Donald Trump is wisely refusing to put any daylight between the United States and Israel, much to the chagrin of some loud members of his coalition.
His meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu this week followed much speculation — and fervent wishes — the president would rebuke the prime minister.
Leakers inside the Trump administration told Axios the White House blames Netanyahu for “slow-walking the peace process” and has “grown increasingly frustrated” with him.
Vice President JD Vance has signaled that he and his allies take issue with the Israeli leader, and the nature of the American-Israeli relationship more generally.
At Turning Point USA’s America Fest, Vance admonished conservative commentator Ben Shapiro for urging attendees to reject Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens’ conspiracy-mongering.
Later, the veep suggested criticism of Carlson and concern over white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ influence was coming from “people who want to avoid having a foreign-policy conversation about America’s relationship with Israel.”
“We should be able to say, ‘We agree with Israel on that issue, and we disagree with Israel on this other issue,’” argued Vance, though it was not particularly clear whom he was arguing with.
His boss clearly rejects that faulty framing of the issue entirely.
At Mar-a-Lago, Trump fired a brushback pitch by the ear of those who’d abandon his historically successful foreign-policy approach, showering Netanyahu and his country with praise before the pair rang in the new year together.
Trump described his relationship with the PM as “great,” even going so far as to muse “I don’t think it can be better” and to deem his Israeli counterpart a “hero.”
Asked about Israel’s compliance with the Gaza peace deal, Trump professed not to be “concerned about anything that Israel’s doing.”
“Israel has lived up to the plan 100%,” he added. He also threatened to once again “eradicate” Iran’s nuclear program, and vowed there’d be “hell to pay” if Hamas doesn’t disarm.
The president’s instincts regarding both Israel and its enemies are sage.
Despite the bellyaching from antisemitic Groypers and naive isolationists, the US-Israel alliance remains a political and geostrategic imperative.
The vast majority of GOPers, and an even larger proportion of self-styled MAGA Republicans, believe as much, per a recent Reagan Institute poll: 79% of that latter cohort consider Israel an ally; 72% believe the United States should continue arming it.
A whopping 87% approve of America’s crippling of the Iranian nuclear program.
At the TPUSA conference, a straw poll reinforced the point: Fully 87% of the audience called Israel an ally, with 33% identifying it as a “top ally.”
Even a much more Israel-skeptical pool of respondents to a recent Manhattan Institute survey found nearly five times as many Republicans (55%) believe Israel is an ally than don’t (12%).
Yes, reasonable criticisms can be made of the world’s only Jewish-majority state, and younger Republicans are less pro-Israel than the old guard.
The Manhattan Institute found the edge by pro-Israel respondents is much smaller (39%-24%) among so-called “New Entrant Republicans.”
But that’s a reason to reaffirm the time-honored principles and self-interested calculations that have made America and Israel friends, not to bend to the whims of a misguided minority.
And contrary to the claims of that minority, that friendship redounds to the benefit of the United States.
Israel is the only liberal democracy and America’s most trusted ally in the Middle East, where nearly half the planet’s oil reserves lie and anti-American Islamist regimes dominate.
It provides the US with valuable intelligence and has demonstrated a willingness to take action in support of US operations, as it did by securing air supremacy over Iran before Trump’s successful strikes on its nuclear program.
American support of Israel, despite the compelling moral case for it, isn’t a gift; it’s an investment that continues to pay dividends.
Donald Trump isn’t dividing the MAGA coalition by standing with Israel, the anti-Israel obsessives are — by insisting on a foolish turnabout that would leave both the Republican Party and America worse off.
If the winds are blowing against Israel among the youth, patriotic leaders ought not follow them down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and far-left, anti-American assumptions.
Instead, they must make the case for this indispensable alliance on its merits, as Trump has.
And confront, as Shapiro has, the likes of Carlson and Fuentes head-on.
Trump’s chummy holiday meet-up with Netanyahu was an implicit reprimand of the anti-Israel agitators.
His would-be successors should take note.
Isaac Schorr is a senior editor at Mediaite.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
