Back in November, Yeshiva World News published a controversial mailbag article titled “Why I’m Voting For Kamala Harris Over Donald Trump, And Why You Should Too.” Many of you will remember it—not necessarily for its content, but for the uproar it caused.
The writer made a compelling, if unpopular, case: that Kamala Harris represents a steadier and more principled approach to foreign policy, while Donald Trump’s decisions are more impulsive, more ego-driven, and more transactional than ideological. He warned that Trump’s alliance with Israel wasn’t based on shared values, mutual respect, or any enduring strategy—but rather on whether leaders “like him” or not. And he concluded, quite boldly, that this type of relationship was risky and unsustainable.
The backlash was instant and brutal.
The comments flooded in: “What did you smoke before writing this article?” … “Utter fool” … “Trash” … “I can’t believe YWN published this.” The outrage was deafening. The reaction wasn’t just disagreement—it was dismissal. Condescension. Derision. As if the very possibility of Trump being anything other than Israel’s best friend was laughable.
And yet, here we are.
Today, Yeshiva World News reported that Trump’s relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu has reached a low point. Trump has reportedly “run out of patience,” and is moving ahead with his Middle East agenda without Israel. The shocker? He’s now pushing a deal with Saudi Arabia—even if it means leaving Israel out of the picture entirely.
Let that sink in.
Trump, the supposed “best friend Israel ever had,” is now ready to cut a nuclear deal with Riyadh—even if it doesn’t include normalization with Israel. Under Biden, those nuclear talks were tied to a broader package that required Saudi recognition of Israel. Trump? He’s done waiting. He wants the deal, Israel or no Israel.
Now let’s be honest: this should not be shocking. It’s exactly what that November mailbag writer predicted. His warning was never that Trump was anti-Israel—it was that Trump is pro-Trump, and that our community’s trust in him is built more on emotion and campaign slogans than any stable, ethical framework.
That writer was mocked for saying Trump’s foreign policy was based on personal loyalty rather than democratic values or long-term vision. Today’s news proves his point.
And it forces us to ask hard questions: Did we put our trust in someone who saw our support as a tool to be used and discarded? Were we seduced by slogans and photo ops, while ignoring the real risks of hitching ourselves to a man with no consistent principles?
It’s time we recognize that short-sighted loyalty can be dangerous. Trump knew how to speak our language. He gave us embassy moves and peace deals that felt good. But now, when the politics shift, he walks away—and expects us to follow anyway.
This isn’t about Kamala Harris anymore. It’s not even about left or right. It’s about learning to distinguish between performative friendship and real strategic alliance.
In hindsight, that “ridiculous” mailbag article might’ve been one of the most prescient pieces published on this site in a long time. Maybe we owe that anonymous writer an apology.
Or at least… a second read.
Signed,
Shlomo Zalman Rabinowitz
The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.
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27 Responses
We are seeing a Trump that moves at lightning speed and whose goal is an actual peace and not the usual expensive cold peace with no real winners and a lot of tension. If anyone is operating under the old norms they’ll be left behind. It would be best to reframe the world leaders on this mindset, then they may gain instead of hoping for business as usual but with more friends.
With either Trump or Harris in the White House, it would be better for them to be in control of Middle East instead of Israel.
No loyal American and certainly no loyal Jew is looking to stregthen the hand of the Zionist state and their heretical leaders.
Would you drama queens stop being ridiculous. “Al tivtichu bben Adam shein lo sishuoit.” Stop stressing and for once let’s just trust Hashem. It’s been nearly 6,000 years…..hasn’t he earned our trust? Once we’re on the topic maybe Stop attacking his yeshivas and beni Torah
I have mixed thoughts. Bec right now, Israelis would prefer not to have peace deal with Saudi if it means recognizing a Palestinian state, and I am happy the Trump is separating the two bec it’s better than pressuring Israel so that he can brag about a “deal.”
On the other hand, he is now taking any possibility of normalization with Saudi off the table for the near future, bec they are getting what they want. Instead of following thru on his plan to help relocate palestinians, and solve the gaza situation, and then focus on saudi normalization, when they would be more able to recognize Israel without backlash from the street, he is just trying to show off how good he is at making deals so he can brag about it. it’s incoherent.
however, I would still rather this, than pressuring Israel into something that it can ill afford to do.
