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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.  

The post Following Abraham’s Lesson, Donald Trump Should Focus on US Unity first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Vast Majority of US Jews Reject Jewish Voice for Peace, Other Anti-Zionist Groups, Polling Data Shows

Pro-Hamas protesters led by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) demonstrate outside the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 14, 2024. Photo: Derek French via Reuters Connect

A new poll released on Wednesday underscores how far removed Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and other anti-Zionist organizations that claim to represent Jews are from mainstream Jewish views on Israel, Zionism, and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians.

Commissioned by The Jewish Majority, a nonprofit founded by a researcher whose aim is to monitor and accurately report Jewish opinion on the most consequential issues affecting the community, the poll found that the vast majority of American Jews believe that anti-Zionist movements and anti-Israel university protests are antisemitic.

The findings also showed that Jews across the US overwhelmingly oppose the views and tactics of JVP, a prominent anti-Israel group which has helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza.

Founded in 1996 at the University of California, Berkeley, JVP describes itself as “the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world.” It was infamously one of the first organizations to blame Israel following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.

“Israeli apartheid and occupation — and the United States complicity in that oppression — are the source of all this violence,” JVP said as Israelis were still counting their dead and missing.

American Jews who responded to The Jewish Majority’s poll overwhelmingly reject this line of thinking. Seventy percent said they believe that anti-Zionism of any stripe is antisemitic; 85 percent believe that Hamas, whom JVP described as “the oppressed,” is a genocidal group; and 79 percent support vocally pro-Israel groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization JVP has defamed as “not a credible source on antisemitism and racism.”

Additionally, JVP’s methods of protest are unpopular among American Jews, The Jewish Majority added, noting that 75 percent disapprove of “blocking traffic” and only 18 percent approve of protesters’ wearing masks to conceal their identities. Sixty percent also disagree with staging protests outside the homes of public officials, a common JVP tactic.

“Plain and simple, Jewish Voice for Peace is an extremist group that does not represent the views of the overwhelming majority of American Jews,” Jonathan Schulman, The Jewish Majority’s executive director, said in a statement accompanying the poll results. “American Jews share a strong and consistent stance against anti-Zionists as well as a deep concern over rising antisemitism and the tactics used by organizations like JVP.”

He continued, “It is high time people see through the charade: JVP is not representative of anyone but a marginal fringe, even if a few radical Jews are involved in their movement.”

The Jewish Majority’s poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies.

Jewish Voice for Peace’s inner workings, messaging, and political activities were recently documented in a groundbreaking report on the group published last month by StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights group based in Los Angeles, California.

Titled, “A Shield for Hate, Not a Voice for Peace,” the report noted that JVP has promoted a distorted history of Zionism and Israel, accusing the movement for Jewish self-determination of everything from training US police officers to violate the rights of African Americans to abusing “Jewish history.” In doing so, it has allied with extremist groups such as WithinOurLifetime — whose founder has threatened to set Jews on fire and led a movement to harass Jews on New York City’s public transportation — and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and has proclaimed that “the Zionist entity has no right to exist.”

The report also stated that JVP has collaborated with anti-Israel entities such as Samidoun, which identifies itself as a “Palestinian prisoner solidarity network,” to hold rallies. Samidoun described Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel as “a brave and heroic operation.” The United States and Canada each imposed sanctions on Samidoun in October, labeling the organization a “sham charity” and accusing it of fundraising for designated terrorist groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

JVP has also compared Zionism to Nazism.

“This is Holocaust inversion — an antisemitic tactic in which the genocide Jews faced in the past is used to promote baseless hatred against Jews today,” the StandWithUs report said. “The only group benefiting from JVP’s Holocaust inversion is Hamas — a truly genocidal terrorist group. JVP has helped shield them from accountability for launching the war, ruthlessly militarizing civilian areas across Gaza, stealing humanitarian aid, and rejecting nearly every proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal.”

In June 2024, the Anti-Defamation League filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) accusing the political fundraising arm of JVP of transgressing federal election law by misrepresenting its spending and receiving unlawful donations from corporate entities, citing “discrepancies” in the organization’s income and expense reports.

The complaint lodged a slew of charges against Jewish Voice for Peace’s political action committee (JVP PAC), including spending almost no money on candidates running for office — a political action committee’s main purpose. From 2020-2023, JVP PAC reported spending $82,956, but just a small fraction of that sum — $1,775, just over 2 percent — was spent on candidates, according to the complaint. The money went elsewhere, being paid out in one case for “legal services” provided by a company which “doesn’t appear to practice law” and other expenses.

JVP continues to have the support of powerful friends in the world of progressive philanthropy, a formidable subset of the American elite, amid these scandals and controversies.

Since 2017 it has — according to a 2023 report by the National Association of Scholars — received $480,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation whose endowment is valued at $1.27 billion. Between 2014 and 2015 alone, JVP brought in over half a million dollars in grants from various foundations, including the Open Society Policy Center — founded by billionaire George Soros — the Kaphan Foundation, and others.

According to the recent StandWithUs report, JVP has received substantial financial assistance from organizations tied to Lebanon and Iran.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Vast Majority of US Jews Reject Jewish Voice for Peace, Other Anti-Zionist Groups, Polling Data Shows first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Turkey’s Erdogan Demands Israel Pay Reparations for Gaza, Says Palestinian State ‘Must Not Be Delayed’

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint statement to the media in Baghdad, Iraq, April 22, 2024. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/Pool via REUTERS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday demanded Israel pay reparations “for the harm it inflicted through its aggressive actions in Gaza” and urged the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state.

During a press conference with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in West Java, as part of his Asian tour to Malaysia and Pakistan, Erdogan rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” the Gaza Strip to rebuild the war-torn enclave while relocating Palestinians elsewhere during reconstruction efforts.

