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Following Abraham’s Lesson, Donald Trump Should Focus on US Unity
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump takes the stage with his wife Melania, his son Eric, and his daughter-in-law Lara, following early results from the 2024 US presidential election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, US, Nov. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The 20th-century Methodist pastor Ralph W. Sockman, best remembered for his weekly presentations on NBC’s National Radio Pulpit for over 40 years, observed that “the test of courage comes when we are in the minority, but the test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.”
In the wake of this week’s stunning US election results, Sockman’s words feel particularly relevant. Donald Trump decisively triumphed over Kamala Harris in a victory that marks a significant political comeback for someone who has faced challenges and setbacks like no previous US president. What lies ahead during his second term will shape the country – and the world — for decades to come.
Trump’s sweeping electoral success, with wins in key swing states like Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, gave him a solid majority in the Electoral College. But perhaps even more striking is the breadth of his appeal, extending even to states he lost. Across diverse demographics, including the Latino community and first-time voters, Trump gained substantial support — a surge that also won him the national popular vote, making him the first Republican to do so since 2004.
Alongside Trump’s personal triumph, the Republican Party has regained control of the Senate, securing key victories in states like Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia. The House of Representatives remains undecided at the current time.
Politically speaking, the Democrats have been routed. Trump’s sweeping success has left the Democratic Party facing a comprehensive defeat. The media and pollsters are also now forced to reckon with just how deeply they misjudged Trump’s reach and influence.
In the aftermath of such a decisive victory, it is tempting for those in power to press their advantage, exploiting their position to make opponents feel the sting of loss. But true leadership demands magnanimity, especially for those with the power to pursue their agenda unchecked. History offers powerful examples of leaders who rose above the temptations of victory, using their success not for vengeance but to foster reconciliation and unity.
One historical example is William of Normandy, better known as William the Conqueror. After winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William faced the challenge of consolidating power over a suspicious English public.
Rather than obliterating the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, he took a pragmatic approach, granting land to his Norman supporters but also allowing some English nobles to retain their titles and estates. He preserved existing laws and administrative systems, blending Norman rule with English customs.
By respecting local traditions after such a decisive military triumph, William helped stabilize England, enabling a smoother transition to Norman rule and averting the threat of perpetual civil war.
Another example is Emperor Meiji of Japan. Japan was split in two when he took power in the late 19th century. The old samurai elite deeply resented the sweeping changes of Meiji’s modernization program. They had been in charge for centuries, living by a strict code and resisting any outside influence. Seeing Japan shift toward Western ideas and a centralized government felt like betrayal to them. Their opposition was fierce and unrelenting.
Meiji could easily have cracked down, sidelining or eliminating his critics to secure his power. Instead, he extended an olive branch, welcoming former samurai into the new government and military and offering them roles in Japan’s emerging society.
This move was crucial: Japan became unified and focused instead of a country divided by endless resentment. Meiji’s restraint allowed Japan’s rapid modernization to thrive — paving the way for the global economic powerhouse we see today.
Similarly, Abraham Lincoln faced a profound test after the Civil War. At his second inaugural address in 1865, with the country ravaged and divided, he spoke not of punishing the defeated South but of healing – a vision he captured in his famous words, “With malice toward none, with charity for all…”
Lincoln understood that what the nation needed most was reconciliation, which meant choosing empathy over retribution. Rather than using his hard-won victory to exact revenge, he focused on rebuilding trust and unity, knowing that the country’s future success depended on it.
This approach helped lay the foundation for a truly united United States to emerge from one of its darkest hours. Without Lincoln’s commitment to compassion and healing at that pivotal moment, it’s hard to imagine America becoming the global symbol of freedom and democracy that it is today.
This principle of restraint, choosing integrity over self-interest, finds a powerful parallel in the Torah, in Parshat Lech Lecha. After Abraham’s victory over the four kings, the King of Sodom offers him the spoils of war. The king proposes that Abraham take the material wealth while he retains the captives — a seemingly fair offer, given Abraham’s role in the victory.
But Abraham refuses, saying (Gen. 14:23), “I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap of what is yours, so you shall not say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’” Abraham’s rejection of the offer reveals his deep commitment to ethical integrity over material gain. Rather than capitalizing on his success for personal benefit, he displays a higher vision of leadership focused on principles.
At the same time, Abraham also encounters Malkitzedek, the King of Shalem, whose approach vastly differs from that of the King of Sodom. Malkitzedek, both a king and a priest, greets Abraham — now the most powerful figure in the region — with bread, wine, and a blessing. This simple offering speaks to spiritual fulfillment rather than material wealth.
Malkitzedek’s welcome is rooted in goodwill and mutual respect, without the trappings of temporal power. He acknowledges Abraham’s victory and blesses him in the name of “God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:19), framing Abraham’s success not as mere conquest but as part of a divine mission.
