Arutz Tov: Moshe Feiglin interviews Francisco Gil-White

Peloni:  Fascinating conversation between Moshe Feiglin, leader of the Herut Party, and Prof. Franscisco Gil-White, editor of the website Historical and Investigative Research and the founder of the Fundación para el Análisis del Conflicto Étnico y Social (FACES),  in which they explore the antagonistic history which the US has had for Israel and which has either been supported or accepted by Israeli leaders as well.  It seems the thread which separates the views put forward by these two champions of Israeli sovereignty is to what degree the failure of Israeli sovereignty might be tied to US leadership rather than Israeli leadership.

August 9, 2025 | 12 Comments »

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  3. Avi Abelow on FB:

    Finally, the Trump administration is waking up to the Muslim Brotherhood threat to America and the world.

    It looks like the United States is finally stepping up to do what should’ve been done long ago.

    In a bold and long-overdue move, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the administration is working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood not just one faction, but the entire movement, as a terrorist organization. “The Brotherhood has many arms,” Rubio said, “and every single one will be recognized for what they are: terror organizations.”

    This isn’t just a political gesture, it’s a necessary shift in global clarity.

    For decades, the Muslim Brotherhood has operated like a shadow government of jihad, using Western freedoms to spread radical ideology, build networks, and fund terror. Their U.S. front group, CAIR, cloaks itself in civil rights language while platforming and funding some of the worst antisemites in America.

    During a recent interview, popular radio host Sid Rosenberg asked Rubio the obvious question:

    “Why wouldn’t you guys designate the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR?”

    Rubio didn’t dodge it:

    “We’re in the process. But it’ll be challenged in court. Any group can say, ‘We’re not terrorists.’ You have to show your work like a math problem… and one federal judge can derail the whole thing. So we’ve got to be careful.”

    Yes, it’s a legal battle. But the real fight is deeper.

    Because there’s a root to all of this that Rubio must not ignore: Qatar.

    Qatar is not just a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood,it is the movement’s financial and strategic hub. It hosts Brotherhood leaders, funds their global operations, and gives them a media empire in the form of Al Jazeera.

    Qatar has poured over €90 million into 140 mosques and Islamic centers across Europe, with 90% linked to Brotherhood-affiliated groups. It has sent $2 billion to Hamas, offered platforms to terror ideologues like Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and continues to influence the West through Qatar Charity and other Brotherhood fronts.

    And it’s happening in America too. Qatar has quietly infiltrated U.S. academia, pumping money into universities and think tanks, including Brookings, Texas A&M, and many others, buying influence and access to youth and elite policymakers alike.

    Meanwhile, Qatar’s media outlet Al Jazeera, isn’t journalism, it’s ideological warfare. Its AJ+ network is targeting American youth daily on social media, pushing anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-Islamist narratives.

    In Israel, we still absurdly renew Al Jazeera’s expulsion monthly, as if it’s a question. This is the propaganda arm of a global jihadist movement. Shut it down, permanently.

    And here’s the Israeli disgrace: we banned the northern branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, but the southern branch, with its own political party, Ra’am, in the Knesset, still operates freely. Why is Rubio finally doing what is necessary in the U.S., while we’re still sleepwalking?

    Rubio’s effort faces major resistance, not just from courts, but from Washington’s swamp of Qatari influence. Qatar has spent millions buying up PR firms, lobbyists, and politicians from both parties. Many top figures in D.C., including former Trump aides and family members, have deep business ties to Qatar. That’s why any serious move against the Brotherhood might totally ignore Qatar, be watered down or be blocked.

    Rubio isn’t just challenging terror networks, he’s confronting a network of elite complicity that has protected Qatar for years.

    This isn’t just about terrorism. It’s about truth, survival and courage, the courage to name enemies, even when they wear suits, run media empires, carry diplomatic passports or brilliantly pretend to be a U.S. ally.

    So thank you, Senator Rubio, for finally taking the first real step. Now go all the way. Confront the Brotherhood, confront CAIR, and confront Qatar, the regime bankrolling it all. And maybe, just maybe, Israel will finally follow your lead to properly protect Israelis!

    No more delusion that Qatar is a neutral player, they are Hamas, they are directly responsible for the Oct. 7th massacre, they are holding our hostages!

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid06f2S27ZTtNyDJvbUENp1bKEaL8NgxBaSbV5uUqwxbQj8iSiSdFGzB62qcqXFNCgZl&id=545522241

  4. Losing those cobwebs
    The central part of this interview is when Feiglin replied to Gil White “what can we do” right after just being told exactly what to do, and a child would have known it

    get the cobwebs out of your eyes

    The CIA based on Nazis orchestrated October 7 because it has created the judiciary monster inside of Israel, it has created this right wing monster that Zionism had become.

    This is the Nazi consciousness present in israpundit that refused to display the writings of Joseph Alexander Norland specifically 23 Reasons which was the most direct blow struck against the CIA plans to redirect the world behind Nazism in order to maintain the rule of US and British Imperial interests.

