It took a while for The Washington Post to come out with its "Biden defeats Trump" headline. The US election was held last Tuesday, but it was not the easy win America's pollsters and pundits had predicted. It was a tight race – and if US President Donald Trump had presented a clear and consistent policy on the coronavirus outbreak, one aimed at his base but also at his detractors, he would have gone on to have four more years in the White House. But leaders are measured by their handling of unexpected crises, and so it is that Democrat Joe Biden will be America's 46th president. The rest is history.
This was an election that had been talked about for years and isn't entirely over: Trump has no intention of giving up on his legal options. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, has made it his mission to expose voter fraud in the election. Trump's main problem is that he knew of instances of alleged fraud but did not succeed in preventing them. Moreover, he needs his fellow Republican elected officials, and behind the scenes, I'm not so sure too many party members are especially disappointed he is on his way out.
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For the last four years, in fact, since June 2015, when Trump entered politics, everything has been about him. This election was about Trump, and he enjoyed every minute of the referendum. He succeeded in drawing even more voters to the polling stations than he did in 2016. But one virus made the small difference between the collapse of the blue wall at the time and its reconstruction by Biden this year. The vast majority of signs I saw celebrated Trump's loss and his expected exit from the political stage – not Biden's entry into the Oval Office.
Now, a lot of space has been freed up in the public arena, and in the media too. The question now: What will all the left-wing channels in the US do now that there's no Trump? Some of them will need to reinvent themselves, in particular CNN and The New York Times, both of which have obsessively attacked Trump from day one.
They said he would lose big time; but he increased the number of voters who chose him over his opponent in the 2016 election, including among minorities, who made his victories in Florida and Texas and his near-victory in the blue state of Nevada possible, by their having "refused" to fulfill the role Democrats had laid out for them, among other things. They said his voters would set the US on fire, and I saw with my own eyes how they were boarding up windows out of concern that would happen; I have not heard of any cases of cars being set on fire. So who was responsible for this panicked fear of violence – and the riots themselves – that have washed over the US this past year? Trump supporters or Democrats?
Nothing to gloat about
One can understand the joy of his rivals and the celebrations in the streets by Democrats, but I find the gloating in Israel less understandable. A wonderful president from Israel's perspective is leaving the White House. I had the privilege of interviewing him three times in the Oval House. To this day, I get emotional when l recall speaking with the US president about his daughter Ivanka's conversion to Judaism. I still get emotional over the president's stories of his ritual handwashing at her home on Shabbat. There were those who predicted we would miss former US President Barack Obama, but there has never been a US president in the White House with such warm and spirited love for the Jews and the State of Israel.
This is not a president who saw us only from the standpoint of the strategic prism of international relations. His treatment of Israel was not just an attempt to curry favor among US Jews or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. For Trump, Israel and the US are members of the same family. His warmth was such that, even when under pressure to not transfer the US Embassy in Jerusalem, among the many moves he made for us, and although he was under no obligation to do so, he did them anyway. From his standpoint, Israel is more than an ally, so classic considerations are irrelevant. One can prefer a Democratic president in the White House, one can also disagree with Trump's policies and criticize his style. But why would you reject with such contempt the outstretched hand of a president who never took the good of Israel off his administration's agenda?
Trump has gone down in history as someone who moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, and as part of the "deal of the century," endorsed Israel's plan to extend sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley and paved the way for a strategic anti-Iranian alliance that dramatically bolsters Israel's standing and security in the Middle Eastern space. He ushered in a momentum of peace, which a great many of his critics in Israel have already begun to benefit from. Regional stability is back. So when they talk about a return to the old world order and breathe a sigh of relief, what exactly are they talking about? Is it the spring of wars, revolutions, and waves of terror?
Substance versus style
Trump's style was blunt, but sometimes, one needs to be able to differentiate between style and substance. And the voters understood that. The economic indicators during his tenure were excellent, global paradigms shifted, security increased, and for many in the US (around half of the population), and certainly in our region, the sense is one of a farewell to an excellent president. He may not have conveyed success on the coronavirus, but from that to saying Biden rehabilitated the Democrats' standing in the Midwest and the key states is a major stretch of the imagination. There was no trace of the blue wave we witnessed in 2018, and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi may yet pay for this in the form of her status as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Over the last few days, I can't stop thinking about America's 22nd President Grover Cleveland, who was also its 24th. Who knows? Maybe Trump will do the same thing. In the meantime, he's not giving up. I would recommend he help out Republicans in the special elections for two Senate seats in Georgia set for January. This is the next important battle, a dramatic one for the Republican party, that will determine how the Senate is able to either thwart or confirm Biden's vision for America. That is where the real battle for the future character of America for the next four years, beginning with healthcare reform and immigration and even Israel on certain matters, will take place.
And so we will wish President-elect Biden luck. Despite all the arguments, the passion, the turmoil and politics, we do not forget that he is still the president-elect of our greatest friend and the leader of the free world. I saw the outburst of joy and victory celebrations in the streets. The expectations of him, and his Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, are great. Biden delivered a unifying speech, as did his deputy. Everyone was moved by the messages of unity, even those who from Day 1 did not accept the legitimacy of Trump and his voters.
And one more thing, this time directed at the members of our own peace camp, which is breaking out in song and dance as we speak. Have you no concern for the fate of the coming peace accords with five different states?
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