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gave birth to the observation that politics
makes strange bedfellows. But this?
The politics of this turn of events, of
course, are all too evident. Netanyahu
n the name and the spirit of the Prince
has decided to throw his lot in with the
of Peace, Jesus our Lord.”
Evangelicals, the same group that gave the
Thus did Robert Jeffress, the pastor
Bible an entirely new meaning when they
of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, end
supported a morally bankrupt president
his opening prayer at the dedication of the
in exchange for charter schools, anti-abor-
new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
tion policies, tax cuts and access
Did Prime Minister Benyamin
to the White House.
Netanyahu and Jews in the audi-
Evangelicals concluded that
ence respond with “Amen?”
God would understand. There
Oh, let us not forget Pastor
are a lot of sinners in the Bible as
Jeffress is the same man who
well. As one Orthodox Jew sup-
also has told the world that “you
porter of Trump told me, King
can’t be saved by being a Jew” and
David sinned with Bathsheba.
that Judaism, Mormonism and
Presumably, Netanyahu
Hinduism lead their followers to
Berl Falbaum
crunched the numbers and
an eternity in hell.
decided he will take the backing
This is the man who got star
of some 600 million Evangelicals
billing at the opening ceremonies
in the world and risk the anger
of a new U.S. embassy in the Jewish
of registered U.S. Democrats that
state.
total about 70 million, and not all of them
It almost leaves one speechless.
are “liberals.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Jews charged
After all is said and done, politics is a
that the only reason that Evangelicals
game of numbers in democracies.
supported Israel was because it was
The prime minister surely also knew the
part of a master plan to convert Jews to
move of the U.S. embassy from Tel-Aviv to
Christianity.
Jerusalem would alienate many in the dias-
Now, they are honored guests at the
pora. But that did not seem to concern him
embassy’s opening ceremonies and bless
either, despite his continued assurance that
the State of Israel in the name of Jesus
he values the relationship between Israeli
Christ.
Jews and the Jews in the U.S.
True, there is little consistency in poli-
The sad part in all of this is that,
tics when it involves principle. Hypocrisy
stripped of emotion, the embassy move

A ‘Gut Punch’

I

amounts to no more than symbolism
without any political benefit. It does not
make Israel safer nor does it help the so-
called peace process.
The embassy move also isolated Israel
even more worldwide. Of 82 countries
that have consulates in Israel, only 33
attended the ceremonies.
The recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital by the Trump administration is
a different matter. It took the item “off
the table” in future talks because all par-
ties know Israel will never surrender
Jerusalem. The administration under-
stood that the issue of borders, thankfully
not defined by Trump, must be decided by
the two opposing parties.
The man in charge of the embassy
event, David M. Friedman, American
ambassador to Israel, brushed aside the
not-too-subtle anti-Semitism of Rev.
Jeffress, stating that Evangelicals “support
Israel with much greater fervor and devo-
tion than many in the Jewish community.
“You’re running a country; you need
friends; you need alliances; you need to
protect your people,” he said.
According to Pastor Jeffress, we can
thank him from hell.
The liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz
called the ceremonies a “gut punch for
most American Jews.” Actually, it was — or
should be — a gut punch for all Jews.
If the participation of Pastor Jeffress
were not enough, the closing prayer was
delivered by the Rev. John C. Hagee, a

televangelist and founder of Christians
United for Israel, who has said the
Holocaust — with Hitler “the hunter” —
was part of God’s plan to return Jews to
Israel.
Rev. Hagee’s incendiary comments
became public in the 2008 presiden-
tial campaign and, unlike Trump and
Netanyahu, the Republican candidate
John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorse-
ment, stating that he found the remarks
“offensive and indefensible” and “I repudi-
ate them.”
Mitt Romney, the Republican presi-
dential candidate in 2012, labeled Pastor
Jeffress a “religious bigot,” to which the
pastor replied:
“Historic Christianity has taught for
2,000 years that salvation is through faith
in Christ alone. The fact that I, along with
tens of millions of Evangelical Christians
around the world, continue to espouse
that belief, is neither bigoted nor news-
worthy.”
Doesn’t sound like much of an apology
or “clarification.” Seems more like a sub-
stantiation of his beliefs.
Can politics get any stranger or distaste-
ful?
All of this makes one wonder whether
the pope would invite a rabbi to ceremo-
nies at the Vatican with the recital of the
Shema. •