    Trump is this wrestling world figure, an actor and nothing else. He wouldn’t have won the election without the staged ultra staged shooting in Pennsylvania. Trump is always Trump always acting. He even thinks in his head that the earth is not dangerously heating, even though my fellow Irishman John Tyndall along with Eunice Foote proved in 1859 how precisely, no debate about it, that carbon dioxide could do this.

    And Engels exposed how the bosses silenced immediately John Tyndall.

    These forces of evil capitalism got the biggest scare possible in October Revolution. That’s why MAGA was created by the CIA the centre of their lies, and also why the world will be lucky if Putin succeeds in returning alive from, of all places Alaska America.

    This is the only strategy of the CIA, gambling with nuclear conflagration, gambling to negate the science of John Tyndall along with Foote and Fourier and end of life on earth. And the promotion of the scapegoat of the Jews, as shown so well from an Irish TD in the Dail. This lethal Antisemitism coming out of Ireland is CIA and MI6 created, Ireland as a whole playing the role of creation of the Jews as scapegoat. Despicable role.
    https://x.com/hippyygoat/status/1953717170241733093?t=mZVk7FUeX8dzK1GOIuc0VQ&s=19

    2

  5. Ethiopian Jewry: America’s Role in the Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry

    by Mitchell Bard and Howard Lenhoff

    The United States government, and the Reagan Administration in particular, is often accused of putting self-interest ahead of human rights. In recent years, however, the United States placed humanitarian interests ahead of all others in a case involving ten thousand miserable Ethiopian Jewish refugees who wanted nothing more than to emigrate to their national ancestral homeland—Israel.

    As the economic and political conditions inside Ethiopia deteriorated, tens of thousands of people began to cross the border to neighboring Sudan. Many Ethiopian Jews joined the exodus. In 1979, the Israelis and, to a smaller degree, private groups began to evacuate the Ethiopian Jews from Sudan by various covert means and bring them to Israel. As word reached the Jewish villages in Ethiopia that the route to Israel lay through Sudan, the flow of Jewish refugees across the border increased dramatically.

    After cleaning out the refugee camps of most of the Ethiopian Jews by the winter of 1984, the Israelis discovered that the camps were soon being over, whelmed by new Jewish refugees. It became clear to the Mossad that their previous methods of rescue would not allow them to evacuate the Ethiopian Jews fast enough to prevent them from dying in large numbers in the squalid camps. In addition, the primary method employed by the Mossad-periodic flights from a secret airstrip in the desert near the refugee camps-could not be continued because the risk of being caught and exposing the entire operation had become too great.

    Israeli officials then apparently approached the United States and asked for help in rescuing the Ethiopian Jews from Sudan. This request created a major dilemma for the United States because, unlike Israel which was technically at war with Sudan, the United States enjoyed very close relations with President Gaafar el-Numeiry. Moreover, Sudan is located in an important strategic region along the Red Sea and is considered an important nation to maintain the stability of the Horn of Africa and the freedom of navigation through the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb.

    The United States provided Sudan with large amounts of aid and, consequently, had a great deal of leverage over Numeiry. In 1984, the Sudanese president was in urgent need of further U.S. aid because of his country’s failing economy, civil unrest, and the need to take care of the nearly half million refugees living there. The problem was that, as a member of the Arab League, Numeiry could not afford to be seen helping the “Zionists.” U.S. officials were well aware of the instability of Sudan and were hesitant to do anything that might further endanger Numeiry’s regime.

    It was in this context that a representative of Sudan came to the United States in June 1984 to ask for additional economic aid. In a meeting with Richard Krieger and Ambassador Eugene Douglas of the State Department, Krieger decided to play on the anti-Semitic feelings of his visitor and suggest that the approval of the omnipotent Jewish lobby would be necessary to obtain congressional support for an increase in aid. He suggested that Sudan could help by allowing the United States to take the Ethiopian Jews out of the refugee camps. “Besides,” Krieger added, “these people are nothing but a burden on the Sudan.” The Sudanese official found this line of argument appealing and steps were put into motion to arrange a rescue operation.

    Krieger later flew to Jerusalem to inform the Israelis that an understanding had been reached and then finalized plans with the Sudanese official in Geneva. The refugee affairs coordinator at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, Jerry Weaver, met with Sudanese Vice President and Security Chief Omar Tayeb and secured his agreement to a plan for evacuating the Ethiopian Jews. Weaver, the Israeli Mossad, and the Sudanese secret police then devised the secret operation.

    That operation, later known as “Operation Moses,” began on November 21, 1984, and continued until January 5, 1985. Every night during that period, except the Sabbath, buses would pick up groups of about fifty-five Ethiopian Jews from the refugee camps and take them to Khartoum where they would board Boeing 707s. The planes belonged to Trans European Airlines, a Belgian company owned by an Orthodox Jew, and were used routinely as charter planes to carry Muslim pilgrims to Mecca. Altogether, thirty-six flights carrying approximately 220 passengers flew first to Brussels and then on to Tel Aviv. A total of 7,800 Ethiopian Jews was rescued by this method.

