Watchman Warning: Israel & The Front Runners, Part Two: Donald Trump

Guest

Watchman Warning: Israel & The Front Runners, Part One: Hillary Clinton

Israel and the Front Runners
Part One: Hillary Clinton
By Hal Lindsey

Though questions remain, the U.S. presidential campaign is beginning to take a definite shape. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presently lead their respective parties, but things could still go wrong for either one. An indictment of Secretary Clinton remains possible. It’s hard to know what direction that would take the presidential race. Donald Trump must try to defeat his primary opponents without further alienating their voters. He says he’s a “uniter.” Right now, that’s a big job because the Republican Party seems on the verge of ripping itself apart.

For many decades, much of my ministry focus has been on the prophetic implications of the renewed State of Israel. In line with that, I would like to look at that aspect of the campaign. It’s only one of many Bible-based issues we could talk about, but it’s an important one. This week we’ll examine Hillary Clinton’s relationship with Israel. Next week, hopefully, we can take a look at the other frontrunner, Donald Trump.

Secretary Clinton’s track record gives a good picture of what her approach to Israel might be if elected President. For four years she served as Barack Obama’s Secretary of State. During those years, the United States continued its military partnership with Israel, but at great cost to the Jewish state.

In her book, Hard Choices, Clinton wrote, “Despite our policy differences, Mr. Netanyahu and I worked together as partners and friends.” But the differences were not just on policy. In 2012, she spoke of Israel’s “lack of generosity” and “lack of empathy” regarding the Palestinians. That’s not policy. That’s personal.

As Secretary of State in 2010, she gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a 43-minute tongue-lashing. The government of Israel had granted permits to build houses in East Jerusalem during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden. She claimed the United States had been humiliated. This is another strong indication that as President she would insist on a divided Jerusalem. In 2014, she said in regard to Netanyahu, “I was often the designated yeller.”

She claims to be pro-Israel, but during her time as the head of U.S. foreign policy, the United States repeatedly pushed and bullied Israel into doing things detrimental to their country’s security.

Her website points out that, when she served in the Senate, she “cosponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act in 2006.” It doesn’t mention that she was one of 90 Senators who co-sponsored the bill. There are only a hundred Senators total, so she was hardly going out on a limb for Israel.

Caroline Glick is an American-born Israeli journalist and editorial writer. She serves as the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. She wrote, “Whether or not Obama’s anti-Israel policies will survive his tenure in office depends on who succeeds him. If Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is elected to serve as the next president, there is no question that they will survive him. During her four years as Obama’s Secretary of State, Clinton was a full partner in Obama’s hostile policies toward Israel. Moreover, as her internal emails have shown, all of Clinton’s close advisers are hostile to Israel.”

The emails are especially troubling. They reveal a deep, abiding policy partnership between Secretary Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal, a former aid to President Bill Clinton. Blumenthal served as a “Senior Adviser” to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. She wanted to hire him at the State Department, but powers at the White House blocked the appointment. So, the Clinton Foundation hired him at $10,000 a month. At least part of the time, he made that money merely as a consultant.

Blumenthal’s emails to Secretary Clinton take for granted that she agreed with his strong anti-Israel bias. The Observer gave a list of extreme anti-Israel articles he sent to her. It then said, “Ms. Clinton often responds positively to Mr. Blumenthal’s suggested reading, asking for them to be printed. In fact, she never once challenged Mr. Blumenthal on their anti-Israel content, and never asked him to stop.”

Sidney often sent articles on Israel written by Max Blumenthal, his son. Max is one of the most virulent anti-Israel zealots in the world. He calls himself an “anti-Zionist.” He’s a major proponent of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He constantly compares Israel to Nazi Germany. He calls Israel “JSIL,” for “Jewish State in the Levant.” With that little gem, he’s saying that the State of Israel and ISIS (or ISIL) are morally equivalent.

This young man has filled books, columns, and articles with his venomous hatred for Israel, and for his own people, the Jews. His works are so extreme they embarrass other pro-Palestinians. He calls for the expulsion of Jews from Israel, and he defends Palestinian terrorism. Yet Secretary Clinton is known to have had copies of at least one of his articles distributed among her staff.

Hillary Clinton’s praise of Max Blumenthal goes well beyond the polite responses you might expect after a friend sends his son’s articles. She says: “Please congratulate Max for another impressive piece. He’s so good.” And, “A very smart piece as usual.” And, “Will Max’s piece be published anywhere else? It is powerful and touching.”

