M y dear jubilant readers please don’t be too quick to rejoice over the new sheriff in town the new resident in the White House. Slow down. It’s too soon to be dancing in the streets. True the new president has publicly expressed unequivocal support for Israel. True he promises to defend us in any international forum. And in another magnanimous gesture he has declared his intention to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (Of course for the time being this is no more than a declaration and Trump isn’t the first president to make that promise.
It was just never quite “the right time” to make the promise a reality.) He is sending us an ambassador who is both religious and right-wing more right-wing than Bibi Netanyahu perhaps even more than Naftali Bennett. And many Jews are displaying their satisfaction over the rosy future ahead of us with the new government in place. You’d think an American messiah had just moved into the White House.
But perhaps we should cool our enthusiasm. Let’s admit that we don’t really know how successful the new president will be in carrying out his declared agendas. We don’t really know how reliable his promises are even if he makes them sincerely.
What we do know about President Trump is that he will concern himself first of all with America and Americans as he reiterated in his inauguration speech. We know that he is a tough negotiator who will put his own national and personal interests first — a toughness has brought him multimillion dollar profits in his personal business dealings. We also know that he’s forged ties with Vladimir Putin the Russian czar. Whether the rumors of Russian interference in the elections is true or not the glimpses of the relationship we’ve been able to cull from the media indicate a certain sympathy perhaps even chumminess between these two domineering personalities both of whom believe nothing can stand in their way.