    News of the airlift eventually leaked out. When the Israeli government confirmed the stories, the Sudanese ordered the operation stopped. The Ethiopian government was outraged, but most Americans reacted jubilantly and shared the feeling of admiration aptly expressed by William Safire: “For the first time in history, thousands of black people are being brought into a country not in chains but as citizens.”

    Sources say that all of the Jews in the Sudanese refugee camps would have reached Israel if the airlift had continued for only two more days. Instead, officials believed, perhaps as many as two thousand Jews were left behind in the camps.

    Almost immediately, Israeli and American officials began to look for ways to resume the rescue. Senators Alan Cranston and Alfonse D’Amato gathered signatures of all one-hundred senators on a letter to President Reagan urging him to use American influence with Sudan to encourage the resumption of the airlift. The president called Cranston and told him, “We’ll take care of what’s going on.”

    According to Richard Krieger, by the time the letter reached the president on February 21, 1985, plans had already been made to finish the rescue. Vice-President George Bush was scheduled to visit Numeiry in March and was given approval by Reagan to raise the issue of another airlift with the Sudanese leader.

    U.S. officials had considered resuming Operation Moses, but, when Bush met with Numeiry on March 3, 1985, he found that Numeiry did not want a repeat of the earlier fiasco. Instead, he agreed to a quick, one-shot operation. Numeiry insisted, however, that the planned operation be carried out secretly by the Americans and not the Israelis and that the flights not go directly to Israel. Within the next week, $15 million of the $200 million in aid for Sudan that had been withheld was ordered released. The remainder was sent later to Sudan.

    Bush met with Weaver and the CIA station chief in Khartoum to discuss means for carrying out the president’s order to rescue the Ethiopian Jews remaining in Sudan. To avoid the possibility of disclosure, Reagan wanted the operation carried out within three to four days. Weaver took an embassy plane to check out the runway of a remote airstrip near Gedaref, midway between the camps where most of the Ethiopian Jews were living, and found that it would be acceptable for the operation.

    On March 28, 1985, the operation, codenamed “Sheba,” began with Ethiopian Jews from Israel working for the Mossad identifying the Ethiopian Jews in the camps and taking them by truck to the airstrip. The airstrip itself was eight miles outside of Gedaref, just far enough so that it would be difficult to spot the planes from the town.

    Planes designed to hold ninety passengers each were prepared at the American base near Frankfurt, West Germany. Planes filled with food, water, and medical supplies were flown from an Israeli military base near Eilat to the airstrip in Sudan. These camouflaged U.S. Hercules transports landed at twenty-minute intervals to pick up their passengers. Sudanese security officers cordoned off the area and, by 9:00 a.m., all of the Ethiopian Jews were evacuated. Instead of going to an intermediate destination, the planes flew directly to an Israeli air force base outside Eilat where the passengers were greeted by Prime Minister Shimon Peres. The organizers had prepared to airlift as many as two thousand Ethiopian Jews from the camps, but they found only 494, so three planes returned from Sudan empty.

    At the end of Operation Sheba, Israeli officials believed that all of the Ethiopian Jews had been evacuated from the refugee camps in Sudan. In fact, a handful was left in the camps and anywhere from seven thousand to fifteen thousand are estimated to be still living in Ethiopia today. Those remaining behind were mainly the very old, the sick, the very young, and the women who, for one reason or another, could not make the arduous journey to Sudan.

    Soon after Operation Sheba, Numeiry was overthrown. The timing was largely coincidental, since his fall had been expected by U.S. officials for some time. Vice-President Tayeb and other Sudanese suspected of cooperating with the rescue of the Ethiopian Jews were either imprisoned or executed.

    The United States’ role in Operation Sheba was significant in more ways than one. First, the operation was organized, conducted, and to some extent financed by the State Department, the CIA, and the air force. The CIA carried out this humanitarian mission with precision and in the clandestine fashion in which it normally operates. The US. government clearly risked security concerns for a purely humanitarian gesture. Despite the fall of Numeiry, U.S. interests in the Sudan have not been seriously hurt; moreover, the rescue operation was a stunning success,

    Although the U.S. government had nothing to gain, the responsible political officials, notably George Bush and Ronald Reagan, stood to reap some political rewards for their actions, at least from the Jewish community, but they have surprisingly eschewed the credit they deserve for making the decisions that led to the rescue of hundreds of Jewish men, women, and children. Perhaps they felt that the Jewish world would learn the truth one way or another and that silence would better serve America’s relations with its moderate Arab friends. Regardless, the fact remains that hundreds of Jewish lives were saved through the direct actions of the Reagan Administration.

    History records that Franklin Roosevelt was a great American president but that, when he had the opportunity and authority to save more than nine hundred European Jews, he failed to do so. In 1939, the St. Louis, filled with men, women, and children who had escaped from Hitler’s Germany, was prevented from landing in Cuba and sailed up and down the coast of the United States in the hope that the Americans would permit them to land and find refuge. Instead, President Roosevelt sent Coast Guard cutters to prevent the ship from landing and any of its passengers from making their way to shore.

    Forty years later, an American president once again had the chance to save Jewish lives and he took decisive action. Perhaps the American government has learned something from the Holocaust after all.

