Would Israel Be at War Had Trump Won a Second Term?

The 45th president starts making the case for his foreign policy chops as Israel begins its attack on Rafah and Biden denies our ally crucial ammo.

AP/Evan Vucci
President Biden at the Capitol, May 7, 2024. AP/Evan Vucci

President Trump’s post this morning on Truth Social in respect of President Biden’s “pause” on supplying Israel with artillery shells for its attack on Rafah is a moment to mark. Mr. Trump’s post comes after Mr. Biden’s remarks Tuesday at the Holocaust remembrance. “We know hate never goes away,” Mr. Biden said, “it only hides.” Yet at the moment, hate is hiding at Rafah. So it’s just shocking to see Mr. Biden block ammo for Israel.

“Remember,” Mr. Trump posted this morning, “this war in Israel, just like the war in Ukraine, would have NEVER started if I was in the White House.”  No doubt his adversaries will suggest that’s a vain boast. The record on Israel during the four years Mr. Trump was in office, though, is startlingly better than Mr. Biden’s, despite the latter’s pledge to be a unifying president and to stand with the Jewish state.

Recall how Mr. Trump’s term began. He was being set down by the Democrats as an anti-Muslim bigot. Yet it was to Saudi Arabia that he made his first state visit, with his wife and  his Jewish daughter and son-in-law in tow. The new president got along famously with the Crown Prince. Then Mr. Trump flew to Israel, where he got along fine with its elected leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu. Before long, the Mideast took a strategic turn for the better.

One of Mr. Trump’s first moves was to exit the articles of appeasement that President Obama had, along with other members of the P5+1, struck with the Iranian camarilla. The deal had been what the Times called “overwhelmingly” opposed by the House and Senate. So Mr. Obama took the pact to the UN and got the Security Council to vote against our own bicameral legislature. Iran was already cheating on the deal.

Mr. Biden wasn’t in office a year when he surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban in a chaotic retreat after both Republican and Democratic presidents before him sought to defend the pro-American government. It’s hard to think of a more humiliating moment. Mr. Trump, in an error, had treated with the Taliban. It was Mr. Biden, though, who did the coup de grace, surrendering Afghanistan in a catastrophic show of weakness and ineptitude.

Before Mr. Trump’s term was half over, he made a point of following through on his campaign promise to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, its capital, from Tel Aviv. Mr. Biden was a no-show, though he had co-sponsored the legislation that made it happen. The press was full of dark warnings as to the trouble to come. Instead, what emerged were the pacts known as the Abraham Accords.

The Abraham process opened a historic chapter in the search for peace in the Mideast. The Biden administration, almost from day one, spurned the Abraham Accords, lest it share credit with Mr. Trump. History rarely discloses her alternatives. Mr. Trump, though, was clearly invested in the Abraham Accords and would have been maneuvering frantically to bring the Saudis into the pacts. Mr. Biden was late to the party.

We are loath to blame Mr. Biden for October 7. Blame for that rests entirely with Hamas and its enablers. No one can say that “this war in Israel,” as Mr. Trump put it, would “have NEVER started if I was in the White House.” What they can say is that these kinds of wars (including Ukraine) didn’t start during Mr. Trump’s presidency. That, we’ll hazard, will be a strong point in the 45th president’s platform in his campaign for a second term.


The New York Sun

© 2024 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  create a free account

By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use