Dear Rabbis and Jewish Leaders

I know that some, perhaps many, of you were aghast when Donald Trump was elected. Put that behind you. We have only one president, and whether we voted for him or not (I did not), we must do everything we can to support him. He is not only the leader of our country, he is the leader of the free world. His success is our success, and the world’s success.

For those of you who were offended by his incendiary remarks during the campaign, recall that it was not all that long ago that during his campaign for re-election, Benjamin Netanyahu made inflammatory statements about citizens for whose welfare he was already responsible as a sitting prime minister. What people say in a campaign is essentially hypothetical; once in office, they confront real-world challenges, for which those hypotheticals may be insufficient, or entirely irrelevant. One more factor that you should consider: during the past century, America elected a president whose background included a stellar career both in government and the private sector and he proved to be a disaster in the White House. His name was Herbert Hoover.  About two decades later, a man best known as a failed businessman and party hack became president; he proved to be a most capable chief executive and commander-in-chief. His name was Harry Truman. So let us be careful about rushing to judgment about Donald Trump.

Dov S. Zakheim was the Under Secretary of Defense from 2001-2004.

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Second Thoughts; Post-Election Views From Jewish Leaders Part 1