    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/america-s-role-in-the-rescue-of-ethiopian-jewry

  7. JTA
    EST 1917

    NEW YORK
    Orthodox Child with Rare Ailment is Rescued Aboard Tycoon’s Jet
    Donald Trump made his plane available for the trip to New York after the boy’s parents told him of their plight.

    The private Boeing 727 of real estate tycoon Donald Trump arrived from Los Angeles at LaGuardia Airport Tuesday morning, carrying aboard an Orthodox Jewish child with a rare and still undiagnosed breathing illness.

    The child, Andrew Ten, age 3, arrived with his parents — accompanied by three nurses who attend to him around the clock — to try to seek medical help in the New York area.

    Trump made his plane available for the special trip to New York after the boy’s parents, Judy and Harold Ten, called Trump and told him of their plight.

    July 20, 1988

    The private Boeing 727 of real estate tycoon Donald Trump arrived from Los Angeles at LaGuardia Airport Tuesday morning, carrying aboard an Orthodox Jewish child with a rare and still undiagnosed breathing illness.

    The child, Andrew Ten, age 3, arrived with his parents — accompanied by three nurses who attend to him around the clock — to try to seek medical help in the New York area.

    Trump made his plane available for the special trip to New York after the boy’s parents, Judy and Harold Ten, called Trump and told him of their plight.

    Commercial airlines refused to fly the child because he could not travel without an elaborate life-support system, which includes a portable oxygen tank, a suction machine, a breathing bag and an adrenaline syringe.

    “Mr. Trump did not hesitate when we called him up. He said ‘yes, I’ll send my plane out,’” 29-year-old Harold Ten recalled shortly after he landed here Tuesday morning.

    Asked why he thought Trump made his private jet available, Ten replied, “Because he is a good man. He has three children of his own and he knows what being a parent is all about.”

    Ten said he believes that Trump fulfilled the Talmudic saying that “he who saves one person’s life is as if he saved the entire world.”

    Among the relatives at the airport to greet the child and his parents were the paternal grandparents of the sick boy.

    “Donald Trump is a miracle, just a miracle,” said grandmother Feigy Ten, who came to the airport with her husband, Phillip Ten.

    Both grandparents thanked Trump’s generosity over and over again.

    Andrew, who is called by his Hebrew name, Avraham Moshe, was taken from the airport to the Schneider Children’s Hospital of Long Island Jewish Medical Center for treatment and evaluation.

    Andrew was healthy at birth, but one morning when he was 10 months old he suddenly stopped breathing. The second incident occurred six months later. Doctors had no explanation and to date have not determined what is causing him to stop breathing.

    Andrew has not cried in the last two-and-a-half years. He now eats with a feeding tube since he lost his gag reflex and the ability to swallow. He is monitored around the clock by nurses, and sleeps with an apnea alarm.

    Harold Ten said he and his family “are determined to do anything possible to save Andrew. We believe in God and we have hope,” he said.

    UPDATE:

    In 2015, the Times of Israel reported that Andrew Ten died in 1998, 10 years after the flight on Trump’s plane. His parents sponsored Camp Avraham Moshe for Jewish teens and young adults with special needs in his memory. The camp is part of ETTA/OHEL, a Jewish social service organization based in Los Angeles.

    https://www.jta.org/archive/orthodox-child-with-rare-ailment-is-rescued-aboard-tycoons-jet

    Fact Check
    Did Trump’s Private Jet Carry a Sick Child from California to New York?
    “The problem was that the commercial airlines refused to fly the child.”
    Snopes Staff
    Published Aug. 15, 2015

    Claim:
    Donald Trump’s private jet carried a critically ill 3-year-old Jewish boy from California to New York for medical treatment in 1988.
    Rating:
    True
    True

    In mid-August 2015, a number of web sites reproduced a story about business magnate (and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful) Donald Trump’s having responded to the pleas of the parents of a critically ill 3-year-old Jewish boy, using his private jet to ferry the child from Los Angeles to New York for medical treatment after commercial airlines declined to carry the boy:

    Airlines Refuse to Fly Critically Ill 3-Year-Old to Doctors … So Parents Call Trump

    An incredible story involving Donald Trump has just come to light, and virtually no one knows about it because, unlike what almost any politician would do, the billionaire hasn’t used it to boost his public image.

    Years ago, now Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s private 727 took off from Los Angeles and landed in New York City, much as it had for years. But this time one thing was different.

    While Trump wasn’t on board, three other passengers were — 3-year-old Andrew Ten and his parents. What led to this trip is a story that’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-flies-sick-boy/

  8. Who Was The First Genuinely Pro-Israel U.S. President?
    By Jason Maoz – 8 Elul 5777 – August 30, 2017

    Lyndon Baines Johnson, born 109 years ago this week, came from a part of the country where Jews were about as common as a herd of cattle in Manhattan.

    But in 1938, while still a young and relatively powerless congressman, Johnson was moved enough by reports of Jewish suffering in Europe to begin raising money and pulling whatever strings were necessary to save as many Jews as he could from the Nazis.

