There’s already a clear picture of what a second Donald Trump presidency would entail: Just look at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Yossi Klein Halevi, in “Netanyahu’s Betrayal of Democracy Is a Betrayal of Israel,” provides a stark picture of Netanyahu’s hubris and greed.
Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, where he is co-director, together with Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University and Maital Friedman of the Muslim Leadership Initiative, and a member of the Institute’s iEngage Project. His latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, is a New York Times bestseller. His previous book, Like Dreamers, was named the 2013 National Jewish Book Council Book of the Year.
A raft of articles has speculated on a second Trump term based on what Trump has been saying at his rallies and in his social media posts.
For example, Jonathan Rauch, in “Trump’s Second Term Would Look Like This,” in The Atlantic, warns, “A second Trump term could bring about the extinction of American democracy. Essential features of the system, including the rule of law, honest vote tallies and orderly succession, would be at risk.”
He expects Trump will “install toadies in key positions”; “intimidate the career bureaucracy” with loyalty tests; “co-opt the armed forces” because Trump believes the military was a source of resistance in his first term; take full control of the judiciary; “weaponize the pardon”; and “defy court orders.”
What I propose here moves away from political speculation and from too much attention to Trump’s rhetoric, to an inside look at how Netanyahu governs Israel. Here is the picture of a second Trump administration clearly revealed.
The criminality of Netanyahu and Trump
As Halevi demonstrates, no Israeli government has had more ministers convicted of crimes or under indictment than Netanyahu’s.
“No Israeli government has had more ministers convicted of crimes or under indictment than Netanyahu’s.”
“As for Netanyahu, only a man who no longer cares about the dignity and good name of Israel could have brought the most extreme elements of society into the inner sanctum of government,” Halevi writes. “The Netanyahu government is the most politically extreme, the most morally corrupt, and the most contemptuous of good governance in Israel’s history. We have known governments with extremist elements, governments rife with corruption or incompetence, but not all at once and not to this extent.”
Like Netanyahu, Trump has brought far-right radicals into the mainstream of government and will populate the “Swamp” with even more in a second term. His corruption is mind-numbing. His greed and selfishness know nothing of boundaries. Trump always puts his interests above those of America and his own followers in every case.
No other president ever has brought such a reviled group from the right fringe of our politics into the center of power. Trump allies already sentenced to prison are doing so after being found guilty of various crimes, including campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. The list includes former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Trump lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, campaign co-chairs Rick Gates and Paul Manafort, former Trump administration trade official Peter Navarro, former campaign advisor George Papadopoulos and longtime Trump confidant and far-right lobbyist Roger Stone.
The mortal danger of the political/religious alliance
Halevi argues Netanyahu’s greatest liability is the deal he brokered with the far right religious movement in Israel.
“Netanyahu’s greatest liability is the deal he brokered with the far right religious movement in Israel.”
He says, “This government that speaks in the name of the Torah desecrates the name of Judaism. This government that speaks in the name of the Jewish people risks tearing apart the relationship between Israel and the Jewish diaspora. This government that speaks in the name of the Israeli ethos is the greatest threat to the ethos that binds Israelis together. This government that speaks in the name of Israeli security is a gift to those seeking to isolate the Jewish state and portray it as criminal.”
Trump speaks in the name of the Bible proclaimed by evangelical Christians in the U.S., but his words desecrate the name of Christianity. The rhetoric of Donald Trump that speaks in the name of the American people risks tearing apart the relationships between fellow Americans. Trump is the greatest threat to the ethos that binds Americans together.
The disregard for the anchor institutions of democracy
Halevi points out no other prime minister’s administration has had such disregard for Israel’s national institutions, dismantling ministries and distributing the pieces like spoils of war. No other government has shown such disdain for basic standards of decency. No other government has declared war on the judicial system, which even the U.S. lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a Netanyahu ally, has called the gold standard that should not be tampered with.
The open contempt for the political system that Netanyahu and his Likud Party colleagues in the Knesset have displayed over the past year — boycotting the Parliament’s committees and turning plenary sessions into staged scenes of mockery, encouraging thugs to harass the families of right-wing Knesset members who dared join the previous Bennett-Lapid government — was a mere rehearsal for the current assault on the nation’s institutions.
In the U.S., Republicans have censored members of their own party for refusing to kowtow to Trump or for voting to impeach Trump. They have mocked, insulted and demeaned members of the Democratic leadership with unrelenting fury. Trump and his surrogates have attacked the Department of Justice, the courts, the judges, the family members of judges and witnesses testifying against Trump.
