By Paul Angel
How long have U.S. presidents been talking about creating and protecting a Jewish state? For over 100 years, at least, it appears. For instance, Abraham Lincoln, when asked if he supported a homeland for the Jews, said his podiatrist “was a Jew who has so many times put me upon my feet that I would have no objection to giving his countrymen a leg up.”
The “Jewish Virtual Library” tells us how Woodrow Wilson felt:
Wilson pledged support for the aims of the Zionist movement. In 1917, he endorsed the Balfour Declaration that viewed with favor “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” As the son of a Presbyterian minister, he intimated, he considered it “a privilege to restore the Holy Land to its rightful owners.”
Rightful owners? When did they buy it?
Calvin Coolidge once verbalized his support for a Jewish return to Zion when he demonstrated his “sympathy with the deep and intense longing which finds such fine expression in the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine.”
Even Warren Harding got into the act. In 1923, he said:
It is impossible for one who has studied at all the services of the Hebrew people to avoid the faith [i.e., belief] that they will one day be restored to their historic national home and there enter on a new and yet greater phase of their contribution to the advance of humanity.
If he could only see them now. …
Franklin Roosevelt, in a letter to Sen. Millard Tydings in 1938, showed he, too, was enamored with a Jewish state:
I have on numerous occasions, as you know, expressed my sympathy in the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine and … I have been heartened by the progress which has been made and by the remarkable accomplishments of the Jewish settlers in that country.
I wonder if FDR would be proud of those Israeli settlers today.
At first skeptical, eventually even President Harry Truman agreed. He said:
I believe [Israel] has a glorious future before it—not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization (1948).
I am not sure how mass slaughter advances the ideals of our civilization, but that is what he said.
Dwight Eisenhower didn’t want to be left out of the fawning. In a letter to David Ben-Gurion in 1956, Ike wrote:
[Y]ou ought not to forget that the strength of Israel and her future are bound up with the United States.
As for Lyndon Johnson, we quote again from the “Jewish Virtual Library”:
When Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin asked [President Lyndon Johnson] why the United States supports Israel when there are 80 million Arabs and only 3 million Israelis, the president replied simply: “Because it is right.”
Is it still “right,” Ike?
In 1973, Richard Nixon opined:
Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that.
Don’t believe it. Over the decades, Israeli leaders have shown a passion for freedom for their own people, but little to no concern about freedom for their neighbors.
Later, Gerald Ford dared not break the string of presidents who inexorably linked the United States and Israel at the hip:
The U.S. … has been proud of its association with Israel. We shall continue to stand with Israel. We are committed to Israel’s survival and security.
Would he be proud today? And why are we committed to Israel’s survival and security over all other nations—including our own? Have not other nations offered much more help and many fewer headaches over the decades?
In 1977, kindly Jimmy Carter insisted:
We have a special relationship with Israel. It’s absolutely crucial that no one in our country or around the world ever doubt that our No. 1 commitment in the Mideast is to protect the right of Israel to exist, to exist permanently, and to exist in peace. It’s a special relationship.
In 1987, Ronald Reagan claimed:
The people of Israel and America are historic partners in the global quest for human dignity and freedom. We will always remain at each other’s side.
In 1989, George H.W. Bush said:
We will do our utmost to defend and protect Israel, for unless Israel is strong and secure, then peace will always be beyond our grasp.
Well, Mr. Bush, since Israel has become strong, peace has been massacred.
In 1998, Bill Clinton asserted, “America and Israel share a special bond. Our relations are unique among all nations.”
In 2005, George W. Bush vowed:
[Israel] is our ally and in that we’ve made a very strong commitment to support Israel, we will support Israel if her security is threatened.
Even Barack Obama—raised much of his young life by a Muslim father, said, “[America] will stand steadfast with Israel in pursuit of security and a lasting peace.”
In 2017, President Donald Trump
uttered these ominous words, “I make this promise to you: My administration will always stand with Israel.”
Now the question becomes: “Will Trump have the guts to buck a century or more of presidential obsequiousness, or will he make America the errand boy of the Israeli state once again and order the United States to drop bunker-busting bombs on the Iranian people?”
Or will Trump refuse to finish off the plan enunciated in 2007 by Wesley Clarke:
We are going to take out seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing it off with Iran [for Israel—Ed.]
Mr. Trump: Don’t be a fool. Real experts contradict the Israelis. In a June 17 interview, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said his organization had “no proof” that Iran was building a nuclear bomb ahead of Israel’s attacks on the country. In addition, U.S. intelligence had also assessed there is no evidence Iran was working toward a nuclear weapon.
Be warned: There will be no short war with Iran. Any attack by U.S. pilots dropping U.S. bombs on Iranian sites guarantees every American around the globe becomes a legitimate target—every U.S. civilian, soldier, military installation, and every symbol of America, anywhere.
And every attack on Americans will demand a U.S. response and another response from Iran and another from the United States. The endless cycle will continue. Honestly, could you blame Iran for attacking any of us if America participates directly in this outrageous war?
The only sensible response is to end this long string of presidential idiocy and let Israel go it alone. This is not our war. We did not start it. If Trump wants to destroy his presidency, he should bomb Iran, but understand the ramifications.