    Over the next few years, hundreds of Jews were issued counterfeit passports and visas and brought to Johnson’s home state of Texas, where they began new lives in the safety and security of America.

    Although a handful of academics have questioned the scope of Johnson’s efforts and the actual number of Jews who benefited, historians and biographers such as Robert Dallek, Godfrey Hodgson, Irwin Unger, and Michael Karpin have included details of the rescue, dubbed “Operation Texas,” in their books on Johnson and his times.

    In December 1963, shortly after he became president, Johnson was in Austin to dedicate a new synagogue. Many of the Jews he saved during the war were on hand, and time had not dimmed their gratitude. Dry eyes were scarce that day, and Mrs. Johnson proudly recorded in her diary that “Person after person plucked at my sleeve and said, ‘I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for him. He helped me get out.’”

    Johnson’s affinity for Jews stemmed from early familial influences – his paternal grandfather and a number of other relatives were members of the Christadelphian movement, a group of fundamentalist Christians who believed Jews would one day return to Palestine and create a new Jewish state.

    His grandfather admonished young Lyndon to “Take care of the Jews…. Consider them your friends and help them any way you can.”

    To a Jewish group in 1968, Johnson said: “Most if not all of you have very deep ties with the land and the people of Israel, as I do…. The Bible stories are woven into my childhood memories as the gallant struggle of modern Jews to be free of persecution is also woven into our souls.”

    Johnson’s rise to prominence in Washington – he went on from the House to the Senate where in 1955 he became the youngest majority leader in history – coincided with Israel’s birth and early years. Johnson was one of Israel’s strongest backers in Congress, never more so than during the 1956 Suez crisis and its aftermath when President Eisenhower distanced himself from Israel and demanded that it immediately return the just-won Sinai to Egypt.

    Though the prevailing mood in Washington favored a bipartisan foreign policy – as a popular adage had it, “politics stops at the water’s edge” – Johnson fought the administration from day one of the crisis, and soon others in Congress, Republicans as well as Democrats, followed his lead.

    Ultimately, Eisenhower prevailed and Israel withdrew from the Sinai. There soon followed, however, a distinct softening in the administration’s public demeanor toward Israel – a change many believe attributable, at least in part, to Eisenhower’s desire to avoid another bruising battle with Johnson over Middle East policy.

    Jews active on behalf of Israel in those years valued Johnson’s outspokenness and consistency. Si Kennen, director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) during that period, echoed the sentiments of his colleagues when he offered this succinct evaluation of Johnson: “Front-rank, pro-Israel.’’

    * * * * *

    The Kennedy-Johnson Democratic presidential ticket of 1960 was purely a marriage of convenience. Merely disliked by John Kennedy, Johnson was despised by the president’s brother Robert. Convinced of their cultural superiority, the Ivy League types in the Kennedy inner circle laughed at everything from Johnson’s Texas accent to the schools he’d attended to his wheeler-dealer persona – and thought it just terribly gauche and lowbrow that his wife was called Lady Bird.

    Behind the condescension, however, was a real sense of insecurity. The Kennedy brothers feared Johnson for his political acumen and close relationships with Washington’s movers and shakers, particularly FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who knew all the secrets and scandals that lurked beneath the capital’s pristine façade, including the very dark side of John Kennedy that would remain hidden from the public for years after Kennedy’s death.

    In its Middle East policy the Kennedy administration made little effort to change the evenhanded approach pursued by its predecessors. As part of an all-out effort to win the affections of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kennedy pushed hard for large increases in aid to Egypt and in early 1962 instructed his UN ambassador to vote to condemn Israel in the Security Council following an Israeli retaliatory strike in Syria.

    Kennedy also constantly prodded Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on the issue of Arab refugees – Secretary of State Dean Rusk wanted Israel to agree to take back at least 10 percent of the total number of Arabs who had left Israel since 1948 – and even more so on Israel’s nuclear weapons program, which became something of an obsession for Kennedy and his foreign policy advisers.

    Once the trauma of Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 began to wear off and Johnson settled in as president, the relationship between the U.S. and Israel quickly soared to new heights.

    In The Bomb in the Basement, his history of Israel’s procurement of nuclear weapons, Israeli author Michael Karpin writes that “as soon as [Johnson] entered the White House the pressure on Israel on the [nuclear] issue ceased.”

    And while Kennedy’s final budget, for fiscal year 1964, allocated $40 million in aid to Israel, Johnson’s first budget, for fiscal year 1965, set aside $71 million – an extraordinary increase of 75 percent. That amount nearly doubled in 1966, to $130 million.

    Beyond the numbers, the precise nature and terms of the aid signaled a dramatic break with past American policy. Development loans and surplus food had constituted the extent of U.S. aid under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and anti-aircraft missiles sold to Israel by the Kennedy administration required a cash payment. Johnson changed all that: Not only did he become the first American president to sell offensive weapons to Israel (the missiles from Kennedy were defensive), but henceforth Israel would be permitted to buy American arms with American aid money, which meant no funds would have to leave Israel’s hard-pressed government coffers.

