1. The Jew-hater formerly known as Kanye West now prefers to be called “Ye.” Therefore, for the duration of this article, I shall call him “KanyeKanye.”
2. The White Supremacist, Holocaust-mocking Jew-hater who was ancillary to the unfortunate dinner at Mar-a-Lago has compared Jews murdered in the death camps to baked cookies. Therefore, for the duration of this article, I shall call him by the name “Biscuit.” I do not want to mention this worm’s name.
3. Donald John Trump is a Philosemite. You don’t hear that term often because not so many people, other than Bible Christians who believe that Genesis 12:3 is the Word of G-d, love Jews. (“And I shall bless them that bless thee, and he that curseth thee shall I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”) But that’s what a Philosemite is: he or she loves Jews, even despite certain Jews — just as so many of us do.
OK. Now to business:
I do not know why Donald Trump loves Jews. Maybe because nearly 90 percent of Orthodox Jews voted for him against both Hillary and Joe Biden. Maybe because his daughter is an Orthodox Jew. Maybe because Jared Kushner, his son-in-law whom he trusts, is an Orthodox Jew. Maybe because Trump’s grandchildren are Orthodox Jews who observe the Shabbat according to its laws, eat strictly kosher, and attend yeshiva Jewish parochial school.
Or — my personal theory — maybe because his father, Fred, who was one of the great Philosemites of the prior generation and who even donated property to a Jewish congregation for them to have a synagogue, taught young Donald that part of the Trump Family Legacy is to love Jews.
When others refused to hire Jews, Trump did.
(1) He opened the restricted Mar-a-Lago private club to Blacks and Jews when he bought it.
(2) He surrounded himself with honorable Jewish legal scholars and attorneys like David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt, and even a lowlife named Michael Cohen, whose kid’s bar mitzvah he attended.
After nearly half a century of broken promises by other American presidents,
(3) Trump formally declared and America recognized United Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
(4) He moved America’s Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
(5) He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
(6) He recognized the permanent legality of all Jewish communities and cities (obscenely called “settlements”) in Judea and Samaria (falsely called the “West Bank”) as legal in all situations that Israel’s own courts regard them as legal.
(7) He cut off hundreds of millions of dollars’ funding for the Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) illegal government in the Palestine Authority on grounds that they pay monthly stipends (“Pay to Slay”) to families of Arab terrorists who murder Jews or otherwise perpetrate acts of terror.
(8) He closed down the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, D.C.,
(9) closed down America’s long-standing “Palestine” consulate in Jerusalem,
(10) pulled the United States out of the antisemitic U.N. Human Rights Council,
(11) cut off $300 million in funding that America had been sending to the Jew-hating UNRWA, a Jew-hating United Nations agency that runs schools in places like Gaza where Arab Muslim children are taught to hate Jews and to murder Jews;
(12) appointed a U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, who warned anti-Israel countries that “We’re taking down names” of countries that regularly vote against Israel;
(13) commuted the antisemitic Iowa prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin,
(14) almost unilaterally brought about the Abraham Accords that induced several leading Arab Muslim countries for the first time to enter into true peace agreements with Israel without Israel ceding an inch of Jewish territory in Judea and Samaria.
(15) His Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, endorsed yeshiva education during a trip to New York City where she skipped visiting the city’s public schools and chose instead to tour two yeshivot. Moreover,
(16) Trump issued an executive order on combating antisemitism to enhance enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, to protect Jewish college students from the overt Jew-hatred now rampant on so many American campuses, and
(17) he named Kenneth Marcus as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education to investigate antisemitic episodes at campuses like Rutgers in New Jersey.
(18) Trump deported the last Nazi war criminal known to be hiding in America,
(19) signed into law a bill making it easier for Holocaust victims to reclaim stolen property,
(20) ended the disastrous Iran deal and implemented crushing sanctions against Iran,
(21) signed the Taylor Force Act,
(22) knocked off Iran' Quds Force murderous commander Qassem Soleimani,
(23) rubbed out ISIS' murderous Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
(24) shattered State Department policy by authorizing Americans born in Jerusalem to list Israel on their American passports as their country of birth, fulfilling the brave war that Dr. Ari Zivotofsky heroically fought in American courts,
(25) imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court for unfairly and illegally investigating Israel, and
(26) said at his 2019 State of the Union address “We must never ignore the vile poison of antisemitism or those who spread its venomous creed. With one voice, we must confront this hatred anywhere and everywhere it occurs.”
