As we are watching history unfold before our eyes with the progress of the Abraham Accords, we should remember that candidate Joe Biden has promised to renew the Iran nuclear deal if elected. Yet the very thing that has united countries like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with Israel is their common opposition to their common enemy, Iran. What would happen if America now re-empowered Iran? In the words of Ambassador David Friedman, it would be “a disaster.”
Sudan has now announced its desire to join the accords, hoping to shed its international terrorist status. And there is real hope that other countries, like Saudi Arabia, will soon follow suit. And it is America that is brokering these deals with Israel and these Muslim nations. Should America now reinstate the Iranian nuclear deal, that could deal a fatal blow to this historic, forward movement.
Are we willing to throw all that away because we abhor some of Trump’s style? (I should also mention that reinstating the nuclear deal with Iran would make the Iran-Turkey alliance all the more deadly.)
On one of my recent trips to Israel, I was struck by the degree of enthusiastic support for Trump from the man on the street, among both the religious to the irreligious. (There are plenty of both in Israel!)
In the rough and tumble world of Israeli politics, Trump’s worst qualities hardly raise a concern. Instead, for them, they saw results, tangible results. And some of those results were the difference between life and death.
Earlier today (Monday), I received an email sent out by Israel Today, which stated, “There’s serious concern among many Israelis that if Joe Biden wins tomorrow’s U.S. presidential election, he’ll reinstate Barack Obama’s less-than-friendly approach to the Jewish state.
“In an urgent effort to avoid that, Jewish settler leaders gathered in Hebron today to beseech God to grant President Donald Trump four more years in the White House.
“According to these Israeli leaders, this election ‘will impact the future of the State of Israel.’”
The email linked to an article which stated that, “Most Israelis, and the Jewish settlers in particular, view Barack Obama as the most anti-Israel president in American history. They fear that Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, will take a similar approach to the Jewish state, making a Trump victory all the more imperative.”
And what, exactly, does this look like on the ground?
There’s a fascinating two-minute video featuring a Palestinian and an Israeli Jew, both of whom believe that a vote for Trump is good for the Jews and the Arabs.
The Palestinian is named Muhammad Masaed, a former PLO terrorist who spent seven years in Israeli jails and now strongly opposes terrorism.
The Israeli Jew is named Yossi Dagan, mayor of Samaria and a member of the IDF. (Yes, this is quite the unlikely pair!)
According to Masaed, the Obama policies were disastrous for the Palestinians, since those policies “empowered the dangerous and corrupt Palestinian leaders to attack Israel.”
Israel’s response to these attacks resulted in blockades and destruction among the Palestinians, as a result of which 4,127 Palestinians were killed by Israel during the Obama presidency.
According to Dagan, who appeals to American hearts because Israeli lives are at stake, during the Obama administration, the region was “filled with chaos,” resulting in the murder of 204 Israeli citizens by Palestinian terrorists.
But, they point out, under the Trump administration, which has withheld funding from these corrupt leaders, Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli have dropped dramatically, down to 537. As for Israelis killed by Palestinians, that number went down to just 37.
And remember: all this happened despite our moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which was supposed to lead to a bloodbath in the region. Instead, the opposite happened.
Thus, these two unlikely co-workers make this joint appeal: “For the sake of our lives. For the sake of our future. Vote for President Trump. And may God bless the United States of America. Amen.”
I’m aware that Christians in America debate how much their votes can ultimately help to eradicate abortion, seeing that we must change hearts and not just laws.
But on the ground, in Israel and the Middle East, there is little debate that our foreign policies are a matter of life or death.
Perhaps this is sufficient reason for you to cast a vote for Trump?