Like many other Middle Eastern leaders who rejected Trump’s proposal, Erdogan also advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The creation of a sovereign, territorially united State of Palestine within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital cannot be delayed any further,” he said during the press conference, as aired by the Turkish TRT Haber TV channel.

“Any step, proposal, or project that undermines this matter is illegitimate in our view, and it means more conflicts, bloodshed, and instability,” he continued.

During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House last week, Trump called on Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states to take in Palestinians from Gaza after nearly 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas.

“Until there is peace in Gaza, until the Palestinians achieve peace, peace in the region is impossible,” the Turkish president said.

With talks underway to extend the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Erdogan also demanded that Israel must pay reparations “for the harm it inflicted through its aggressive actions in Gaza.”

“The cost of Israel’s 15-month attacks in Gaza is about $100 billion,” he said. “The law dictates that the perpetrator must compensate for the damage.”

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

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 ceasefire and hostage-release deal brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar.

Under phase one, Hamas agreed to release 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, in exchange for Israel freeing over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are serving multiple life sentences for terrorism-related offenses.

So far, 16 of the 33 hostages have been released during the first phase, which is set to last six weeks.

During the press conference, Erdogan also announced that Turkey and Indonesia will join forces in the reconstruction of Gaza.

Last month, Erdogan met with Hamas leader Muhammad Ismail Darwish in Ankara.

Turkey has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel during the Gaza war, even threatening to invade the Jewish state and calling on the United Nations to use force if it cannot stop Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.

Last year, Ankara also ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel, citing the “humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories as the reason.

Erdogan has frequently defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. He and other Turkish leaders have repeatedly compared Israel with Nazi Germany and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler.

The post Turkey’s Erdogan Demands Israel Pay Reparations for Gaza, Says Palestinian State ‘Must Not Be Delayed’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Boston University Rejects Proposal to Divest From Israel

College students in the Boston, Massachusetts area hold dueling demonstrations amid Israel’s war with Hamas in April 2024. Photo: Vincent Ricci via Reuters Connect

Boston University has rejected the group Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) call for its endowment to be divested of holdings in companies which sell armaments to the Israeli military, becoming the latest higher education institution to refuse this key tenet of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

“The endowment is no longer the vehicle for political debate; nevertheless, I will continue to seek ways that members of our community can engage with each other on political issues of our day including the conflict in the Middle East,” university president Melissa Gilliam said on Tuesday in a statement which reported the will of the board of trustees. “Our traditions of free speech and academic freedom are critical to who we are as an institution, and so is our tradition of finding common ground to engage difficult topics while respecting the dignity of every individual.”

Gilliam’s announcement comes amid SJP’s push to hold a student government administered referendum on divestment, a policy goal the group has pursued since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Its hopes were dashed on Tuesday when what SJP described as “technical difficulties” caused the referendum to be postponed indefinitely. However, SJP hinted that the delay may have been caused by its failing to draw a “representative sample of BU’s undergraduate population” to the polls.

SJP’s relationship with the university is poor, according to The Daily Free Press, Boston University’s official campus newspaper. In November, the Student and Activities Office issued the group a “formal warning” following multiple violations of policies on peaceful assembly. SJP, the Free Press said, occupied an area of the Center for Computing and Data Sciences for two days and tacked anti-Zionist propaganda — which included accusations that Boston University profits from “death” — on school property inside the building despite being forewarned that doing so is verboten. Following the disciplinary action, SJP accused the university of being “discriminatory towards SJP and our events.”

American universities have largely rejected demands to divest from Israel and entities at all linked to the Jewish state, delivering a succession of blows to the pro-Hamas protest movement that students and faculty have pushed with dozens of illegal demonstrations aimed at coercing officials into enacting the policy.

Trinity College turned away BDS advocates in November, citing its “fiduciary responsibilities” and “primary objective of maintaining the endowment’s intergeneration equity.” It also noted that acceding to demands for divestment for the sake of “utilizing the endowment to exert political influence” would injure the college financially, stressing that doing so would “compromise our access to fund managers, in turn undermining the board’s ability to perform its fiduciary obligation.”

The University of Minnesota in August pointed to the same reason for spurning divestment while stressing the extent to which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict polarizes its campus community. It coupled its pronouncement with a new investment policy, a so-called “position of neutrality” which, it says, will be a guardrail protecting university business from the caprices of political opinion.

Colleges and universities will lose tens of billions of dollars collectively from their endowments if they capitulate to demands to divest from Israel, according to a report published in September by JLens, a Jewish investor network that is part of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Titled “The Impact of Israel Divestment on Equity Portfolios: Forecasting BDS’s Financial Toll on University Endowments,” the report presented the potential financial impact of universities adopting the BDS movement, which is widely condemned for being antisemitic.

The losses estimated by JLens are catastrophic. Adopting BDS, it said, would incinerate $33.21 billion of future returns for the 100 largest university endowments over the next 10 years, with Harvard University losing $2.5 billion and the University of Texas losing $2.2 billion. Other schools would forfeit over $1 billion, including the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and Princeton University. For others, such as the University of Michigan and Dartmouth College, the damages would total in the hundreds of millions.

“This groundbreaking report approached the morally problematic BDS movement from an entirely new direction — its negative impact on portfolio returns,” New York University adjunct professor Michael Lustig said in a statement extolling the report. “JLens has done a great job in quantifying the financial effects of implementing the suggestions of this pernicious movement, and importantly, they ‘show their work’ by providing full transparency into their methodology, and properly caveat the points where assumptions must necessarily be made. This report will prove to be an important tool in helping to fight noxious BDS advocacy.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Boston University Rejects Proposal to Divest From Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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