Chicagoland Pro-Israel Political Update

If you're allodoxaphobic, this newsletter might not be for you



December 16, 2018

After nearly two years, Trump's record on Israel is abysmal, especially compared to President Obama's record.

There is no excuse for either last week's Palestinian terror attacks or the Palestinian Authority and Hamas's celebration of those attacks. But while those attacks help explain why many Israelis are nervous about the peace process, they don't obviate the need for a two-state solution.

Democrats should unite around rejecting BDS and advocating for policies that will lead to a two-state solution, policies that are both staunchly pro-Israel and that advance the interests of the Palestinians.

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Friends,

A few years ago, Chemi Shalev wrote that if Obama treated Israel like Reagan did, he'd be impeached.

But what if Obama treated Israel like Trump has? It's been almost two years since Trump took office after running a campaign laced with anti-Semitic tropes and anti-Jewish stereotypes . Just last October, Trump promoted an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on Twitter, and at the White House Hanukkah Party, Trump accused Jews of dual loyalt y .

Trump threatened that Israel would “ have to pay a higher price ” in return for moving the embassy to Jerusalem (a move that made Israel not one whit safer). Trump proposed arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that would erode Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge. Trump proposed providing nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia (a regime that beheads people and murders journalists). Trump has several times g one behind Israel's back to negotiate with Russia about Syria. Trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on Israel .

Trump compromised Israeli intelligence by sharing information with Russia. Trump endangered Israeli lives by reckless aid cuts that will destabilize the Palestinian Authority and increase volatility in the West Bank and Gaza--we know now that Bibi did not consult with Israel’s security chiefs before reversing long-standing Israeli opposition to these cuts. Trump exited the Iran Deal with no Plan B and nothing but a sham Iran Action Group . Trump blocked a $500 million arms deal between Israel and Croatia. Trump denied Israel’s request to sanction Lebanon for supporting Hizballah. Not bad for less than two years. And Trump has still not filled the position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism , which has been vacant since he took office, nor has he appointed a White House Jewish liaison.

The Trump administration has a long way to go before it can match Obama's record of providing record amounts of aid to Israel (including the $38 billion MOU negotiated toward the end of his second term, which remains the largest aid package ever provided to Israel), securing funding for Iron Dome above and beyond what Congress originally appropriated (Obama’s support for Iron Dome s harply contrasted with the frosty reception accorded Iron Dome from the Bush administration), becoming the first U.S. administration to provide bunker-busting bombs to Israel , taking military and intelligence cooperation between the U.S. and Israel to unprecedented levels , compiling a better record of voting with and defending Israel at the U.N. than previous administrations (even considering the abstention), and responding immediately and affirmatively when Bibi personally asked Obama for help with the Israelis trapped in the Egyptian embass y and with the Carmel forest fires .

Obama enforced harsh sanctions against Iran, and he negotiated the Iran Deal, which took the single biggest threat to Israel's existence off the table. The fact that Jewish members of Congress supported the Iran deal by more than a 2-1 margin does not mean that they were right, but it ought to give anyone pause before calling the Iran Deal anti-Israel.

Iran removed two-thirds of its centrifuges, including the disconnection of every single nuclear enrichment centrifuge at the Fordow facility. Iran reduced its vast stockpile of up to five percent enriched uranium from over 12,000 kilograms, enough for numerous nuclear bombs, down to under 300 kilograms, far less than the amount needed for even one nuclear bomb--a reduction of 98 percent. Iran also removed the core of the Arak reactor and filled it with cement. Iran was forced to redesign that facility to ensure it cannot be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. All of Iran’s pathways to nuclear weapons were blocked, and to ensure that remained the case, we had 24/7 access to all known sites, including the right to inspect any site within 24 days under the most intrusive inspections regime any country has ever agreed to. Many important restrictions imposed on Iran by the Iran Deal lasted beyond 15 years and some, including a ban on nuclear weapons, were permanent.

In return, we gave Iran access to its own money . It was not a payment from the U.S., and the amount of sanctions relief came to about $50 billion (the $1.7 billion we sometimes hear about was to settle unrelated litigation with Iran, and that payment saved U.S. taxpayers money ). Only someone as unskilled at deal making as Donald Trump would think that giving Iran access to its own money in return for Iran actually blocking all of its paths to a nuclear weapon was a bad deal.

Our only hope now that Trump walked away from the JCPOA is that our European allies somehow salvage as much of the deal as possible, but even if they do, Europe, not the U.S., will be leading the team. Does that make you feel safer?

Fixating on a lone U.N. vote to call Obama’s commitment to Israel into question is absurd. By that standard, every previous administration’s commitment to Israel could be called into question, because every previous administration since at least 1967 abstained and voted against Israel more than the Obama administration. You can read to your heart’s content about the abstention here , but what made Obama different from previous administrations in this respect was not that he broke with Israel on a U.N. vote, which all administrations have done, but that he only did it once, and on a vote with little if any practical effect on Israel.

Israel needs a two-state solution. This past week, two Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists just a few days after a woman injured in another terrorist attack lost her prematurely delivered baby. I wrote about why Israelis are nervous about the peace process four years ago, but with an updated second paragraph, I could have written it yesterday.

Former Congressman Robert Wexler explains why Democrats should reject BDS and unite behind a two-state strategy that is both staunchly pro-Israel and advances the interests of the Palestinians.

Did you miss last week's newsletter? Here it is.


Tweet of the Week. My new workout motto (from basketball star Alan Iverson).

Twitter Thread of the Week. Rabbi Jill Jacobs.


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