When Friends Support Enemies

It's deeply upsetting.

Even those of us who disliked Trump were deeply appreciative when he bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. And we’ve certainly been grateful for his standing with Israel against our enemies. People respected him for being able to say things straight and do the right thing even when it was politically unpopular.

And yet now we see Trump giving a warm endorsement to none other than Zohran Mamdani. This is the man who built his entire activist career on attacking Israel, the mayor-elect who just condemned the Nefesh B’Nefesh event at Park East Synagogue as being a violation of international law. Trump’s warmth to Mamdani is profoundly disappointing, though Trump is far from the only one; some Satmar Jews have also warmly endorsed Mamdani.

But meanwhile, and far more alarmingly, Trump has also utterly kowtowed to none other than Vladimir Putin, throwing Ukraine under a bus by insisting that it accepts a “peace deal” which is effectively a total capitulation to Russia. Let’s hope that Ukraine is able to stand strong, but even if this doesn’t pass (and it seems that that at least some people in the administration are trying to walk it back), Trump has completely undermined the credibility of the US as an ally to anyone. Israel certainly can’t rely on American support anymore. To quote military analyst Andrew Fox:

“At this point, America is nobody’s ally or friend. Washington is simply a playground bully that will twist any international dilemma to its own advantage, irrespective of the long-term consequences (as Israel is currently discovering, with the unworkable Gaza ceasefire deal, and as Trump goes around the Middle East maximising US profit and boosting Israel’s enemies).”

It’s horrifying, yet not entirely shocking, given Trump’s personality and history. But the other item in the news, while also not at odds with the person’s nature, was so extreme that it has left many people in Israel gasping.

The Prime Minister of Israel shared an article from a far-left virulently anti-Israel genocide-accusing website which tries to link Epstein with the Mossad!!!

Now, you’re naturally asking, why on earth would Bibi do such an insane anti-Israel thing? And it can’t be that his social media account was hacked (as some wondered), because it was already over 24 hours ago and it’s still there!

And the pathetic explanation is that the article happens to also claim that Epstein interfered on behalf of Ehud Barak against Bibi back in 2019. That was sufficient reason for Bibi (or whoever he has appointed to be in charge of his social media) to promote a virulently anti-Israel article and website.

Naturally the website itself is thrilled that Bibi has taken an interest in it, as it’s an opportunity to promote its claim that Israel is guilty of genocide:

The Prime Minister of Israel has promoted haters of Israel. And all just for some personal political score-settling over something from six years ago!

Bibi comes from a great family. He used to be a great prime minister. His brother sacrificed his life for Israel. But now Bibi brazenly sacrifices Israel’s interests for his own-self interest by promoting anti-Israel propaganda!

It’s not entirely surprising, given Bibi’s history of endlessly placing his own interests above the national interest, from stealing Independence Day celebrations to firing ministers and army leaders in order to support anti-Zionists. Indeed, sharing an anti-Israel post from an anti-Israel website is the least egregious of such things. But it’s so explicit, so utterly unjustifiable at any level, that it’s still shocking.