Israel didn’t take up a lot of room in former President Donald J. Trump’s nomination acceptance speech. It didn’t have to.
The entire convention was a pro-Israel rally, from speeches by Ronen and Orna Neutra, parents of American hostage in Gaza Omer Neutra, to the buoyant Republican Matthew Brooks and disillusioned Democrat Shabbos Kestenbaum, to chants and prayers.
The Republican Party platform is pro-Israel and so were the delegates. There was no sop to a “two-state solution” and “pro-Hamas radicals” are singled out in the platform to be “deported” in an effort to “make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”
There is reassurance for Israel and for American Jews in the statement and the understanding.
What Trump did, in the course of his 90-minute speech, was to connect the international dots. Not chronologically, but logically, looking at China, Russia, and Iran. The broad awareness that America’s adversaries are interconnected — and that Israel is not fighting a battle in isolation from America’s broader security interests — has to be more reassuring for Israel than any single applause line.
“It began to unravel with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the worst humiliation in the history of our country… [The Biden administration] gave up Bagram, one of the biggest air bases anywhere in the world. The longest runways, most powerful, hardened, thickened runways.
“We gave it up. And I liked it not because of Afghanistan, I liked it because of China. It is one hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons. And you know who has it now? China has it now.”
Israel’s conflict is part of a larger series of threats to Western interests. And Israel is part of the West.
“War is now raging in Europe and the Middle East, a growing specter of conflict hangs over Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines and all of Asia, and our planet is teetering on the edge of World War III. And this will be a war like no other war because of weaponry. The weapons are no longer army tanks going back and forth, shooting at each other. These weapons are obliteration.”
Israel knows what it feels like to face obliteration.
Iran was clearly labeled and so were the oil sanction waivers for Iran and China issued by the current administration.
“Iran was broke; Iran had no money,” Trump said. “Now Iran has $250 billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years. They were broke… [On an Internet program] they had a congressman who was a Democrat say, ‘Well, whether you like him or not, Iran was broke dealing with Trump.’ I told China, ‘If you buy from Iran, we will not let you do any business in this country, and we will put tariffs on every product you do send in of 100 percent or more.” And they said to me, ‘Well, I think that’s about it.’ They weren’t going to buy any oil.
“Now China is likewise circling Taiwan, and Russian warships and nuclear submarines are operating 60 miles off the (U.S.) coast in Cuba,” Trump said.
China, Russia, Iran.
When Houthis fire drones at Tel Aviv, know that Iran not only provides the drones, but sells drones to Russia for use in Ukraine – where they are battle-tested and improved for use in the Red Sea. (How do you think the Houthis expanded the range of those drones exponentially over the past few years?).
Despite the US imposition of an embargo on Russian energy exports, Russia continues to be a major exporter – to China, among others – and the money from energy sales goes to Iran for weapons and then boosts the funds available for Hamas and Hezbollah. Know also that China coordinates with Iran and directly with the Houthis. Chinese shipping has largely had a pass from Houthi attack while the Israel-Jordan Eilat-Aqaba Free Trade Zone is largely deserted and Egypt’s Suez Canal revenue has declined over 23 percent in 2023-2024.
Iran, China, Russia.
Oh, but what was that about applause lines? Actually, there was one.
Channeling President Ronald Reagan, perhaps, during the 1980 presidential campaign while Iran was holding American hostages for 444 days in Tehran, Trump said: “To the entire world, I tell you this: We want our hostages back. And they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price.”
Compared to President Joe Biden’s warning to Israel that he would “not supply offensive weapons” if Israel entered Rafah in an effort to rescue its people – our people – from terror, “our hostages” might have been the biggest applause line of the evening for Israel and its supporters.