A mistaken religious identity endangers both nations
Halevi says, “Most Israeli Jews, including committed democrats, regard the state’s Jewish identity as fundamental to its existence, perhaps even more than its democratic identity. After all, many democracies have experienced authoritarian phases and not only continued to exist as nations but eventually recovered their democratic identity. But an Israel stripped of its Jewishness would lose its reason for being, its internal cohesion and the vitality that has enabled it to survive in a region hostile to its existence.”
Netanyahu presented voters with a stark — and utterly false — dichotomy between his “Jewish” camp and his opponents’ “democratic” camp. The opposition’s campaign to save democracy will fail so long as substantial parts of the public are convinced that the left — Netanyahu’s all-purpose term for his opponents, most of whom in fact are centrists — is more committed to Israel’s democratic identity than to its Jewishness.
Trump and the evangelicals claim to be the “Christian” camp and their opponents the “Democratic” camp. Even if evangelicals thought Trump was a criminal, a serial liar and a cheat, they still would vote for him because they believe he is the Christian alternative to what they perceive as pagan Democrats. Robert Jeffress says Trump is the most “pro-family, Christian-friendly president” in our nation’s history.
“Mike Johnson’s ‘biblical worldview’ needs exposing as the farce it really is.”
Evangelicals have attempted to claim a monopoly on loyalty to their definition of Christianity. Opposing this in the name of democracy alone will only strengthen Trump’s argument that the Democrats care little for America’s Christian identity. Along with defending democracy, we must also challenge the evangelical claim to be protecting the nation’s Christian identity. Mike Johnson’s “biblical worldview” needs exposing as the farce it really is.
As Halevi notes, “If Netanyahu is allowed to claim a monopoly on loyalty to Jewishness, opposing this government in the name of democracy alone will only strengthen his argument that the rival camp cares little for Israel’s Jewish identity. Along with defending our democratic institutions from assault, we must challenge the Netanyahu coalition’s claim to be protecting the nation’s Jewish identity.”
Hate and fear will not sustain a democracy
Trump preaches a message of fear: Democrats hate America. They hate us. The argument: Democrats care little for America’s Christian identity.
We must challenge the claim that only Republicans are protecting the nation’s Christian identity. I am not sure we have grasped how much evangelicals have convinced many Americans that we are the devil, the enemy of faith and state.
Halevi argues: “The question the centrist camp must place before the Israeli public is this: Should the Jewishness of the state of Israel be defined by rabbinic law or by the Zionist understanding of peoplehood? Framed that way, a decisive majority will side with the center. By salvaging the classical-Zionist vision of a Jewish state, we can help save Israeli democracy.”
“Our nation should not be defined by evangelical law, but by the deep understanding of the true nature of a democracy not saddled with a religious identity.”
I am convinced this is a valid argument for us as well. Our nation should not be defined by evangelical law, but by the deep understanding of the true nature of a democracy not saddled with a religious identity. Americans are not more Christian by being more nationalist.
I agree with Halevi asserting the danger of a movement based on fear. He says: “Like many Israelis, I am heartbroken by the self-inflicted wound of this extremist new government — and I am deeply afraid of the consequences. This coalition, united only by hatred and vengeance toward internal enemies, cannot possibly cope with the threats facing Israel. Sooner or later, the coalition will unravel. The nature of hatred is to undermine itself, eventually turning its own proponents against one another. I believe that the sanity and decency of Israel will endure. The question will be at what price.”
Trump and his allies are united only by hatred and vengeance toward internal enemies — fellow Americans now branded as devils, demons, insane, stupid, crazy and dangerous. The nature of hatred is to undermine itself. Hatred doesn’t possess the emotional power to sustain a nation.
Progressives have the language skills to speak with deep pathos of our love, but we have been hesitant because such language may sound in our ears like a perverted patriotism. But we can love America without forsaking the faith. And when someone you love is in danger, you draw closer, even if the threat is self-inflicted.
Every day Netanyahu shows us what a second Trump term will look like and how it will act. Netanyahu refuses to make peace with Hamas because his right-right religious supporters will desert him and he will no longer be the prime minister. In his selfish eyes, war is a better alternative and the future of Israel and the Jewish people is secondary.
Never for a moment believe Trump cares for his followers. He only cares how many people he can use to maintain his own grasp on power.
Rodney Kennedy
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer who serves in New York state and Louisiana. He is the author of 10 books, including his latest, Good and Evil in the Garden of Democracy.
Related articles:
This Fourth of July, let us reclaim patriotism | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
Netanyahu has turned Israel into an evil empire | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
Netanyahu’s got to go but so do other obstacles to Mideast peace | Opinion by Erich Bridges