It’s better that America deals alone with saudia arabia. Otherwise the Saudi will insist on a Palestinian state. It’s the smartest move. Who needs pressure for a Palestinian state. America gives billions of dollars to many Arab countries without tying it to Israel. Trump is the best friend Israel has. It’s perfect.
udos the letter writer for including his name. I think all published letters should include the author’s name.
But who are you kidding? Trump has stood up to the Hamas supporters in the US and has already begun getting rid of them. He also authorized Israel to carry out Transfer which until now has been but a dream. Even with everything else Trump is by far the best President for the Jews and Israel. And Kamala? I think she would have been the worst for the Jews and Israel.
All due respect, what did you smoke before you wrote this. Trump is the president of the united states not the president of Israel. As long as he isn’t hurting an ally i.e. Israel, he has every right and indeed responsibility to do what is best for America. It’s very disappointing that everyone is bashing him over this, did you expect POTUS to act exclusively on Israel’s behalf to the detriment of the country he is sworn to serve? Also please consider how Israel would be treated under a Harris administration before commenting on Trump.
Trump went to the Ayhel, the tomb of the Habad Lubavitch Rebbuh MH”M shliteh, and Harris didn’t. That is the main thing.
the “tomb” of the Habad Lubavitch Rebbuh MH”M “shliteh”
LOL !!
“MAILBAG: The YWN Letter We All Laughed At—And Should Have Taken Seriously“
You’re talking about this one, right? Im still laughing at this one!
Harris wasn’t a viable candidate as anyone knows, evident in the fact that she didn’t win a single swing state!
Biden and by extension blocked arms sales to Israel whereas trump let it through
Trump released some of the hostages being held after Biden was going out and even though it was a Biden plan it was only due to trump that they did so
There are more that @square root can rattle off, I’ll leave it to him
And ultimately לב שרים ומלכים ביד ד׳ so to say “I told you so” is utterly foolish
But hey, one can’t reason with people that have TDS
I’m no Trump fan but still think Israel is way better off with the Trump than Harris. If she were president the news would be about arms embargos to Israel ,far worse Iran deals. Harris’s “grave concern” about the “humanitarian disaster” unfolding in Gaza and other pressure she is putting on Israel .
Some of the accusations against Trump are difficult to even understand. Is getting the Houthis to agree to stop attacking ships but not agreeing to stop attacking Israel a BAD thing? Does it hurt Israel to have the Houthis back down somewhat? The US making a deal with Saudi Arabia (who Israel relies on as a counterbalance to Iran and it’s proxies in the region) hurts Israel?
Claiming the peace deals Trump brokered during his first term were things that “made us feel good” as opposed to inherently good like the letter does, clearly shows an anti-Trump bias that is motivating everything else written in this letter.
The wicked Zionists are the greatest enemies of G-d, the Torah and His people the Jews. Until you internalize that basic truth and remove the idolatry and heresy of Zionism from your head, you will remain confused and needlessly conflicted.
Let G-d run His world. He will deal with the wicked Zionists when He chooses to do so, and will protect all His children regardless of that.
We Jews need rulers who let us serve G-d in peace, including removing the evil filth of Sedom that has increasingly corrupted society, particularly over the past few years, so that our gentile neighbors are more G-d-fearing and moral. That’s what President Trump did last time and that’s what he’s doing this time as well. He deserves tremendous credit for that, not TDS.
It is baffling to me that people draw conclusions based upon what they read in the news.
Haven’t we all learned by now that all news is agenda driven.
It may be true, it may be an attempt by certain elements to drive a wedge between trump and bibi. Whatever. But to think that what you are reading is true?
Lets see if it happens and then you can come back and kvetch
Just on a personal level, I am probably not the only one who gets the feeling that neither Obama (who backstabbed Israel on the way out of office) nor Harris had much of a soft spot in their heart for Israel, and did what they had to do in “supporting” to fulfill their political duty. You might be right that Harris would have a “steadier and more principled” approach to foreign policy, but those principles are not her own. When the pressure mounts for an arms embargo against Israel, 50/50 she caves.
I agree that there was a bit too much euphoria over Trump as the savior of the Jews. But that does not change what the attitude was, and still is, in the Democratic party, and especially Kamala Harris, over the attitude towards Israel. Every word out of her mouth regarding Israel was 100 times worse than anything Trump has done or is proposing to do.
Just take into consideration what Senator Federman is going through now. Since he has the audacity to back Israel, they question his mental capabilities.