    As a result of the new arrangement, the percentage of American aid to Israel earmarked for military expenditures rose dramatically, more than tripling between 1965 and 1967. By the middle of 1966, Israel was purchasing military hardware the type of which would have been unthinkable under prior administrations, including four dozen Skyhawk bomber attack planes and more than 200 M-48 tanks (despite the objection of Pentagon officials, who told Johnson they’d prefer Israel buy its tanks from the British or the Germans).

    Meanwhile, responding to a large increase of Russian military aid to the radical regimes in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, the Johnson administration armed what at the time were regarded as the more conservative, anti-Soviet Arab states in the region: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Morocco, and Libya.

    Ironically, supplying arms to some Arab nations made it that much easier for Johnson to deal with those in the foreign policy and defense bureaucracies who objected to selling sophisticated weaponry to Israel. He would point out to them that he was simply maintaining the Arab-Israeli balance of power.

    power.

    * * * * *

    In mid-May 1967, as Israel marked the 19th anniversary of its founding, Nasser in quick succession massed the Egyptian army in the Sinai Peninsula; demanded removal of the United Nations Emergency Force that since 1957 had kept the peace on the Egyptian-Israeli border; and blockaded the Straits of Tiran to ships bound to and from the Israeli port of Eilat.

    The latter constituted a technical act of war and capped a period of increasing tension in the region as Johnson ordered the Sixth Fleet to the eastern Mediterranean. There followed two weeks of frenzied diplomatic maneuvering, with Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban hopscotching across Europe and the United States in an effort to defuse the situation by diplomatic means.

    Elected president in his own right by a historic margin in 1964, Johnson had seen his popularity and stature steadily diminish in the wake of his overreaching Great Society domestic programs and the widespread sense that America was mired in a no-win quagmire in Vietnam. Now Johnson had to turn his attention from Southeast Asia to the Middle East in an effort to prevent a regional crisis from becoming a war with the potential to directly draw in both Washington and Moscow.

    The administration took pains to appear neutral. Johnson repeatedly warned Israel against striking first but was unable to come up with a successful alternative strategy. Meanwhile, Israel had mobilized its reserves and each passing day took another devastating bite out of the country’s already precarious economy. The Arab world, for its part, was caught up in war fever as Jordan’s King Hussein, following the example set by Syria six months earlier, signed a mutual defense pact with Nasser

    “Johnson,’’ said Ephraim Evron, the influential minister at the Israeli embassy in Washington, “tried to organize an international naval force [to break the blockade], but it didn’t work. He also sent letters and envoys to Cairo to persuade President Nasser to reduce the tension by returning to the status quo ante, but in vain. We knew that, in the end, we would have to shatter the blockade ourselves.’’

    What Johnson knew, thanks to highly classified CIA and armed-forces intelligence reports, was that U.S. defense experts were predicting a swift Israeli victory in the event of war.

    General Earle Wheeler, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would later recall: “I told [Johnson] that our best estimate was that if there was a war, that the Israelis would win it in five to seven days. He asked me to go back and check this out and talk to him again. I did, and I came back and told him exactly the same thing – that there’s just no question; that the way the two sides lined up in the air and on the ground, the Israelis would win.…’’

    That assessment was shared by Israel’s own military leaders, who knew how much stronger the country’s armed forces had grown over the previous decade and who pushed hard for Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, a cautious man by nature, to give the word for a pre-emptive strike.

    That word finally came on Sunday, June 4, and the Israeli air force went on the attack early the next morning, destroying nearly all of Egypt’s serviceable military aircraft as they sat on their runways. Subsequent bombing runs against Jordanian and Syrian air bases sealed Israel’s victory even as fierce ground combat commenced on three fronts.

    One incident that marred Israel’s victory and threatened the country’s relationship with the U.S. was the deadly attack by Israeli forces on the USS Liberty, an American electronic surveillance ship operating off the Sinai coast. During the assault, which Israel afterward called a terrible mistake, the Liberty was torpedoed and strafed for more than an hour. The final casualty count totaled 34 Americans dead and 171 wounded.

    Johnson downplayed the tragedy even as several top aides urged him to come down hard on the Israeli government. Israel made a formal apology and paid several million dollars in compensation to the families of the dead Americans, but the U.S.-Israel relationship suffered no significant damage.

    After the war, Johnson resisted international calls to pressure Israel into relinquishing the vast swaths of territory it had captured.

    * * * * *

    If there was one thing that threatened Johnson’s amicable relationship with American Jews – and, by extension, Israel – it was the vocal opposition of Jewish liberals to the war in Vietnam.

    Johnson felt Jews, of all people, should have understood that South Vietnam, like Israel, was a small notion in constant peril. He complained that Jews “want me to protect Israel, but they don’t want me to do anything in Vietnam.’’

    At one point during an otherwise friendly discussion with Abba Eban toward the end of his presidency, Johnson remarked, with considerable bitterness, “A bunch of rabbis came here one day in 1967 to tell me that I ought not to send a single screwdriver to Vietnam – but on the other hand should push all our aircraft carriers through the Straits of Tiran to help Israel.”

    It was, of course, Vietnam and its poisonous effects on American society that would lead Johnson to forgo seeking a second full term as president. He left the White House in January 1969 a vilified and broken man. He died four years later, not yet 65 but looking like a man two decades older.