Sydney Blumenthal has been called “the Clinton’s closest adviser,” yet he is anti-Israel to the core. What does that portend for Israel if there is a Hillary Clinton Administration?

These things are important for many reasons, but the big one can be found in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3. “I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.”

Next week, I hope to examine the Republican frontrunner’s positions regarding Israel. As usual with Donald Trump, it will be interesting.

Guest

Israel & The Front Runners
Part Two: Donald Trump
By Hal Lindsey

Last week we looked at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton’s relationship with the nation of Israel. This week we look at the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump.

Though not a traditional politician, Mr. Trump has amazing political skills. That can be good or bad. He has the ability to talk at length on a subject, and say far less than he seems to have said. That’s good in that, if elected, it gives him flexibility. But it can leave voters scratching their heads wondering where he actually stands.

Israel makes a good case in point. At the February 25th CNN Republican debate in Houston, Wolf Blitzer quoted Mr. Trump regarding peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. “Let me be sort of a neutral guy. I don’t want to say whose fault it is. I don’t think it helps.”

Blitzer then asked the logical follow-up. “How do you remain neutral when the U.S. considers Israel to be America’s closest ally in the Middle East?”

The real estate tycoon answered by criticizing the Obama Administration’s treatment of the Jewish State. He said President Obama treats Israel “horribly.” He then talked about being Grand Marshall of New York’s “Israeli Day Parade.” He added that he once received the “Tree of Life Award” from Israel.

Finally he came to the point. “As president, however, there’s nothing that I would rather do [than] to bring peace to Israel and its neighbors generally. And I think it serves no purpose to say that you have a good guy and a bad guy. Now, I may not be successful in doing it. It’s probably the toughest negotiation anywhere in the world of any kind. OK? But it doesn’t help if I start saying, ‘I am very pro-Israel, very pro, more than anybody on this stage.’ But it doesn’t do any good to start demeaning the neighbors, because I would love to do something with regard to negotiating peace, finally, for Israel and for their neighbors. And I can’t do that as well — as a negotiator, I cannot do that as well if I’m taking big, big sides. With that being said, I am totally pro-Israel.”

You have to wonder how he can be “very pro-Israel” and “totally pro-Israel,” yet remain neutral between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians contend that Israel is guilty of war crimes. Is he neutral on the question? Shouldn’t the United States speak up on Israel’s behalf? Can a reasonable person be neutral about Hamas building tunnels that put bombs under Israeli pre-schools?

Will it help the cause of peace to pretend that the joint Fatah/Hamas government is not evil to the core? Their leaders take for themselves money that has been given by countries and charities in order to help Palestine’s poor. The leaders lead lavish lifestyles while the poor people who should be getting the help sink deeper into poverty.

The cause of peace is better served by honesty than by a false neutrality. When Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union “the evil empire,” liberal critics fell all over themselves. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, we learned that for thousands of influential Russians this criticism brought them to their senses. Instead of politically correct bromides feigning a moral equivalence between the USSR and the USA, Reagan spoke the truth. Critics accused him of endangering the peace. But he was actually building peace on the foundation of truth.

How can Donald Trump be “totally pro-Israel” and at the same time be neutral on Israel? How can a moral person take a neutral position between a terrorist government and a responsible, civilized democracy? When asked to choose between good and evil, choosing neutrality can itself be a form of evil.

In Trump’s favor, he alone of all the candidates seems best able to recognize the inherent danger of Islam. In a CNN interview, he said, “I think Islam hates us. There’s something there that — there’s a tremendous hatred there. There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There’s an unbelievable hatred of us.”

He’s taken a lot of heat for this statement, but refuses to back down. However, while he recognizes Islam’s danger to America, he refuses to apply this knowledge to Israel. Like so many American politicians, he forgets that the Palestinian Authority governs jointly with Hamas.

Like ISIS, Hamas is a radical Islamic terror group. Even the European Union has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Until Palestinians choose leaders who want peace, no American president should be “sort of a neutral guy” on the issue. It’s a matter of right and wrong; good and evil.

God has kept the Jews through thousands of years of satanic attempts to destroy them — from Hamon to Hitler to the Ayatollah. He preserved them through holocausts, pogroms, ghettos, inquisitions, expulsions, and banishments. He preserved them because He said He would. He is not going to break His word now. Their future will be difficult, but as a people they will survive — with the United States or without it. God gave His word and nothing is more solid than that.

America’s future is far less certain. U.S. leaders have been distancing this nation from Israel in various ways for several years. That’s bad for Israel, but even worse for the United States.

Why? Because God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 remains in effect. “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (NASB)