Community Magazine January 2019

80 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE The President has expressed his displeasure with many in the coalition who have not lived up to their financial commitments. His tough stance has resulted in numerous countries pledging in recent months to increase their financial support. Also, in the Middle East, Trump authorized airstrikes on the government airbase in Syria – where a catastrophic civil war has taken the lives of some 300,000 people in the past six years. The airstrikes sent a swift message to the Syrian government that chemical weapons would not be tolerated. Obama’s administration, famously, refused to strike back after Syrian President Bashar Assad crossed the “red line” of using chemical weapons, but Trump had no such hesitation. The President has also taken measures to ensure the transparency of security expenditures. His call to audit the Pentagon is a first, and an audit will be conducted on an annual basis, and accompanied by a public report. ISRAEL AND THE JEWS In his first two years in office, President Trump has unmistakably proven himself to be an ardent friend and supporter of the Jewish People and the Jewish State. For example, at the end of 2017, Trump commuted the sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, who in 2009 was convicted of various crimes in connection to his Iowa kosher slaughterhouse, including money laundering and fraud. While his guilt was never up for debate, the sentence – 27 years, practically a life sentence for a man of his age – was regarded by many as outrageous. Politicians in both parties joined Jewish activists in lobbying for a more lenient sentence, noting that Rubashkin’s sentence was harsher than Enron’s CEO. Trump commuted Rubashkin’s sentence in December, 2017, after Rubashkin had spent over eight years in prison. But by far the most symbolic of President Trump’s displays of support for the Jews was his decision to move the United States’ Israeli embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. Twenty-two years earlier, Congress passed a law recognizing the holy city as the capital, but every six months, a presidential waiver had deferred its ratification. Other Presidents have paid lip service to Jerusalem’s status as the capital of Israel, but Trump made the most forceful statement by acting upon this belief and formally moving the nation’s embassy to Jerusalem. From the very beginning, the Trump Administration has taken the UN to task for its obsessive hostility towards Israel. Having a strong pro-Israel voice in the chambers of the UN to push back against biased anti-Israel resolutions and anti-Israel rhetoric is a hugedeal for Israelis, and brought the U.S.-Israeli alliance to greater levels of closeness. Nikki Haley – the now-former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations – fearlessly excoriated the UN delegates for politicizing the world body, and recently voted against the resolution that claimed the Golan was “occupied.” Ambassador Haley is, rightfully, considered a hero in Israel and among pro-Israel activists around the world. In recent months, the U.S. has joined Israel in withdrawing from UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Science, and Cultural Organization.), citing anti-Israeli bias. TheU.S. had stopped paying dues in 2011, when the body voted tomake Palestine a full member. The U.S. also stopped much of their aid funding to the corrupt Palestinian Authority. And finally, from very early on, Trump took aim at the “disaster” that was the Iran deal, brokered by Obama and five European powers, without input from Israel and in direct opposition to the stance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s security establishment. In 2018, the Israelis discovered hundreds of tons of Iranian government files, enough evidence to suggest that the Iranians had continued working on a nuclear weapon, despite its signed agreements. In May, 2018, Trump officially withdrew from the Iran deal, and ramped up sanctions against the Islamic Republic. This is merely a shortlist – by no means an exhaustive summary of the Trump Administration’s achievements. CAN WE HEAL? To be sure, there is plenty more that needs to be done. Gun violence is a frightening problem in America, leading many Americans to call for tighter gun control – a measure traditionally opposed by the Republican Party, due to its apparent violation of the Second Amendment, and to the risk of making it harder for the “good guys” to protect against the “bad guys” who would obtain guns illegally. Another grave concern is American society’s increasing political polarization, with the Right and Left growing further apart and more hostile to one another – a problem which some claim the President has exacerbated through his blunt style and frequent Twitter attacks against his political opponents and critics. And, Trump’s hopes to work with Congress on passing new immigrant reforms are all but dead with the new Democratic majority in the House who can be expected to thwart his legislative agenda. Hopefully, the current administrationwill continue its workmaking the country safer and more prosperous, while the citizenry does its part by coming together to engage in constructive, respectful debate, and resolving not to let our deep ideological differences make us enemies of one another. Donald Trump with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. President Donald Trump commuted Sholom Rubashkin's sentence, allowing him to be released after the 8 years served. The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem on Oct. 18, 2018. CONSUMER CONFIDENCE, MOREOVER, HAS BEEN THE HIGHEST IT HAS BEEN IN 13 YEARS, ACCORDING TO A UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SURVEY.