    Whatever else can be said of Johnson, he proved a true friend to Jews and Israel. He proved it as a young lawmaker when, with limited clout and resources, he did what he could to bring Jewish refugees from Europe to Texas; he proved it as one of Israel’s strongest and most important backers in Congress during the state’s early years; and he proved it as president by granting Israel then-unprecedented levels of financial and military aid and by refusing, in marked contrast to Eisenhower’s actions in 1956, to force unilateral concessions on Israel following the Six-Day War.

    His three immediate predecessors in the White House were a mixed bag on Israel – Truman blew hot and cold in the years leading up to statehood and embargoed arms to Israel during its war of independence; Eisenhower ranged from indifferent to hostile; and Kennedy, while speaking in warmer terms than Eisenhower ever did about U.S.-Israel relations, essentially pursued the Truman-Eisenhower policy of even-handedness.

    It was Lyndon Johnson who, in both word and deed, can fairly and accurately be called the first genuinely pro-Israel American president.

    https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/front-page/who-was-the-first-genuinely-pro-israel-u-s-president/2017/08/30/

  9. Trump family has long record of supporting Jewish causes

    Trump family has long record of supporting Jewish causes
    January 27, 2020 / 1 Comment
    By Dan Feinreich

    Donald Trump
    NEW YORK — After seeing so many Jews say such horrible things about him, I decided to look further into Trump’s background to learn more about his feelings toward the Jews. This is what I learned:

    Let’s start with the biggest influence in Donald Trump’s life, his father. Fred C. Trump welcomed plenty of Jewish tenants to his properties, and, perhaps, as a result of these relationships, Fred became a generous donor to Jewish and Israeli causes.

    Fred made generous donations to the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, supported Israel bonds, and served as the treasurer of an Israeli benefit concert. He was so active in Jewish causes that some believed that he belonged to the Jewish faith.

    In 1956, Fred Trump also donated land to the Talmud Torah of the Beach Haven Jewish Center in Flatbush, New York. The Center is still active today and offers programs for the youth and elderly, as well as an active synagogue. A plaque in the Beach Haven building reads: “Fred C. Trump, Humanitarian: A Sagacious Man Person Deserving of Every Plaudit and Tribute given by Our Community”

    During the 1980’s, Fred Trump became friends with the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations in Manhattan at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Donald Trump continued his father’s pattern of donating to Jewish & Israeli causes. In 1976, Trump received the Humanitarian Award from Jewish National Health, a Denver hospital doing research/treatment in respiratory & related disorders.

    In March 1983, Trump was awarded the prestigious “Tree of Life” award by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an organization that raises money to finance large projects in Israel.The award is the highest humanitarian award that honors individuals and families “in appreciation of their outstanding community involvement, dedication to the cause of American-Israeli friendship, and devotion to peace and the security of human life.”

    JNF officials said that Trump was part of a consortium of donors involved in various projects in Israel, including financing a playground in the town of Yokneam and another in Sufa, a kibbutz in southern Israel.

    Trump also donated to help build new infrastructure in the Israeli Negev for Jews from the Sinai that were forced to evacuate under the terms of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt in 1979.

    Trump’s donations were used to build greenhouses, homes, and roads for evacuees. A plaque bearing Trump’s name in English and Hebrew appears on a wall in Moshav Dekel, in the Eshkol region, to honor all the donors that contributed to the resettlement.

    In 2003, Trump was part of a group of New York donors who gave to JNF to finance the construction of a reservoir in the western Negev. In 2005, Trump also contributed toward the creation of new communities for Israelis were evacuated from the Gaza Strip.

    According to former JNF chairman Effie Stenzler, the Israeli govt requested assistance from Jewish organizations, like JNF, to help pay the costs of resettlement. JNF “sought donations in the U.S. and one of them was Trump, who is considered to be an avowed supporter of Israel,” Stenzler said.

    According to TheGivingTrump.com,in 1985, Trump was Chairman of JNF’s Annual Real Estate Divisions Dinner Dance where over $700K was raised, the largest fundraising affair ever for any JNF event.

    July 4, 1984 Trump Attended the 1984 American Friends of Hebrew University Annual Sports Award Fundraising Dinner to Memorialize the 11 Murdered Israeli Athletes During the 1972 Munich Olympics.

    In the 1990’s, Trump tried to convert his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, FL into a country club, but the town council placed restrictions on his club. He filed a lawsuit claiming the council was discriminating against his club, partly because his club was open to Jews and blacks,while other established clubs excluded Jews and blacks. “The episode shook the Palm Beach establishment, unaccustomed to having its linen, dirty or not, aired publicly.” Trump had “elevated the issue of discriminatory policies at social clubs.”

    Abe Foxman of the ADL, said Trump “put the light on Palm Beach. Not on the beauty & glitter, but on its seamier side of discrimination. It had an impact.” He said he received calls from Jewish residents telling how Palm Beach clubs were changing & began to admit Jewish members.

