Trump didn’t mean to teach Israel a moral lesson, but he did. He reminded us that Israel’s survival can never hang on a foreign vote, a White House whim, or a Pentagon shipment. The Jewish state must be self-sufficient in every realm—military, economic, spiritual. We cannot subcontract Jewish survival to anyone, not even the mightiest nation on earth.
The next time a president promises eternal friendship, we should smile, shake hands, and quietly triple our ammunition stockpiles. Because the day may come—again—when we stand alone. And when that day comes, the world will see what it has always secretly feared: the Jew who no longer begs for protection, but provides it for himself.
America’s friendship is not Torah. It’s policy. And policies change the moment it’s politically convenient. In Washington, loyalty lasts only until the next election or the next oil crisis. A superpower’s love is a transactional love—it comes with a bill attached.
Donald Trump did not come to Jerusalem as a prophet. He came as a showman — a man who loves the sound of his own applause and the grandeur of his own reflection. Yet, for all his vanity, he may have spoken the most important unintended truth ever uttered in the Knesset: Israel must never depend on America alone for its survival.
He stood there, flanked by flags and flattery, proclaiming “America will always stand with Israel.” The applause that followed was dutiful, not devout. Every Israeli statesman and soldier in that hall knew the truth that Trump, in his bluster, accidentally revealed: all alliances are conditional.
History has a way of stripping illusions. The British once promised to “protect the Jewish national home.” They armed Arab militias and disarmed Jews. In 1939, with Europe’s Jews burning, Britain’s White Paper slammed shut the gates of Palestine, condemning countless Jews to death while promising “stability.” And yet, when the Jews fought for independence in 1948, Britain armed our enemies and blockaded our coast. That was the “friendship” of empires.
America learned well from its imperial predecessors. It mastered the language of moral obligation, the theater of eternal alliance. “Unbreakable bond,” they call it — a phrase used by every president since Truman, as if repetition makes it truer. But it was Truman who refused to send Israel a single bullet during its War of Independence. It was Eisenhower who threatened sanctions if Israel did not withdraw from Sinai in 1956. It was Reagan who sold AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia. It was Obama who sent cash to Iran — the same Iran that swore to wipe Israel off the map. And it was Trump, that self-anointed Messiah of populism, who made Israel’s sovereignty sound like a subsidiary of his “deal-making.”
When Trump spoke in the Knesset, he looked less like a friend and more like a benevolent landlord inspecting his prized tenant. He called Israel “our greatest ally in the Middle East,” but every “our” was a reminder that in his mind, Israel was part of his project — not her own. He meant it as praise. It landed as possession.
The lesson was not new, only clarified. No foreign nation, however powerful, can be trusted as the guarantor of Jewish existence. Not when Rome offered “peace,” not when Britain offered “protection,” and not when Washington offers “partnership.” The Torah teaches, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man” (Jeremiah 17:5). That verse should be engraved above the Knesset chamber door.
Israel’s rebirth was not the result of global sympathy — it was the defiance of it. Ben-Gurion didn’t wait for America’s permission to declare independence; he did it knowing Washington and Moscow might both turn against him. He didn’t ask permission to build a nuclear deterrent. He didn’t outsource the defense of the Jewish people. He understood that the world respects the Jew only when he stands tall, armed, and unafraid. The moment Israel becomes dependent, it becomes dispensable.
Trump’s speech, with all its theatrical patriotism, was a master class in American self-interest. It wasn’t malicious — it was natural. America does what is best for America. That is how great powers behave. But Israel must never mistake the warmth of a handshake for the permanence of protection. One administration calls us brothers; the next calls us occupiers. The applause of the U.S. Congress can turn into the cold silence of the U.N. in a single election cycle.
It is time we end our dependency addiction — the illusion that U.S. aid is oxygen. Israel today is a technological and military superpower. We build Iron Dome, we train elite cyber units, we export innovation to the world. Why then should the State of the Jews still act like a client state, bowing before every “request” to show restraint while our enemies arm to the teeth?
True friendship is welcome. Subservience is not. America’s friendship should be appreciated — never worshipped. Let there be cooperation, not codependence; alliance, not reliance. Let America admire us, but never imagine that we cannot survive without her.
When Trump thundered his promises of eternal loyalty, I heard something else — the echo of our ancestors who stood alone in every generation. From Egypt to Babylon to Spain to the Pale of Settlement, no gentile empire ever guaranteed our safety. Only our God and our courage did. “Am Yisrael Chai” is not a slogan to be underwritten by the Pentagon. It is a covenant of self-determination — a declaration that Jewish survival will never again depend on anyone’s permission.
And if we need a modern example of that courage, we need only recall Ben-Gurion in 1956. The Americans demanded that Israel retreat from Sinai after its lightning victory in the Suez campaign. Eisenhower threatened sanctions. Congress warned of isolation. The world barked. But Ben-Gurion — short, stubborn, and unswayed — stood before the Knesset and declared: “The IDF will not move one step without security guarantees worthy of a sovereign nation.” He faced down the pressure of the world’s greatest power with the confidence of a man who answered to history, not diplomacy. In the end, he withdrew on his own terms — but only after proving that Israel bends to no one.
That is the model. That is the posture of a free people.
Trump, with his oversized ego and his salesman’s charm, only made the lesson impossible to ignore. He spoke as though Israel were a client in his global portfolio—another asset to be managed, not a people whose destiny is their own. “We’ll always have your back,” he said. But the subtext was clear: as long as you play by our rules.
So yes, Mr. Trump, thank you for your words. In your speech, you reminded me — and perhaps all of Israel — of a truth older than America itself:
A free Jewish nation must be strong enough to thank its allies — and strong enough to outlive them.
REPUBLISHED:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-trump-convinced-me-of-at-his-knesset-speech/