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KINSELLA: Trump's support in Israel is astonishing

Jared-Ivanka union seemingly proved beneficial

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For Israel, arguably the most consequential foreign policy achievement happened on Oct. 25, 2009. At a wedding.

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On that date, Jared Kushner married Ivanka Trump, who had earlier that year converted to Judaism. Of their union, the President of the United States would later tell Israel’s Knesset: “(Jared) truly loves Israel … In fact, he loves it so much that my daughter converted … I didn’t know this was going to happen.”

KINSELLA: Trump's support in Israel is astonishing Back to video

“At least, I think they’re happy. If they’re not, we have a big story, right? They have a great marriage, and they get along great. They’re best friends. They have a very special relationship.”

No one will ever know for certain, of course, if the Jared-Ivanka union directly benefited Israel. But all the available evidence suggests that it did. The U.S. president is notorious for turning on allies and friends — cf. Chris Christie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Pence, Bill Barr, Nikki Haley, John Bolton, Anthony Scaramucci, Michael Cohen, John Kelly and on and on — oftentimes with a vengeance.

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But on Israel, for the most part, Trump has been loyal. He has not abandoned the Jewish state.

Moments of disrespect

Yes, there have been moments when Trump has been disrespectful towards Israel and its leadership. In June, for instance, Trump swore when Israel allegedly (justifiably) hedged on a ceasefire, saying Israelis “don’t know what the f—k they’re doing.” Later, in October, Trump ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a grovelling phone call to Qatar’s own Prime Minister, to apologize for attempting to (justifiably) eliminate Hamas’ leaders then being sheltered by the oil-rich Arab state.

And, as renowned Holocaust school Deborah Lipstadt has detailed in her book Antisemitism, Trump has said things like Jews “want to control your own politicians” — and, elsewhere, has accused Jews of being “disloyal” to America, called them “fools,” and has said that if he lost the 2024 election, “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss.”

Despite all that, Israelis love — and that is the correct word, love — Donald Trump.

Polls point to widespread support for attacks

This week, three opinion polls were released in Israel about the Israeli-Iran-U.S. war. All of them showed widespread support for the decision of Trump and Netanyahu to attack Iran’s terror-supporting Islamic regime. Wrote JNS about the polls: “Approval rates in Israel were 82%, 81% and 72% in the polls by the Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI), the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), respectively. The polls had samples of 599, 954 and 792 adult respondents.”

Added JNS: “JPPI also polled 692 U.S. Jews, where 68% of respondents said they supported the U.S. decision to strike Iran.”

A quarter of American Jews opposed the war. Among self-described “liberal Jews,” 62% were opposed.

Notwithstanding the nay-sayers, the overwhelming majority of Israelis remain unabashed fans of Trump. Reported JNS: “Three quarters of respondents in JPPI’s poll in Israel said they trusted U.S. President Donald Trump. Among Israeli Jews, confidence in Trump was at 82%. Confidence in Trump was at 64% in a JPPI poll from July 2025.”

Despite across the world

Trump may be despised elsewhere in the world, and even in his own country. But not in Israel. When I was last in Israel in May, I saw this phenomenon with my own eyes. Just off Hostages Square, where weekly and fiery protests against Netanyahu happened for two years, a number of hostage families gathered to plead for the release of their loved ones.

And their remarks were addressed entirely at Trump, not Netanyahu. The American president, the hostage family spokespeople made clear, was their preferred champion. Not their own leader.

Is this enthusiasm for Donald Trump politically beneficial for Jews, in Israel and around the world? Probably not. Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre could give a masterclass about the danger of being seen as too close to the American president. Polls everywhere show that Trump now has the reverse political Midas touch: everything he touches goes bad.

Not so in Jewish state, or in the Jewish diaspora, however. They love Trump, and they don’t care what anyone else thinks.

Jared and Ivanka probably aren’t the only reason for that, but I doubt they’d argue the point.

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