Deeds Versus Words: Why Jews Should Support Trump

In 40-plus years in business, I ran into many great talkers who delivered nothing productive and were “empty suits.” Most politicians fit that description: promise a lot and deliver little. Conversely, Donald Trump is a man of action. You may not like his in-your-face style, but he’s been a great president for Israel, Jews and America.

Many Atlanta Jews are social justice warriors, with special emphasis on helping African Americans. No recent president has done more to help the Black community than Donald Trump, not with slogans or marches, but with action. By removing onerous regulations and unfair trade practices, Trump opened the door to the greatest economic growth we’ve seen in decades, especially for minorities.

Unemployment rates for Blacks, Latinos and women fell to the lowest levels ever; 6 million people were lifted out of poverty. Poverty rates for Blacks and Latinos reached the lowest levels since data’s been collected!

Trump passed Opportunity Zone incentives promoting investment in low income communities. He signed the groundbreaking First Step Act criminal justice bill that enacted reforms in sentencing inequities, which disproportionately harmed Black Americans. Trump increased funding – the most ever – for historically Black colleges and universities. Knowing how important education is to uplifting minorities, he supported charter schools and vouchers, providing better educational opportunities for Blacks stuck in poorly-run city government schools. The Obama-Biden administration did none of this.

Trump’s foreign policy has also been great for America. Trump long recognized how China has been stealing our intellectual property, decimating U.S. manufacturing, undermining American businesses, and practicing unfair trade policies. In comparison, Biden naively said last year about China: “They’re not bad folks….They’re not competition for us.” Really?

Trump called out China for its negligence in not warning us about COVID and has been a tough negotiator, making better trade deals benefiting U.S. farmers and businesses. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which had sucked our manufacturing and jobs over the borders, was replaced with a much friendlier USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement).

He strengthened NATO with European allies finally paying their fair share so U.S. taxpayers wouldn’t have to disproportionately pay for Europe’s security. The U.S. became energy-independent, with 50 percent more production than Saudi Arabia. Biden promises to implement the unaffordable Green New Deal, which would decimate our energy sector and significantly raise utility prices.

Trump imposed the “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign on Iran, depriving the mullahs of the resources to pursue their nuclear dreams and limited their aggressions as the largest state sponsor of terrorism. Obama-Biden “played nice” with Iran, sending it about $150 billion in cash, which Iran used to fund terrorism, not to help its people. Iran continues to state its goal of annihilating the U.S. and Israel, while Biden pledged to re-enter the disastrous JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) deal, a badly conceived effort that let Iran continue to cheat its way toward nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles.

How about the U.N.? For years, we’ve been paying the lion’s share of the U.N.’s expenses while the member nations continuously vote against us. America’s U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Trump said, “no more.” The U.S. cut its U.N. contribution, all aid to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), signed the Taylor Force Act prohibiting aid to families of terrorists and dropped membership in the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, which condemns Israel while ignoring real human rights violations worldwide. Before leaving office in December 2016, the Obama-Biden administration betrayed Israel by orchestrating the U.N. resolution 2334 vote, falsely claiming the Old City of Jerusalem “illegal” and “occupied Palestinian territory.”

If that wasn’t enough, Obama-Biden humiliated Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon by having every Security Council member stand and applaud the resolution’s passage as Danon sat.

Jews desperately need respected local police forces to protect us in synagogues and on the streets. Trump is a law-and-order president who supports our military and police. And he’ll protect private health insurance and coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Maybe most important for Jews, the State of Israel has not had a better friend in the White House than Trump since its founding in 1948. Many U.S. presidents promised to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but Trump moved our embassy to Jerusalem. He recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Trump’s policies implicitly called on the Arab world to recognize the State of Israel’s legitimacy and permanency, strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance, leading to incredible diplomatic successes and producing agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – truly historic progress for the first time in 25 years.

Biden’s record has not been supportive of any of these issues. Further, it was his threat to halt aid to Israel nearly four decades ago that led then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin to remark: “I am not a Jew with trembling knees.” It would be a shande [shame] to replace the rock-solid pro-Jewish, pro-Israel Trump with Biden.

Chuck Berk is local co-chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition with his wife, Bonnie.