It’s like saying: The working relationship with your office colleague hit some complication and a new low, so that proves we should have burned this office all down to the ground long ago…
..and Trump did not use his Saudi deal to force Israel into anything Israel doesn’t want (like Kamala surely would), he just separated the two issues – maybe a little disappointing, but nothing terrible…
Did you really just try to make a claim because of this one thing with Saudi Arabia that we would be better off with Harris? You’re willing to put us back under Democrat control because of Trump’s mood? Do you remember how many soldiers we were losing a day because of Biden’s handcuffs? And his weapons withholding? Riyadh was not going to recognize Jerusalem no matter what and it was obvious. Trump had to go through with something to gain in foreign policy but that doesn’t besmirge his support for Israel at all. The Jews All Over America are safer because of his attacking anti-semitism and Border policy. He is allowing them to do whatever they need in Gaza and sending whatever we need. Not to mention Syria and Lebanon. Ridiculous to advocate for the Democrats they are poison
I’m still laughing at you. We all know לב מלכים ביד ה׳ We say every day אל תבטחו בנדיבים. I don’t put my trust in Donald Trump or Kamal Harris but we have to do our Hishtadlus Harris would have been a very weak leader She lost her credibility on the border issue . flipped flopped on a host of other issues. World leaders would never have respected her and she definitely would have been a disaster for Israel.
לב מלאכים ושרים ביד השם
Its NOT in Trumps hands how this all will play out.
One thing is for sure if Kamala would of won this election Israel would of worried much more.
It is true that it may disappointing that Trump is not going to get a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, but after 10/7, Saudi Arabia said they won’t do it unless there is a palestian state, which is much worse than having a normalization deal. I’m fine with no normalization if it means no Palestinian state. Also, Trump already did a lot more important things than the normalization deal like stop Hamas supporters at colleges, cracking down on colleges not stopping them. Just yesterday, Columbia and Brooklyn colleges actually called the nypd to deal with the violence, which they didnt do last year. Also, letting gazans leave is a dream idea, which no one (even republican) except Trump would come up with that idea. Also, maybe the most important thing for Israel is that he is letting them defeat Hamas by letting Israel control the aid and by giving them the weapons to do it. Biden withheld important weapons, causing Israel to use limited or old weapons from the Yom Kippur war. (I do think the tariffs situation wasn’t handled the best way by Trump, but on Israel he did a lot of amazing things, and the normalization is a disappointment, but for him, America comes first, which makes sense. However, if he does let Iran get a bomb, that may be worse than all the good things combined.). In the end of the day, we only have Hashem to rely on.
I did not see the letter back in November, but had I seen it, I wouldn’t have been too upset. Although Trump is the best friend Israel ever had, even now, I never liked him at all. I, too, was scared about electing Trump because of his volatile nature. His leaving Israel out of the Saudi deal was not totally a shock because you can never know what Trump will do next. That is not a good thing. However, there was no choice, except to vote for Trump. Not only because of his pro Israel stance, but because Mamalah Kamala was always the worse of the 2 evils. If only we had chosen Niki Haley as the Republican candidate. In the end It’s all in the Hands of Hashem and it always was.
I reread that letter and still think it was nonsense.
To quote that letter
“For the Biden-Harris administration, supporting Israel is about shared values, not personal alliances. Yes, this comes with conditions. And, yes, it means that Israel doesn’t always get everything it wants, and disagreements are bound to happen.”
Once you accept that as true there is no way you can argue that Harris would be better for Israel. And this is without all the other garbage that Harris would have brougt.
Why would a “frum” moderator on your site allow for hateful anti Semitic comments by this “Lemayseh”?
Very well said. Not everyone laughed at those points. Many of us voted Harris but we were bullied into submission by the MAGA mob.
YWN ran this as well on election day https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/2329436/mailbag-torah-and-trumpism-respect-the-right-to-vote-your-conscience.html
As long as there is “a place at the table” in the Democratic Party for those advocating genocide of Jews, and engaging in physical attacks on Jews in the United States, there isn’t a serious option for frum Jews (secular Jews believe, as they did in Germany in the 1930s, that being assimilated grants them immunity from anti-Semitism – but we know better) other than to vote against the Democrats. While Trump may be a fool, or a genius, and even if his policies may be brilliant, or dumb – at least he doesn’t want to cut our throats. If the Democrats, many of whom are assimilated Jews, develop the courage to stand up to their anti-Semitic wing and kick them out of the party – which might happen – we will then have a choice.