By choosing Malkitzedek’s blessing over the King of Sodom’s offer of wealth, Abraham aligns himself with a model of leadership grounded in moral clarity and cooperation rather than exploitation.
Abraham’s refusal of the King of Sodom’s spoils, in contrast to his acceptance of Malkitzedek’s blessing, presents us with a profound lesson in the exercise of power. The King of Sodom represents a leadership model based on taking advantage and seeking gain in times of vulnerability, while Malkitzedek embodies a model that prioritizes spiritual values and seeks common ground through shared ideals.
Abraham’s reaction to these two figures symbolizes a profound moral choice: he wanted to build a lasting legacy based on higher principles rather than the short-term satisfaction of showing who is boss.
As Trump and his team navigate the aftermath of this remarkable election, and particularly in the wake of the impressive Republican victory, they should draw inspiration from Abraham’s actions and from leaders like William the Conqueror, Emperor Meiji of Japan, and President Lincoln.
In his victory speech, President-elect Trump promised, “We’re going to help our country heal.” That is music to my ears. The real test of winning lies not in how much one can take but in how much one can give — how one can build bridges rather than nurture divisions, and inspire unity rather than discord.
By choosing restraint and respect over exploitation, true leaders — especially those with the most power — can transform moments of triumph into powerful opportunities for renewal, goodwill, and hope.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
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Trump Proposes Resettlement of Gazans as Netanyahu Visits White House
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, calling the enclave a “demolition site” and saying residents have “no alternative” as he held critical talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
“[The Palestinians] have no alternative right now” but to leave Gaza, Trump told reporters before Netanyahu arrived. “I mean, they’re there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It is a big pile of rubble right now.”
Trump repeated his call for Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states in the region to take in Palestinians from Gaza after nearly 16 months of war there between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which ruled the enclave before the war and remains the dominant faction.
Arab leaders have adamantly rejected Trump’s proposal. However, Trump argued on Tuesday that Palestinians would benefit from leaving Gaza and expressed astonishment at the notion that they would want to remain.
“Look, the Gaza thing has not worked. It’s never worked. And I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land. We’ll get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable,” Trump said.
Referring to Gaza as a “pure demolition site,” the president said he doesn’t “know how they [Palestinians] could want to stay” when asked about the reaction of Palestinian and Arab leaders to his proposal.
“If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places, there’s plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure,” Trump continued. “I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had decades and decades of death.”
However, Trump clarified that he does “not necessarily” support Israel permanently annexing and resettling Gaza.
Trump later made similar remarks with Netanyahu at his side in the Oval Office, suggesting that Palestinians should leave Gaza for good “in nice homes and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed.”
“They are not going to want to go back to Gaza,” he said.
Trump did not offer any specifics about how a resettlement process could be implemented.
The post-war future of Palestinians in Gaza has loomed as a major point of contention within both the United States and Israel. The former Biden administration emphatically rejected the notion of relocating Gaza civilians, demanding a humanitarian aid “surge” into the beleaguered enclave.
Trump has previously hinted at support for relocating Gaza civilians. Last month, the president said he would like to “just clean out” Gaza and resettle residents in Jordan or Egypt.
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, defended Trump’s comments in a Tuesday press conference, arguing that Gaza will remain uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.
“When the president talks about ‘cleaning it out,’ he talks about making it habitable,” Witkoff said. “It is unfair to have explained to Palestinians that they might be back in five years. That’s just preposterous.
Trump’s comments were immediately met with backlash, with some observers accusing him of supporting an ethnic cleansing plan. However, proponents of the proposal argue that it could offer Palestinians a better future and would mitigate the threat posed by Hamas.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, when they invaded southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostages back to Gaza while perpetrating widespread sexual violence in what was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Last month, both sides reached a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar.
Under phase one of the agreement, Hamas will, over six weeks, free a total of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, and in exchange, Israel will release over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are serving multiple life sentences for terrorist activity. Meanwhile, fighting in Gaza will stop as negotiators work on agreeing to a second phase of the agreement, which is expected to include Hamas releasing all remaining hostages held in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
The ceasefire and the future of Gaza were expected to be key topics of conversation between Trump and Netanyahu, along with the possibility of Israel and Saudi Arabia normalizing relations and Iran’s nuclear program.
Riyadh has indicated that any normalization agreement with Israel would need to include an end to the Gaza war and the pathway to the formation of a Palestinian state.
However, perhaps the most strategically important subject will be Iran, particularly how to contain its nuclear program and combat its support for terrorist proxies across the Middle East. In recent weeks, many analysts have raised questions over whether Trump would support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which both Washington and Jerusalem fear are meant to ultimately develop nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu on Tuesday was the first foreign leader to visit the White House since Trump’s inauguration last month.
