In G-d, not Trump, we trust
We’ve been here before, many times. Jewish history is replete with false prophets, princes and potentates who promise victory, prosperity and peace but instead bring us war, devastation and destruction.
As we watched the pathetic ying and yang of President Trump’s negotiation with the evil Iran, my heart and hopes rose and fell many times almost daily. It would rise when he seemed fed up with Iran’s duplicity and sneering responses, only to fall when he would halt his military efforts and seemingly succumb to the oldest tricks in the Iranian bazaar, stalling and dragging things on, making believe they were walking out or had to check with “the boss in the back” (in this case the non-existent, dead or barely alive “Supreme Leader” who no one has seen or heard from).
Hasn’t Trump or Witkoff or Kushner ever been to an Arab shuk? These self-proclaimed “world class negotiators” have been played like rubes. Any of my former neighbors in Great Neck could have done a much better job — and in fluent Persian no less!
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As we enter an exceedingly inauspicious time for making deals, with the advent of the month of Tammuz and the arrival of the 17th of Tammuz and the three-week period leading to Tisha B’Av, the prospects look increasingly somber.
Didn’t anyone tell Trump about Jewish history, that Jerusalem was besieged and two of our Holy Temples were destroyed during this time of the year. Even Saddam Hussein knew enough Jewish history to dub his scud missiles Tammuz-17, as he fired off 42 of them toward Israeli targets.
The Haman-like Iranian mullahs know both Jewish and Persian history, and may have purposely delayed so that a “deal” would come together during these three weeks (like Haman himself, who figured Adar was the perfect time to kill the Jews since Moshe Rabenu died in the month of Adar; Baruch Hashem, Haman didn’t realize Moshe was also born then too).
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Trump, who considers himself a king, heir to the mantle of Cyrus the Great who was called G-d’s anointed in Isaiah, should know what happened to the kings of Israel and Judah who abandoned G-d:
•Shaul Hamelech lost his kingship, and even the great Shlomo Hamelech saw his kingdom split in two.
•King Yeravam died ignominiously and lost not only the succession of the throne to his descendants, but any right to the World to Come!
•King Achav (Ahab) had the blood from his mortal wounds licked up by dogs.
•Tzidkiyahu, last king of Judah, saw his sons killed before his eyes, was then blinded and died imprisoned in Bavel.
•And Antigonus Mattityahu II, the last Hashmonean king, was handed over by Herod to the Romans for execution. Pretty awful stuff.
And world leaders who betrayed their people, their cause, themselves, suffered even more. To name a few particularly rotten ones:
•King John I of England, arch nemesis of Robin Hood, bankrupted the treasury, lost Normandy to France and betrayed his Barons who forced upon him the Magna Carta, forever weakening the monarchy. He eventually died of dysentery.
•King Charles (the Bad), traitorous to his own country, kept flipping sides during the 100 years war with France and was burnt alive (accidentally?) in bed, in brandy-soaked sheets.
•Ferdinand II of Spain, Ivan the Terrible, Louis XV of France (beheaded, French Revolution), Leopold I of Belgium — look them up. All terrible, to name a few. Betrayed their people and themselves.
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Trump, who has done some remarkable things, does not want to go down in history like that, after having taken many actions on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.
I remember seeing him at a gathering of the Israel America Council. After being introduced by Miriam Adelson, he was classic, hilarious Trump, skewering the news media, excoriating liberal Jews for not voting for him despite all he’d done for Israel, and delivering an impassioned program to maintain America’s standing in the world and protect the Jewish state.
After that there was a brief concert by the Shalva band, which consists of young people with developmental disabilities. A young man with Down’s syndrome, overcome with emotion as they closed out a performance with “G-d Bless America,” rushed to embrace the president. Now that’s something you don’t do with Secret Service agents around, and I instinctively flinched, fearing for the young man’s safety.
Trump didn’t back away or withdraw but opened his arms to the boy’s rushing embrace and held him close. That’s the real Donald Trump, someone few people see publicly.
That is why I am so deeply disappointed by his actions to secure a deal, seemingly at any cost.
Let him recall the words of Yirmiyahu the navi most identified with this tragic time period, who from exile in Bavel condemns those who falsely proclaim peace:
Peace, peace but there is no peace. (Yirmiyahu 8:11)
Let President Trump read those solemn and prescient words from the Bible, our Holy Tanach, and not be misled.
We, the People of this Book, must be the ones to awaken him to the danger, alert him and his Jewish advisers to the fact they are being led down a suicidal path by trusting any agreement with this evil regime.
Only we, the Jewish people can avert this evil decree. As we say every Yom Kippur: “Teshuva, Tefilla u’Tzedaka maavirin et ro’ah ha’gezera.”
Hashem yerachem (may G-d have mercy).
Shabbat shalom.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
