On Friday, March 22, 2024, we made our way to the king's palace. With me were Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Omer Lachmanovitch, Chief Photographer Ami Shooman, and yours truly.
At the time, the king was suspended from power. Nearly four years earlier, he had been cast out of his palace, the White House, in shame. His current residence, Mar-a-Lago, was a liminal space between his presidency and what he was certain would be his return.
That assumption brought three Israeli journalists to meet him, and so did the Hebrew calendar. Our visit came just after the Fast of Esther and just before Purim, the festival commemorating the Jewish people's salvation from genocide.
Modern Israel, then deep into its bloodiest period in recent history, was still reeling from the October 7 massacre. Soldiers fell daily. Hostages remained unreachable. Footage of Gaza's destruction eroded global support for Israel's war against the Hamas terrorist organization. While US President Joe Biden's administration continued supplying weapons, it increasingly constrained Israel, blocking a Rafah incursion, barring control over the Philadelphi Corridor, and demanding more humanitarian aid for Hamas-controlled areas. Meanwhile, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar calmly orchestrated events from his tunnels.
In this grim atmosphere, we walked through torrential rain from Mar-a-Lago's gate to the reception hall, a palace that is part residence, part luxury golf club, part restaurant, and a shrine to Trump. Gilded fixtures, grand portraits, American flags, and golden bathroom taps echoed Trump's taste. We three Israeli journalists, just hours off the plane in West Palm Beach, were there to interview the man who had been, and perhaps would again be, the most powerful leader in the world.
As journalists, our job was to ask questions. As Israelis, we hoped they'd lead to answers that could benefit the Jewish state. At that moment, we felt a bit like Queen Esther approaching the king to plead for her people.
Trump, like Ahasuerus in the Purim scroll, was predictably unpredictable. He expressed support for Israel, saying, "Only a madman or an idiot wouldn't respond to October 7 like Israel did." But in the same breath, he urged, "Finish the job" and "end the war", without clarifying what he meant. It remained unclear whether he supported Israel's stated goal of destroying Hamas.
He declared, "Israel is important to me" and, "I'm a loyal person," implying he wouldn't turn on Israel as his critics warned since 2016, a warning that, to date, has proven unfounded.
Trump criticized the war footage from Gaza and noted that support for Israel had waned. "Fifteen years ago, Israel had the strongest lobby. If you were a politician, you couldn't say anything against Israel. That would end your career. Now it's almost the opposite. I've never seen anything like it. Israel needs to improve its PR, because right now it's suffering badly in that regard."
He also lamented that only a quarter of American Jews voted for him, a grievance, he implied, that was justified. This being an election year, much of his ire was directed at Biden, whom he called "a fool who can't complete a sentence" and "a supporter of the enemy."
In a pivotal moment, we asked who he would pick as his running mate. "Who do you want?" he replied. "We want a pro-Israel candidate," we said. "You'll get one," he promised. "Whoever my VP is, he'll support Israel."
My friend Dr. Kobi Barda believes that statement effectively ended Tucker Carlson's chances of becoming Trump's running mate. Carlson, now known to be deeply hostile to Israel, has recently clashed with Trump over potential US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. It's chilling to consider what could have happened if he'd been vice president.
Back in March, Trump had already begun his poker game with Iran. When we asked what should be done as Iran neared nuclear capability, he held his cards close: "I don't want to say. But I don't think Iran can be allowed to have a nuclear weapon." He claimed that during his presidency, Iran was economically crippled by sanctions: "We told 47 countries, some I spoke to personally, 'If you buy Iranian oil, you won't do business with the US. We'll impose tariffs.' They all agreed. Iran was broke. No money for God, no money for Hezbollah, no money for anyone. But now they're sitting on $221 billion because the US, under Biden, blew it all."
He insisted Hamas would not have launched the October 7 massacre if he were president. "They knew there would be consequences. Biden is unfit. The worst president the US has ever had. Iran is 35 days from a bomb. It's tragic what's happening in Israel, Ukraine, and elsewhere."
Trump didn't need us to say all this. He's been warning about the Iranian nuclear threat since before he entered politics. He famously denounced the Obama-era nuclear deal as "the worst in history" and pulled the US out of it.
But despite Trump saying what many in Israel wanted to hear on Iran, he maintained distance when it came to future commitments to the Jewish state.
The modern Islamic Republic of Iran, successor to the ancient Persian Empire where the Purim story took place, is again at the center of an existential Jewish narrative. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long drawn that parallel, particularly in his annual speeches at AIPAC around Purim.
In 2012, he said: "Iran hides its nuclear industry 'for medical purposes.' Ladies and gentlemen, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's a duck! A nuclear duck! And we must call it by name."
In 2018: "Last week we read the Book of Esther, which tells of an attempt to annihilate the Jewish people. They failed then, they will fail now. We will never allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Not now, not in a decade, never."
These speeches came just before or after Netanyahu's meetings with American presidents, Obama, Trump, Biden. He cast himself as Mordechai, lobbying the modern Ahasuerus to avert disaster. His close adviser Ron Dermer, if you will, was Esther.
But while America wavered, Obama signing a deal, Trump backing out but not using force, Biden doing neither, Iran raced ahead with its nuclear, missile, and regional ambitions. No one, including Israel, stopped them.
Eventually, Iran reportedly attempted to assassinate Trump, twice. US intelligence revealed the plots. Netanyahu confirmed them, likely based on Israeli intelligence. Did that personal vendetta push Trump toward striking Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordo and Natanz? Was it a favor returned to those who uncovered the plot? Or a moral response to the genocidal threats against the Jewish people?
Perhaps all of the above. But the real catalyst, it seems, was Israel's own miraculous comeback: in 12 dramatic days, it crushed Hamas, neutralized Hezbollah, destabilized Syrian President Bashar Assad, dismantled the Iranian axis, and then struck Iran itself. That stunning success swayed Trump, the consummate winner.
Because had Israel not landed a "sword strike and slaughter and destruction" against its enemies, Trump likely wouldn't have joined the victory parade. Readers of the Book of Esther know: even Ahasuerus switched sides only after Esther and Mordechai turned the tide.
From the Simchat Torah massacre to triumph over Iran, the story feels almost biblical - human action so bold, it seems divinely guided. Even skeptics might concede that heaven had a role.
Iran's genocidal decree was at least temporarily lifted. From Haman to Khamenei, history has shown that madmen regularly arise with grand ideas to wipe out the Jews. Sometimes they come close, like Hitler. Sometimes they fail, like Khamenei.
What tips the balance, aside from divine intervention, is Jewish resilience. In the Purim story, Mordechai and Esther needed royal favor. Today's Israel, fortified by thousands of brave, brilliant people, reminded its enemies that annihilating the Jews won't be easy. In fact, it might lead to their own destruction.
We're not invincible. But, as the scroll says: "If Mordechai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of Jewish descent, you will not overcome him; you will surely fall before him." Trump, the modern Ahasuerus, seems to have understood. After Israel's astonishing campaign, he sent his bombers to Fordo. This is the same Trump who once imposed tariffs on the entire world, just as the Book of Esther says: "King Ahasuerus imposed tribute throughout the land, even to the distant shores."
