The True Test of a Trump Presidency

It is harder to serve God when you are wealthy. When you have very little, relying on Hashem for everything comes naturally. Hashem willing, you live a good life. It’s harder to rely on Hashem when you have something else in your hands to rely on. The same can be said of relying on a powerful ally.  

I must confess, it was a lot harder to pray for Israel during the first Trump presidency. He was such a good friend of Israel. The most powerful man in the most powerful country went on record saying, “Anyone who wishes to destroy the Jewish People, I will destroy.” 

When you see him 50 times a day on television, social media, and your telephone, one message is drilled into your head over and over again: Don’t worry about anything because Donald Trump is in control.  

It becomes easy to forget that it’s Hashem Who put him in power, and it is Hashem Who replaced him with someone else. It is Hashem Who has been watching over us for the past year, and the past four years, and the past three thousand three hundred and thirty-seven years of our existence.  

Once we are done celebrating a Trump victory, we need to get back to work. That work is in doing everything we can to beseech Hashem for His mercy and protection.   

• The bombs are still falling on our cities.  
• The terrorists are still attacking our women and children.  
• Our soldiers are still braving gunfire in Gaza, Yesha (Yehuda and Shomron), and South Lebanon.  

No Guarantees 

The Pharaoh who enslaved us in Egypt also started out as a good friend of the Jewish People. After his political party threatened him by saying it’s them or us, he changed his tune.  

As irrational as it sounds to compare the President-Elect to our worst enemy, the fact is that after all the anti-Israel bile from the Biden-Harris administration, 69% of American Jews voted for them. In contrast, other ethnic groups demonstrated a willingness, with their vote, to give Trump a chance. Mr. Trump and his party may prioritize policies that benefit demographic groups who showed a newfound support for him. 

Trump wants to go down in history alongside George Washington and Abraham Lincoln – the presidents who saved America. It might not happen if a third of his day is spent managing wars in the Middle East. If he believes his legacy hinges on a ceasefire with Hamas and Hezbollah, our determination to survive will stand in the way of the legacy that Mr. Trump wants to leave for generations of Americans.  

Trump wants to expand his Avraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and maybe even a post-Hezbollah Lebanon. This cannot happen without some sort of gesture towards a Palestinian State. October 7 taught us that any piece of our Land they conquer will become an instant Auschwitz for as long as they have it. We can never retreat from any of Gaza or Lebanon or Yehuda and Shomron.  

Hashem controls the hearts of the world’s leaders. We thought John F. Kennedy would be a friend, and he tried to strip us of our means to defend ourselves¹. We thought George W. Bush would be a friend, and we discovered that he was most certainly not². We thought that for all the support and money we, the Jewish People, gave to candidate Barrack Obama, he would be a friend of ours. He was not.  

It’s up to us to focus on our King, and not the American president as the One Who protects and saves us. He has and will always be, our One protector. If we fail the test of “political wealth,” it can be taken away from us.  

The Same Situation 

Our sons and daughters are still fighting in Gaza, in terrorist-infested areas throughout Judea and Shomron, in Lebanon, and in Syria.  

American aid helps but does not change the chances of our sons and daughters will all come home. It does not change the status of our hostages. It does not change the trajectory of missiles coming in from the north, the south, and the east.  

Only Hashem can watch over our soldiers. Only God can bring back the hostages. Only our true King can keep the tens of thousands of rockets that land in our cities from harming anyone.  

It’s easy to forget when all our tragedies are followed by the American president calling our Prime Minister to offer assistance.  

Today is a good day to celebrate the victory of the majority of humanity who chose to live according to the basic principles Hashem set out for us. It’s a day to celebrate a leader who has proven himself to be a friend of Israel and the Jewish People.  

But when we wake up tomorrow and say Modeh Ani Lifanecha (I gratefully thank You…), the test resumes. It’s up to us to always know that the English letters that make up and sustain our existence are G-O-D and not G-O-P.  

It’s up to us to always recognize Who is our Eternal Protector, and to look for our salvation in Him and Him alone.  

We have God, and only God to rely on.  

¹ JFK sent American U2 spy planes over Dimona and consistently tried to keep Prime Minister Ben Gurion from developing the reactor.

² It was rumored that Bush “let” Ariel Sharon return to Yehuda and Shomron in 2002 if Israel withdrew from Gaza. Also, Bush agreed to send the Patriot anti-missile batteries to Israel during the First Gulf War only if we completely froze all building in the settlements.

*** 

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.