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Trump Reimposes ‘Maximum Pressure’ on Iran, Aims to Drive Oil Exports to Zero
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, in Washington, DC, Feb. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Ahead of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump signed the presidential memorandum reimposing Washington’s tough policy on Iran that was practiced throughout his first term.
As he signed the memo, Trump described it as very tough and said he was torn on whether to make the move. He said he was open to a deal with Iran and expressed a willingness to talk to the Iranian leader.
“With me, it’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. Asked how close Tehran is to a weapon, Trump said: “They’re too close.”
Iran‘s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has accused former President Joe Biden of failing to rigorously enforce oil-export sanctions, which Trump says emboldened Tehran by allowing it to sell oil to fund a nuclear weapons program and armed militias in the Middle East.
Iran is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level, the UN nuclear watchdog chief told Reuters in December. Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon.
Trump‘s memo, among other things, orders the US Treasury secretary to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing sanctions.
It also directs the Treasury and State Department to implement a campaign aimed at “driving Iran‘s oil exports to zero.” US oil prices pared losses on Tuesday on the news that Trump planned to sign the memo, which offset some weakness from the tariff drama between Washington and Beijing.
Tehran’s oil exports brought in $53 billion in 2023 and $54 billion a year earlier, according to US Energy Information Administration estimates. Output during 2024 was running at its highest level since 2018, based on OPEC data.
Trump had driven Iran‘s oil exports to near-zero during part of his first term after re-imposing sanctions. They rose under Biden’s tenure as Iran succeeded in evading sanctions.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency believes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other OPEC members have spare capacity to make up for any lost exports from Iran, also an OPEC member.
PUSH FOR SANCTIONS SNAPBACK
China does not recognize US sanctions and Chinese firms buy the most Iranian oil. China and Iran have also built a trading system that uses mostly Chinese yuan and a network of middlemen, avoiding the dollar and exposure to US regulators.
Kevin Book, an analyst at ClearView Energy, said the Trump administration could enforce the 2024 Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) law to curtail some Iranian barrels.
SHIP, which the Biden administration did not enforce strictly, allows measures on foreign ports and refineries that process petroleum exported from Iran in violation of sanctions. Book said a move last month by the Shandong Port Group to ban US-sanctioned tankers from calling into its ports in the eastern Chinese province signals the impact SHIP could have.
Trump also directed his UN ambassador to work with allies to “complete the snapback of international sanctions and restrictions on Iran,” under a 2015 deal between Iran and key world powers that lifted sanctions on Tehran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.
The US quit the agreement in 2018, during Trump‘s first term, and Iran began moving away from its nuclear-related commitments under the deal. The Trump administration had also tried to trigger a snapback of sanctions under the deal in 2020, but the move was dismissed by the UN Security Council.
Britain, France, and Germany told the United Nations Security Council in December that they are ready — if necessary — to trigger a snapback of all international sanctions on Iran to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
They will lose the ability to take such action on Oct. 18 when a 2015 UN resolution expires. The resolution enshrines Iran‘s deal with Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Russia, and China that lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Iran‘s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, has said that invoking the “snap-back” of sanctions on Tehran would be “unlawful and counterproductive.”
European and Iranian diplomats met in November and January to discuss if they could work to defuse regional tensions, including over Tehran’s nuclear program, before Trump returned.
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Trump Stops US Involvement With UN Rights Body, Extends UNRWA Funding Halt
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to US engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council and continued a halt to funding for the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.
The move coincides with a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long been critical of UNRWA, accusing it of anti-Israel incitement and its staff of being “involved in terrorist activities against Israel.”
During Trump‘s first term in office, from 2017-2021, he also cut off funding for UNRWA, questioning its value, saying that Palestinians needed to agree to renew peace talks with Israel, and calling for unspecified reforms.
The first Trump administration also quit the 47-member Human Rights Council halfway through a three-year term over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. The US is not currently a member of the Geneva-based body. Under former President Joe Biden, the US served a 2022-2024 term.
A council working group is due to review the US human rights record later this year, a process all countries undergo every few years. While the council has no legally binding power, its debates carry political weight and criticism can raise global pressure on governments to change course.
Since taking office for a second term on Jan. 20, Trump has ordered that the US withdraw from the World Health Organization and from the Paris climate agreement — also steps he took during his first term in office.
The US was UNRWA’s biggest donor — providing $300 million-$400 million a year — but Biden paused funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
The US Congress then formally suspended contributions to UNRWA until at least March 2025.
The United Nations has said that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon — killed in September by Israel — was also found to have had a UNRWA job.
An Israeli ban went into effect on Jan. 30 that prohibits UNRWA from operating on its territory or communicating with Israeli authorities. UNRWA has said operations in Gaza and West Bank will also suffer.
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