That is the definition of a lifelong Philosemite. Copy and paste the above paragraph, and email it or post it or re-tweet it to anyone who does not already know that Trump and his father were and are lifelong Philosemites, friends and admirers of Jews. Not to mention Ivanka and his grandkids.
But don’t the left-wing newsmedia say otherwise? Well, since when can we trust ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post? The New York Times, run by self-hating Jews who lean over backward to prove they are “neutral” on Jewish matters, covered up the Holocaust (as they did the Holodomor) and opposed the creation of Israel. This is documented all over the place.
When Trump first sought the Republican nomination for president in 2016, the media fell over themselves trying to prove Trump anti-Jewish. They found an Absolute Nobody, an activist for homosexual rights in New Jersey who very briefly was spokesman for an insignificant group named unfortunately for Anne Frank, to go on CNN and other TV stations and be quoted in the New York Times equating Trump with antisemitism. They twisted every possible Trump quote and gesture to have hidden meanings that only they could divine. It was like their obscene equating of Laura Ingraham with Nazism by showing a photo of her waving to an audience at the 2016 Republican convention, capturing a split second of the wave to make it look like a “Sieg Heil” Hitler salute.
It is a game of “Gotcha!” You say you are not an antisemite, so we will hire people whose job description will be to follow you, investigate you, and magnify-glass you until they can find their 'proof'. And then, ah blessed Charlottesville! Take a pin-pointed picture of despicable White Supremacists and neo-Nazi-wannabes amid a hugely larger crowd of demonstrators seeking to deter the tearing down of historic monuments dedicated to heroes who fought for Virginia a century earlier, then catch Trump saying there were good people on both sides — because there were — and . . . Gotcha! Just a bit of editing and clipping, and it can be distorted to seem he was saying the Nazis were the good people to whom he was referring.
Lies. And more lies.
OK. So, uh, what was that quiet private Mar-a-Lago dinner with KanyeKanye and Biscuit about?
I begin with a pasuk (verse) from Shmuel Aleph (First Samuel) 15:17 when the prophet Shmuel (Samuel) confronted King Sha’ul (Saul) for not having fulfilled G-d’s command to eradicate the Amalekites. Sha’ul explained that he spared certain sheep, cattle, and Amalekite King Agag to accommodate the demands of the common people, and Shmuel said to him: “Although you may be insignificant in your own eyes, you are the head of the tribes of Israel, and G-d anointed you to be king of Israel.” In other words, your exalted position does not afford you the luxury to show compassion and sensitivity to embodiments of evil. If you wanted that flexibility to dine with Agag over Amalekite roast beef and lamb chops, you should have stuck to building hotels and skating rinks in Bethlehem and Ḥevron, and golf courses and casinos in Shiloh and Beit El. But you became King of Israel. That changed your rules of engagement, whether you like it or not.
I understand why Trump agreed to meet with KanyeKanye. Trump is running for President in 2024, and he possibly benefits by maintaining an open line of communication with that mental case because KanyeKanye potentially might split off votes from some Black Trump voters. But, if he had to meet with KanyeKanye, Trump should have done it by inviting KanyeKanye to a mano a mano working lunch in his private office behind closed doors. Frankly, since KanyeKanye is a certified nut — a meshuggeneh — the better part of wisdom would have been (and would be, going forward) to steer clear of KanyeKanye, and let him further self-destruct over the next two years until he hangs himself with laces from a pair of his Yeezy sneakers.
Just sayin’.
In any event, Trump should not be meeting with the likes of Biscuit. I believe Trump a million percent when he says he didn’t know Biscuit or what that oddball stands for or against. I believe it because one of the most worldly and well informed colleagues in my inner orbit wrote me a few months ago, off the record, to ask me whether I ever had heard of Biscuit and, if so, could I fill him in on who the fool is. So I did.
If that colleague, who is well informed on identifying and responding to American antisemitism, never had heard of Biscuit, it is totally believable Trump did not either. Moreover, I ask myself (as every human being, and also every “Gotcha!” journalist, should): If I invite John Doe, whom I already know, to dinner, and Doe unexpectedly shows up with a guy he identifies as his friend Richard Roe — and it all catches me by surprise — what in the world am I realistically expected to do? Throw out the guy? I don’t even know who he is. No, I have to grit my teeth, maybe utter some imprecations under my breath, and then smile and ask the waiter to set up another place setting.
I challenge any other person, under oath and on a lie detector, to say he or she would do otherwise. I have seen uninvited people show up at family Thanksgiving dinners, brought by moronic family members who never thought to ask first. No one throws out such people. Rather, you set up an extra place setting, and next year you do not invite the family moron either. That was Trump’s dilemma with Biscuit.
