If Roosevelt had the New Deal, Trump — the most consequential US president since FDR — has the Big Deal

W

hen Israel’s Six Day War leader Levi Eshkol had something complex to express, he would lapse into his native Yiddish. Nothing was more complex than the country that he led, so unsurprisingly he gave it a name in mamma loshen.

“Shimshon der Nebach” was his pithy moniker for the young state, reflecting Israel’s brand of swagger and neurosis, military might with existential fear.

Samson the Weak is a good framework to understand a widespread sense of unease across Israel at Donald Trump’s Middle East visit last week.

Even after October 7, Israel remains a country capable of decapitating a fearsome terror army by exploding beeper. Its alliance with the world’s superpower isn’t in doubt, and neither is Donald Trump’s backing.

Does it really have to fret because the president didn’t drop by for a chinwag with Bibi on his way to hold court with the Arab potentates?

So yes, there’s a drop of neurosis at the Israeli panic over lack of Trumpian facetime — but only a drop.

Because one of Israel’s biggest assets in dealing with a hostile world is the perception of access to the most important office in the world. Any hint that an Israeli leader has difficulty securing a warm welcome in the Oval Office weakens Israel in the real world.

What happened on this visit was that Israel was in some measure sidelined. If you’re not around the table, goes the old saying, you’re on the menu.

That was the sense with Trump’s Mideast visit. Critical decisions about Israel’s fate went on, in Israel’s absence. Trump discussed Gaza, Iran, Syria, and more with the Saudis, Emiratis, and Qataris, while consulting with the Syrians and Turks — with everyone but Israel.

Forget talk of Trump pivoting away from Israel as Barack Obama did with his Cairo speech in 2008. Don’t expect threats to the arms flow to Israel, a la Biden. Don’t expect daylight with Israel. The key dynamic to emerge from the Gulf trip is that Trump is bent on designing a bold new American foreign policy — and that regional agenda now requires Israel to take a more modest place.

Trump will simply forge ahead with a plan for a day-after in Gaza, a new arrangement with the jihadists of Syria, and a nuclear deal with Tehran — leaving others scrambling to play catch-up.

So, what’s the overarching theme of his regional redesign?

If Roosevelt had the New Deal, Trump — the most consequential US president since FDR — has the Big Deal.

Trump is putting deal-making — both financial and diplomatic — at the heart of his foreign policy. Restoring US economic primacy lies at the heart of Trumpism 2.0, and that happens in two ways. One is through lucrative, mega-buck investment deals meant to boost US jobs as he reverses decades of globalization.

The second is through the emphasis on stability at all costs. Trump seems to have a genuine horror of war, but equally genuine is the fact that he sees conflict resolution as the only path to economic success.

Every conflict that doesn’t pull the United States in represents massive savings. Every alliance that can be built means more investment opportunities.

Where others see a Gaza in ruins, Trump sees real-estate opportunities. Where others see an ex-jihadist in Damascus, the US president sees a future property tycoon.

Henry Kissinger famously quipped that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics. In a strange way, Trump is presiding over an Israelization of US policy. Forget grand strategic designs — foreign policy is now all about his needs back home, particularly the economy.

It’s all about deals, big money. If Trump has a choice between trillions in Gulf money, and a few shekels in Machaneh Yehudah, what’s the question? If Turkey wants to spend billions on advanced US-made F-35 fighters, that needs to be taken seriously, because gelt is gelt.

Deal-making at all costs comes at a price — especially to allies like Israel. It’s as obvious to the Iranians as it is to you and me that Trump is really, really, really not interested in war.

He really, really, really wants a mutually profitable deal.

So, however many B-52s cruise the skies of the Gulf in a show of force, it’s clearly saber-rattling as a negotiation tactic.

That transparency diminishes Trump’s leverage to press for Iran to halt its program. Hence, the only nuclear agreement that Tehran will agree to is weak — and it’s that deal that Trump expects Israel to sign up for.

The same drive for stability is behind Trump’s recent signaling that he’s moved on from the phase when Israel had full backing to smash Hamas and now wants to close a deal for the day after in Gaza. That’s what his focus on hostage release and Gaza welfare means. No more war-war — it’s time for jaw-jaw.

Fittingly, for a momentous presidency, Donald Trump’s Mideast visit will go down as pivotal — a moment that’s the distilled essence of his thinking. It’s a Big Deal — and Israelis are right to watch it closely.

Poor Joe

Even before his cancer diagnosis, I genuinely felt sorry for Joe Biden — a man who’s now an object of derision among Democrats who have no right to lecture him.

A slew of new tell-alls on the coverup of Biden’s physical and mental decline share two common features: grim revelations and gallons of gall on the part of their authors.

According to one book, while Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain helped prepare him for the debate, the befuddled president had to be tutored in the basics of his own policies.

He was physically incapable of getting through the prep sessions, and so went off to bed in the middle. Biden didn’t understand the argument he was meant to be making on inflation. He couldn’t follow Trump’s talking points and seemed detached from the reality of his job.

And yet strangely enough, Klain went on the record to advocate for Biden.

That lapse is perhaps excusable. After all, what doesn’t a Jew do for parnassah?

But that excuse isn’t available for someone like CNN anchor Jake Tapper, co-author of the upcoming book, Original Sin.

After all, as a highly paid journalist who made his name on the White House beat, uncovering presidential coverups isn’t a threat to Tapper’s job. It is his job.

Yes, to judge by the trailers, his book is chock-full of detail on the conspiracy of silence that enabled Biden’s second run. For example, the fact that aides discussed the president’s possible need for a wheelchair should he win. Or that Biden didn’t recognize a celebrity whom he’d known for decades.

But the key question is one of timing. Why was none of this ferreted out in real time?

The idea peddled by Democrats that the Biden-Trump debate was some kind of shocking revelation is bilge. Anyone with half a wit could see the truth long before: By 2024, the man atop the US government was a shadow of who he’d been just a few years before.

In their hearts, Democrats knew the truth, but faced with the threat of a Trump comeback, they were willing to do anything — even vote for a president who couldn’t handle a crisis after 9 p.m.

Joe Biden may only have himself (and wife Dr. Jill) to blame for the trashing of their legacy. But spare him a smidgen of sympathy. After all, he can only look with envy at the Democratic grandees and media stars who enabled the coverup — and are now cashing in as they uncover it.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1062)