JNS
"Israelis must respect the choice of Americans and hope for a president that will be attentive to the needs of Israel as an ally."
“I feel betrayed by Democrats who turned their backs on their most loyal constituency,” Elana Silver, an American Israeli originally from New York who couldn't bring herself to vote for either presidential candidate, told JNS.
“I see it as a larger cultural shift that impacts the English-speaking world—a progressive shift, even though until Oct. 7, [2023,] we all thought we were progressive,” she added.
Silver cast a protest ballot for Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).
“I grew up Democrat; nobody in my family ever voted anything else. But watching what has been going on—the accusations flying around, and the fact that it is even a question of whom to back in this battle, the terrorists or Israel, has made me very upset,” she said.
“Instead of voting for Donald Trump, which wouldn’t have made a difference in the state of New York, I chose to support the two Democrat politicians who have refused to turn their back on Israel and the Jews and make a point,” she continued. “Hopefully somebody will perform a post-mortem on who the Jews came down on this after the election."
Silver said that while Trump "offends her moral sensibilities," she does feel that he's better for Israel.
“It’s very sad to me that in the entire United States, these two people are the choices," she said. "However, if I were registered in a swing state, I would have opted for Trump, who also has better common-sense policies than the Democrats. I listen to Republicans talk about the policies they want to implement, and I say to myself that these are Democratic values.”
Shmuel Rosner, Kan News analyst and senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, said he has identified hesitation to vote for Trump, even among those who support his approach to the current war.
“We see in polls a clear preference of Jewish Israelis, but also to a lesser extent of Arab Israelis, for Trump, whom they agree is the better choice for Israel," Rosner told JNS. "But many of them feel that Trump is a problematic character."
Center-left dual citizens in Israel, for instance "will say that Harris is better for America, but when you ask about Israel, they’ll switch from Harris to no one. They won’t go all the way and say Trump is the better choice."
Rosner said that every president is like a "Pandora’s Box," and while it's not possible to know in advance how he/she will behave in office, Israel will have to adjust to whichever candidate wins the election.
“Trump in a new term will be a new Trump," he said. "I'm not sure everything he did in his first term will be repeated; nor am I sure that Harris's presidency will match [President Joe] Biden’s."
He went on: “Israelis must respect the choice of Americans and hope for a president that will be attentive to the needs of Israel as an ally. And Israelis at war need a president who understands the stakes, the complications and that the room for maneuver as far as Israel goes is limited. Israel cannot accept a situation in which it doesn't win the war because of the sensibilities or preference of an American president."
According to a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, published less than 24 hours before the election, 72% of Jewish Israelis believe that a Republican win would help to advance their country’s interests. Only 11% of Israeli Jews think a Harris White House would be better.
Trump is especially popular among younger Israelis, with the IDI survey finding that in the 18-34 age group, 90% think a Trump presidency would serve Israel’s interests, while 2% have that view of Harris.
Last week, a survey published by Israel’s Channel 12 found that 66% of Israelis prefer Trump over Harris, with 17% choosing the latter. Among voters for the Jewish state’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties, 93% chose Trump and 1% Harris.
During his first term, Trump recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel, moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and reversed the Hansell Memorandum, declaring instead that Israeli settlements do not violate international law.
Still, Yisrael Campbell, a veteran Democrat who converted to Judaism, argued, “Historically, the Democratic Party has been a very good friend of the State of Israel. I believe that the party as a whole has traditionally done that and will continue to do so."
Campbell told JNS: “Harris is a friend of the Jews; she's married to a Jew; she cooks a mean brisket. And I think women are more qualified to run countries than men, especially when the man we are talking about is a flawed human being."
Acknowledging that Harris has altered her positions to suit the audiences she addresses, Campbell said, “I think politicians adjust their message to the people they are speaking to. We see it in Israel with our own prime minister, when he conveys one message in Hebrew and a different one in English."
Furthermore, he asserted, “Nobody does this more than Trump, who turned on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu the second he was unhappy. This is not the kind of friend we need leading our most powerful ally."
In contrast, Adalia Vaknin, a former Democrat who lives in Israel, told JNS: "Trump has been saying, unequivocally, that Israel has the right to defend itself. He isn't catering his message to the crowd. Harris went to Michigan and said one thing and said the opposite to Jews in Pennsylvania."
Trump, she added, "led the Abraham Accords and halted funding to a nuclearizing Iran. This was after America had been funding billions of dollars for its nuclear facilities. He understands that the bigger Iran becomes, the more powerful terrorists will be. He wants peace in the world. He knows how to speak to the leaders of countries like China, North Korea and Russia, with whom he conducted business for decades. He knows how their minds work and what tactics to use."
Abraham Katsman, an adviser to the Republicans Overseas Israel group, emphasized Trump's strong track record on Israel.
“The feeling among most Americans in Israel is that whether you like him or not, the presidency of Donald Trump was a very good time for the U.S.-Israel alliance," he said.
“We had the Abraham Accords [normalizing relations between Israel and four Arab states], which we now take for granted but which was an astounding achievement, support for Israel’s historical, legal and moral claims to Jerusalem, as well as unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation,” he continued.
“Contrast that with what we have now: A [Biden-Harris] administration meddling and micro-managing Israel’s response to Hamas and Hezbollah’s attacks. Israel is trying to handle seven different fronts all engineered by Iran while the administration either withholds or slows down shipments of essential armaments,” added Katsman.
He also noted the pro-Israel bona fides of two of Trump's major foreign policy advisers, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Katsman also stressed the impact of growing insecurity for Jews in America.
“We have seen a wave of antisemitism, which began after the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 and exploded after [Hamas's] Oct. 7 [massacre],” he said. “American Jews feel a lot more Jewish in this new hostile climate, and I suspect large numbers of them will swing towards the Republicans."