Where Trump runs into trouble here is in two ways:
1. He has so much self-confidence in his own judgment and smarts, and so much distrust of others’ advice, that he leaves himself bereft of insightful advisors whom he truly can trust. For example, he trusted Paul Ryan on budgeting to build the wall, and Ryan’s advice hurt Trump’s effort. He trusted Rex Tillerson on foreign policy and “Mad Dog” on defense, and that failed him. And that screwy Omarosa. Nevertheless, he needs to understand that, as President who was and who seeks to be again, he needs two or three people who share his world views and who are really smart to advise him, to vet interlopers. I am not available because I am recovering from a lung transplant. My dear friend, Steve, would be great, but he recently moved to Israel. Ted Cruz is busy in the Senate watching Mitch McConnell, Ron DeSantis is busy making Florida Republican. Maybe Mike Huckabee. Maybe Newt Gingrich. I also would love to see Steve Bannon back.
Trump needs a second opinion, just as we all do when we go to a doctor for a second opinion after we get a diagnosis (and the doctor says: “You want a second opinion? OK. You are ugly, too”). Had I been there, I would have told Trump “KanyeKanye is seriously mentally disturbed; just ask Taylor Swift. You cannot make a deal with him or even trust what he will tweet about a meeting. Stay away from him, or at least limit your time to a 15-minute closed-door working lunch.” Then, when Biscuit showed up, I would have been nearby and would have escorted Biscuit— to get him away from Trump — if I did not recognize him. No way would I let him near my president without proper vetting. And since I would happen to be a good advisor, I would recognize Biscuit by name if not by face and I would have had him escorted out of the building pronto. As a friendly gesture, I would give him a kosher-certified cookie in the shape of a Jewish star on the way out, certified by Israel’s new Minister of Internal Security, the Hon. Itamar Ben-Gvir, every neo-Nazi-wannabe’s cookie monster.
2. Trump believes, as a guiding principle of business success, that he must never publicly apologize or acknowledge a possible misstep. This is a “tragic flaw.” I remember an episode of his former TV show, “The Apprentice,” where Trump unloaded a “You’re Fired!” on a guy who decently volunteered to share blame with someone else. Trump busted him because he believes a successful executive never sticks out his neck to acknowledge partial fault. This belief is tragic. For example, all he had to do after the KanyeKanye-Biscuit dinner brouhaha was to tweet as follows:
“I despise antisemitism, and I despise antisemites. I told Ye that, when he attacks Jews, he is attacking my Ivanka and my grandchildren, so he is attacking me. Either he retreats publicly — and fast — or he is permanently out of my orbit. I further am disgusted to learn who [Biscuit] is and what [Biscuit] has said about the Holocaust and about Jews like my grandchildren. I am disgusted that Ye associates with [Biscuit]. I have given orders today to have [Biscuit’s] photo posted in all my buildings’ offices because he is to be thrown out immediately if he ever shows up at any hotel, casino, or golf course of mine. And I will immediately fire any manager of a Trump property who fails to throw [Biscuit] out on his derriere.”
That’s all Trump needs:
1. To have two or three trusted advisors, who share his world view, whom he can consult when sticky situations arise;
2. The ability to acknowledge a misstep rapidly, without enabling his “Gotcha!” haters to pile on for days and weeks while he foolishly digs in his heels;
3. The gumption to tweet a no-holds-barred 130-word tweet like the one above.
If only. Sad.
Adapted by the writer for Arutz Sheva from a version of this article that first appeared here in The American Spectator.
Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer is Senior Contributing Editor at The American Spectator, Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, was adjunct professor of law at two prominent Southern California law schools for nearly twenty years, and is Rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California. He likewise has held leadership roles in several national rabbinic and other Jewish organizations including Zionist Organization of America, Rabbinical Council of America, and regional boards of the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation. He was Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review and clerked for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His writings have appeared in Newsweek, National Review, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, Federalist, Jerusalem Post, Israel Hayom, and other major Jewish and Israeli Hebrew media. Other writings are collected at www.rabbidov.com.T o attend any or all of Rav Fischer’s weekly 90-minute live Zoom classes on the Weekly Torah Portion, the Biblical Prophets, the Mishnah, Rambam Mishneh Torah, or Advanced Judaic Texts, send an email to:[email protected] (Please note that Rav Fischer’s classes will be on hiatus during December.)