clear to me for a long time that Japan,
China, South Korea, Europe, etc., had pro-
tective tariffs, monetary policies and regu-
lations designed to keep our automobiles
and electronics out. Their policies gave
them a competitive advantage that signifi-
cantly harmed our machine tool, home
electronics and steel industries.
It has been interesting to hear all the
free traders wringing their hands over the
steel and aluminum tariffs when there
had never been free trade with these for-
eign countries. However, our economy
was open and our companies had to fend
for themselves. Interestingly, we have seen
China start to eliminate tariffs like the 25
percent tariff on automobiles. In the case
of NATO, where our allies never paid their
fair share for defense, President Trump’s
calling them out is changing that picture.
The tax cut, while not perfect, provided
a major incentive to start to bring trillions
of dollars parked overseas back to the
United States, jumpstarting investment.
This and regulation reduction resulted in
the lowest unemployment rate in decades
overall, including for African Americans
and Hispanics.
While all the reasons I have mentioned
make me proud to support our president,
there are more important reasons. The
president is standing up against identity
politics, which have been used to divide
this country. He recognizes that there
needs to be free speech on campus and

not safe spaces where the diversity of
thought is precluded.
The leftist takeover of the Democratic
party has resulted in the platform in sup-
port of Israel being weakened every four
years and a vice-chairman, Keith Ellison,
who has been a defender of the anti-
Semite Louis Farrakhan. The Democratic
Party supports the Women’s March,
whose leaders such as Tamika Mallory,
Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour support
Farrakhan and are anti-Israel. Yet a lot of
Jews supported the Women’s March blind
to the ideology it represents.
We all should be afraid of the weapon-
ization of the Justice Department and the
IRS, as our government should protect us
regardless of our political views.
Hillel said, “If I am not for myself, who
will be for me? But if I am only for myself,
who am I? If not now, when?” Another
perspective on that quote is given on every
airplane flight. When giving instructions
for how to use an oxygen mask on an air-
plane, the stewardess reminds everyone to
put their masks on first then help others.
“Making America Great Again” (a slogan
Bill Clinton used in 2008 in support of his
wife Hillary’s presidential candidacy) is all
about putting our oxygen mask on first.
Trump recognizes we need to help our-
selves if we are going to help others. •

Berl Falbaum, of West Bloomfield, is a veteran jour-
nalist and author.

commentary

In Support Of Trump

T

pass via an abstention in December 2016.
here have been a number of op-eds
While many did not like Trump’s
and articles in the JN this past year
approach to North Korea, we now have
critical of President Trump and
three prisoners released and the hope of a
supportive of the Resistance Movement.
nuclear disarmament deal. Time will tell;
I am proud to say I was and am a Jewish
however, his rhetoric did not lead to war
Trump supporter.
as many said it would but has led to the
While I would not use his phraseol-
possibility of peace.
ogy, Trump was the only candidate
After giving the Europeans an oppor-
who understood the issues that were
tunity to fix the JCPOA (Iran
important to this nation. He
Nuclear Deal), Trump withdrew
understood, as did President
the U.S. This agreement was
Clinton, that secured borders
never signed nor ratified and the
are important and is acting on it
Obama administration and Iran
with increased resources on the
had two different interpretations.
borders and in our immigration
The agreement does not allow
courts while waiting approval for
for inspection of Iran’s military
funding of needed border barri-
bases; it did not address intercon-
ers such as Israel has successfully
Eugene
tinental missile development, and
implemented.
Greenstein
allowed research and develop-
He recognized that Islamist ter-
ment of nuclear infrastructure to
rorism is a problem and explicitly
go on. The billions we gave them,
addressed 50 Islamic nations last
upfront, has gone to support their
spring on their need to eradicate
military adventurism in the Mideast. They
it. He appointed tough-talking, smart
shot missiles at Israel from Syria in the
and pro-Israel Nikki Haley to be our U.N.
past few weeks and have long supported
representative. The U.S.’ recognition of
Hamas’ violence.
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel provided
Trump identified that our trade agree-
a practical veto to U.N. Resolution 2334,
ments were deleterious to our economy
which declared Israel’s presence illegal
and is stepping up to deal with them. As
in the disputed territories, including east
someone who was involved in the automo-
Jerusalem. The past administration’s true
tive and electronics business, it has been
views on Israel were seen when it let 2334

8

June 7 • 2018

jn

Eugene Greenstein, Ph.D., is a community activist who
lives in Farmington Hills.