    In 2000, “Trump was recognized by UJA Federation of New York’s Hospitality Division for being an industry leader. He received the Hotel & Real Estate Visionary of the Century Award. He gave the org a $25,000 donation in 2012 and another $15,000 in 2014.”

    In addition, “Trump gave a $10,000 donation to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in 2003, according to spokeswoman Lisa Safir, and a gift in 2012 for general operating expenses amounting to $100,000, an amount which puts Trump’s name on the museum’s wall of contributors.”

    He has also been a regular contributor to Friends of Israel Defense Forces, according to a spokesman. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is a member of that organization’s national board.

    A spokesman for the ADL said Trump had donated a total of $56,000 to the ADL since the 1970’s.

    “In 2014, Trump donated $3,750 to the Institute for Jewish Humanities; $5,000 to the Jewish Community Relations Council of NY; $2,500 to the Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center; and $18,000 to the American Friends of the Jaffa Institute, a nonprofit child welfare agency in Israel.”

    In 2003, Trump donated $10,000 to American Friends of Beit El Institutions, a fund for religious institutions in the Jewish community of Beit El in Samaria. Trump made the donation in honor of his lawyer, David Friedman, who served as its President.

    In 2004, Trump was chosen to be the grand marshal of the Salute to Israel Parade,which was the largest single gathering in support of Israel, with an estimated 1 million spectators, 40 floats, 16 marching bands and dozens of entertainers.

    In 2006, Trump announced plans to build “Trump Tower Israel” in Ramat Gan, a city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. The tower, the tallest in Israel when completed, was supposed to be a 70 story luxury apartment building.
    Trump also had plans to build the first Trump luxury hotel in Netanya. In 2008, Trump sent his daughter, Ivanka, to Israel to study the local real estate market. In 2013, Trump announced plans to build Israel’s first Trump golf course in Ashkelon,which would have included a resort village, convention hall, country club, and commercial shops.

    The Israeli govt released a file in 2017, called the “Trump file,” which detailed Trump’s visit to Israel in 1989. Trump was interested in visiting Israel because he was considering several business deals.

    Although all these attempts to bring the Trump brand name to Israel fell through, for various reasons,Ivankawas quoted in 2016 as saying, “we will definitely continue looking into luxury residence and hotels in Israel in the future.”

    In 2013, Trump appeared in a video from his Manhattan office endorsing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “My name is Donald Trump and I’m a big fan of Israel.” “Frankly, a strong prime minister is a strong Israel.”

    In 2014, Trump pledged to donate more than $100,000 to the Israeli emergency rescue service, United Hatzalah, for the purchase of four ambulances that each cost $26,000, according to the Algemeiner Journal, a Jewish newspaper based in New York.

    In 2015, Trump received the Liberty Award from The Algemeiner for his contributions to U.S.-Israel relations. Trump accepted the award at “The Algemeiner’s ‘Jewish 100’ Gala” in NYC and was introduced by his daughter Ivanka.

    At that event, Trump said “I have a Jewish daughter. This wasn’t in the plan, but I‘m very glad it happened.” He also added, “We love Israel. We will fight for Israel 100 percent, 1000 percent. It will be there forever.”

    In late 2016, Ivanka visited a Florida synagogue and spoke to the audience about her father’s reaction to her conversion to Judaism in 2009. “There was no question, there was no argument,” she said, adding that her father supported her “from day one.”

    So this was a summary of Donald Trump’s involvement with the Jewish community and with Israel before he became President. His record of friendship, generosity and affection for the Jewish community in the US and in Israel is stunning and extraordinary.

    Yet, how has the American Jewish community responded to him? Rather than express gratitude and appreciation for all Trump has done on behalf of Jewish causes, the reaction of American Jews toward Trump was, and continues to be vile, vicious, virulent, venomous and vitriolic.

    The response from American Jews was to cherry pick isolated quotes, look for “dog whistles” in campaign ads and interpret them all in the worst possible way, while completely ignoring all his other statements/actions where he expressed tremendous support for the Jewish people.

    If this is how US Jews respond to someone who has done so much for Jewish causes, no future President will have any incentive to do the same. More than 75% of Israeli Jews consider Trump a great friend and perhaps the best friend Jews have ever had as President. Are they wrong?

    After reviewing the history of Trump’s relationship with the Jewish community, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the main reason Trump has been the most pro-Jewish, pro-Israel President in US history is precisely because…that’s who he is.

    *
    Dan Feinreich is a writer for the pro-Trump organization called “Jews Choose Trump.”
    1 thought on “Trump family has long record of supporting Jewish causes”

    KARLA OBER FEBRUARY 5, 2020 AT 2:39 AM
    Thank you so much for carefully documenting President Trump’s support of Jews and love of Israel. It is almost impossible to find a Conservative or Reform synagogue here in the San Diego area where a politically conservative Jew can feel comfortable. Liberalism reeks from the bima, and their charitable focus seems to be on Liberal causes rather than helping the disadvantaged.
    I plan to make copies of your article and take it to several shuls and rabbis in the San Diego area.
    With appreciation,
    Karla Ober

    https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2020/01/27/trump-family-has-long-record-of-supporting-jewish-causes/