos over to murder its
citizens, pledging itself to murder every person in that nation and annihilate
it, would go and level it with aerial bombardment," said Kennedy.
"But Israel is a moral nation. So it didn't do that.
Instead, it built an iron dome to protect itself so it would not have to go
into Gaza," he added.
Nutty conspiracy theories notwithstanding, so far Bobby Jr.
sounds okay on Israel. Perhaps he inherited his views from his father? Bobby
Sr. spent time in Pre-State Israel, reporting for the Boston
Post and was kindly disposed toward the Jews, and supported their
efforts at statehood. Unfortunately, he was murdered because of this support.
Tulsi Gabbard
We come next to Tulsi Gabbard, who is to be national
intelligence secretary. It’s hard to dislike Gabbard. She’s a serious person,
and is unafraid to change her mind when changing her mind is called for. But
she backed the Iran deal, and that’s a huge problem. Gabbard also voted against
a House resolution to condemn the U.N. Security Council resolution regarding
Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, saying, "While I remain
concerned about aspects of the U.N. resolution, I share the Obama
administration's reservation about the harmful impact Israeli settlement
activity has on the prospects for peace."
Seriously?? Jews building homes has a harmful impact on
“prospects for peace?” That’s just reprehensibly antisemitic, and I don’t care
how popular it has become to repeat the canard that Jewish families building
homes, threaten peace. It’s a disgusting and stupid thing to say no matter how
many people say it and no matter how often it is said. It’s just, pardon my
French, total crap.
I hope that Gabbard will now be able to take a step back and
examine the issue from a more commonsense position with good people to take her
through it. Maybe now, as part of the Trump cabinet, she’ll educate herself on
Israel. In her past, however, she has taken some problematic positions.
Gabbard
defended Ilhan Omar, for example, when Omar tweeted that US support for
Israel is “all about the Benjamins.” Speaking to CNN, Gabbard said, "There
are people who have expressed their offense at these statements. I think that
what Congresswoman Omar was trying to get at was a deeper issue related to our
foreign policy, and I think there's an important discussion that we have to be
able to have openly, even though we may end up disagreeing at the end of it,
but we've got to have that openness to have the conversation."
Gabbard also voted for House Resolution 246, which expressed
House opposition to the BDS movement and affirmed support for a two-state
solution. When asked to explain her vote, Gabbard said she supported "a
two-state solution that provides for the rights of both Israel and Palestine to
exist, and for their people to live in peace, with security, in their homes. I
don't believe the BDS movement is the only or best way to accomplish that.
However, I will continue to defend those who choose to exercise their right to
free speech without threat of legal action."
The two-state solution is a naïve and unworkable concept,
and always was. Neither of the parties want it. So why do pols continue to push
the two-state solution down the throats of people who do not want it, and do
not see it as the solution it is touted to be? Why does Tulsi Gabbard, who is
clearly a clear-thinking person, think the two-state solution makes any sense
at all?
There can only be two reasons for supporting the two-state
solution: 1) Anti-Jewish prejudice, that is to say, a desire to take land away
from the Jews and give it to the people who want to kill them, and 2) Ignorance
on the part of people who have never actually studied the matter. “Two-state
solution” is just something people say. Endlessly. Meaninglessly. One would
hope that Tulsi would know better.
But we have all watched Tulsi Gabbard evolve in her
politics. We watched her leave the Democratic Party, become an Independent, and
finally, become a staunch, pro-Trump Republican. Perhaps Tulsi’s views will
evolve on Israel and antisemitism.
There is reason to be optimistic about Gabbard. Tulsi
Gabbard criticized Biden and Harris for not joining a solidarity March for
Israel as the Jewish State fights the war forced on it by Hamas. She is clear
in that she supports a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. When Gabbard was still
a Democrat, in 2015, unlike 58 other Dems, she did not boycott Netanyahu’s
address to Congress, stating that “It’s unfortunate that an issue as important
as preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons has been muddled by partisan
politics. This is an extremely serious issue, at a critical juncture, that
should not be used as a political football.”
Gabbard also said that it was important to “rise above the
political fray, as America continues to stand with Israel as her strongest
ally.”
Nice words and a real show of support for Israel.
Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth
Now we come to Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth. I know what you’re going to say. Why are they included in this list of potentially problematic Trump candidate members? Both are staunch friends of Israel. They don’t fall prey to propaganda, don’t use terms like “Palestinian” or “West Bank.” They don’t have a problem with Jewish sovereignty, or Jews building homes in their indigenous territory.
Take for example Mike Huckabee, who is slated to become the
next ambassador to Israel. Asked
whether he would stop using the terms “Judea and Samaria” to describe what
most of the world now calls the “West Bank,” Huckabee said, “I can’t be what
I’m not. I can’t say something I don’t believe. As you well know, I’ve never
been willing to use the term ‘West Bank’. There is no such thing. I speak of
Judea and Samaria. I tell people there is no ‘occupation.’ It is a land that is
‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500
years, since the time of Abraham.
“A lot of the terms that maybe the media would use, even the
people who are against Israel would use, are not terms that I employ, because I
want to use terms that live from time immemorial, and those are the terms like
‘Promised Land’ and ‘Judea and Samaria’. These are biblical terms, and those
are important to me, and so I will continue to follow that nomenclature unless
I’m instructed otherwise, but I don’t think that’ll happen.”
Huckabee has also said plainly that there is “no
such thing as a ‘Palestinian.’” Being that there was never an Arab state
called “Palestine,” that makes perfect sense. As Huckabee rightly stated during
his 2008 failed presidential campaign, the assertion of the existence of a
“Palestinian” identity, is only “a political tool to try and force land away
from Israel.”
So far, there is not one thing here with which this writer
disagrees.
Of the moronic idea known as the “two-state solution,”
Huckabee commented in a 2015 interview on Israeli TV, that it is “irrational
and unworkable,” and also said that “there’s plenty of land” outside of Israel
in the “rest of the world” for a Palestinian state.
All true.
Pete Hegseth, picked for secretary of defense, says all the
right things when it comes to Israel. At a 2018 Israel National News
conference Hegseth spoke of the right of the Jewish people to claim their
indigenous territory for themselves, and themselves alone.
"I, and others, had a chance to go see the Western
Wall, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall Tunnels, and so much of the Old
City," said Hegseth. "When you stand there, you cannot help but
behold the miracle before you."
"It got me thinking about another miracle I hope all of
you don't see as too far away. 1917 was a miracle, 1948 was a miracle, 1967 was
a miracle, 2017, the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a
miracle, and there's
no reason why the miracle of the reestablishment of the Temple on the Temple
Mount is not possible. I don't know how it would happen, you don't know how
it would happen, but I know that it could happen, that's all I know," he
said.
"A step in that process is the recognition that facts and activities on the ground truly matter. That's why going to visit Judea and Samaria, understanding that the very sovereignty over Israeli soil, cities, locations, is a critical next step to showing the world that this is the land for Jews, and the land of Israel," concluded Hegseth.
So why are Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth included in an
article on Trump cabinet picks who might not be good for the Jews/Israel? Both
men are respectful of Jewish beliefs and rights. That respect springs out of
their Christian
faith, which is fine. What would not be fine is if either the two men or
Israeli officials began to speak about “shared values” or “Judeo-Christian
values,” as if that were a thing.
Judaism stands alone. We Jews have our own faith, our own
laws, and a religious narrative we do not share with Christians or those of
other faiths. We should not want Christians telling us they are like us, and we
should not want Israeli leaders to do so, either. That should be and must be a
red line that is respected on both sides.
We can see the good in these two men without searching for
nonexistent religious common ground. It is hoped that Huckabee and Hegseth
understand these sensitivities and will remain as respectful to the Jewish
people as ever. On the other hand, will official Israel be able to control
itself—to refrain from slobbering over these men? It’s a problem.
It is so rare for Israel to have staunch friends, people who understand us, and believe in our right to our rights. Their sincere friendship makes us Jews feel like we actually belong to the family of man—at last there is someone who sees us.
Within this warm circle of cozy coexistence lies a temptation—the temptation to assert that we are alike. But we are not, and it is wrong to say otherwise. Hegseth, despite the allegations against him in the media, seems like a nice person. Huckabee, too. And that’s where the similarities start and end.|
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