Presidential nominee Donald Trump is saying that Jewish Americans will bear a lot of responsibility if he loses the coming election. He believes that Israel will be met with its destruction “within 2 years” if the current VP is allowed to become commander and chief.

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“If I don’t win this election… the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump declared at an event branded “Fighting Antisemitism.” “I will put it to you very simply and gently: I really haven’t been treated right, but you haven’t been treated right, because you’re putting yourself in great danger,” he added. (Read Here)

He went on to claim at an Israeli American Council (IAC) event that a Harris administration would allow Israel’s enemies to employ more devastating weapons and tactics, turning Tel Aviv and Jerusalem into “unlivable war zones.”

“I said to [IAC funder] Miriam [Adelson] today, ‘They have to go through a little tough love here today because we have to tell them the fact that Israel will not exist within two years if [Harris] becomes president,’” Trump declared. “You have to defeat Kamala Harris more than any other people on Earth. Israel, I believe, has to defeat her,” he said, claiming Harris “makes Barack Hussein Obama look like he loved Israel by comparison.”

A multitude of media outlets have already branded these remarks as the height of antisemitism, but there is more to these comments than many are willing to notice. Obviously, there will be no destruction of Israel—Trump, in classic salesman fashion, is prone to employing hyperbole whenever he wants to make a point, but his claims point to a deeper problem that’s afflicting the Jewish community in America.

Similar to black Americans, most American Jews have formed a religious attachment to the left-leaning Democratic Party, and this is leading to increasingly apparent consequences for the Jewish community. Trump’s blunt and often inflammatory personality is easy for the media to antagonize, but the honesty of his comments points to how dire the situation is becoming for Israel. At the same IAC event, Trump made sure to express support for the hostages still being held by Hamas and wanted to bring to light that many in the Jewish community are “…voting for the enemy.” If he truly hated the Jews, why would he bother to tell them that they are hanging themselves with the policies they are voting for?  A 2023 Newsweek article written by TV personality Sheila Nazarian shines even more light on the subject:

American Jews have historically voted for Democrats by large margins—especially Ashkenazi Jews, who make up two-thirds of the U.S. Jewish population. About 70 percent of American Jews are Democrats. Though this tendency began in the early 20th century, it became even more understandable after the Holocaust. After experiencing first hand how right-wing nationalism could result in the murder of millions of their people, many Jews who came to America in the wake of that horrific event couldn’t ever imagine voting for a right-wing party, and some have come to associate the Republicans with nationalism and even fascism and Nazism.

But as a Persian Jew, my experience was very different from that of most Ashkenazi Jews. I escaped from Iran with my family when I was six years old; Iranian border guards shot at our vehicle as we fled the country during the Revolution. My parents didn’t want me to live in a place where you could be killed if you were a woman who didn’t cover her hair or if you criticized your government. We didn’t want to have to guard our tongue, afraid that if we said the wrong thing our neighbors would rat on us and government officials would put us in prison… or worse.

Unlike Ashkenazi Jews, when Persian Jews like myself came to the United States, we tended to vote Republican. Post-Revolution, we blamed President Jimmy Carter for the Shah’s downfall. In the far-Left progressive rhetoric, we heard echoes of the Ayatollah’s utopian Marxism. And in recent years, we were happy to see Republicans oppose the Iran Deal, because we had firsthand experience with the evils of today’s Iranian regime. We knew that they intended to develop nuclear weapons and try to wipe out Israel and the western world.

If liberal Ashkenazi Jews think they are protecting themselves by voting for Democrats, to us, the opposite is the case: It is Republicans who most Persian Jews see as the safer bet. And things like the anti-Israel sentiment in the Democratic Party that’s always increasing, as well as former President Obama’s calamitous Iran Deal, and the antisemitism from people like Congresswoman “All about the Benjamins” Ilhan Omar, it’s getting harder and harder for us to understand how so many Jewish Americans can still align themselves with the Democrats.

The accounts shared by Nazarian point to the source of Trump’s frustration with Jews who support Kamala Harris.

With antisemitism rising around the world and in our nation, we should pray that America’s Jewish community will understand what’s at stake and see clearly.

Lord, open the eyes of your children. Allow them to see your heart, and see the malice that the Enemy has towards them. Allow the children of Israel, whom you formed a covenant with, to see the plans of their enemies so that they may learn to discern the plans of those who wish them harm. Amen.

Share your prayers and scriptures for America’s Jewish population in the comments.

T.K. Robinson is a student and part-time (amateur) philosopher. In his downtime, he enjoys reading, music, and chronic daydreaming. His Scripture-oriented commentary usually involves the younger generation (especially Gen Z). He wants to shed light on important current events regarding his peers and share insights from a Biblical perspective. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151887030.