By Tsvi Sadan, Israel Today—
“I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship.”
Trump is not my president. This is an important observation considering the gazillion non-Americans who think they have an obligation to hate him. That Trump is not my president frees me from feelings that do nothing but distort things. From the narrow Israeli viewpoint, we should be thankful for Trump’s pro-Israel policy, and many indeed are thankful. More encouraging, Trump’s UN speech last night shows that his pro-Israel policy isn’t the result of early morning convulsions. His vision for a better world is the vision of his administration, the vision of those who voted him in, and it is this vision, not Trump’s personality, that so angers his political rivals.
To Israeli ears, The New Yorker’s scornful reporting of “the audible ripple of gasps and giggles” supposedly heard in the UN General Assembly during Trump’s speech sounds too vindictive and harsh. The terms “patriotism,” “homeland,” “people,” “sovereign and independent nations” guided by “ancient wisdom” do not sound at all offensive to most Israelis who, I suppose, would not mind seeing Israel restored to the kind of Liberal Conservatism that Trump is talking about.
America under Trump wants to restore the sovereignty of nations and pride in national culture and heritage. Instead of the uni-cultural world coerced upon us in the name of multiculturalism, America now encourages countries like Israel to freely pursue our own destiny. “The whole world is richer, humanity is better,” said Trump, “because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique, and each shining brightly in its part of the world.” Continue Reading….
