President Donald Trump is absolutely, 100% still the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House. Full stop.
Many of my friends on the Right claim he is “throwing Israel under the bus” with the new U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding. They are wrong, and they are effectively calling the president a liar. Trump has been explicit: He will not tolerate Iranian proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas continuing to attack Israel.
In a recent Truth Social post, Trump declared: “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” He has also made clear that if Iran or its proxies don’t behave under any agreement, the United States will respond with overwhelming force. These are not the words of a leader abandoning Israel.
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This is the same president who, against fierce opposition and political pressure, moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, something no other president had the courage to do. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, recognized the Golan Heights, brokered the Abraham Accords, eliminated Qasem Soleimani, and, working hand-in-hand with Israel, delivered devastating strikes on Iran’s key nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan. Assessments confirm these strikes set Iran’s nuclear program back significantly, according to Pentagon evaluations.
That last achievement alone is historic and heroic. No other American president in recent history had the courage to take direct military action inside Iran to cripple its nuclear infrastructure. Even without more, that would be enough to cement Trump’s place as Israel’s strongest defender.
Even if the current MOU ultimately fails — Iran does have a perfect record of breaking its word Trump — has already transformed the strategic picture dramatically in Israel’s favor. The MOU contains strong language aimed at ending Iranian-backed terror across the region, reopening critical shipping lanes, and creating real mechanisms for enforcement. Skepticism is understandable when it comes to Iran, but short of demanding an open-ended American ground war that almost no one (including me) supports, these terms give Trump maximum leverage to enforce compliance or punish violations decisively. It is worth a shot, and Trump has the backbone to make sure Iran pays a heavy price if it cheats. The framework gives him the tools he needs while avoiding the endless wars that so many Americans rightly oppose.
Yes, Vice President JD Vance is no Trump, and his recent comments (while taking a short break from his taxpayer-subsidized book tour) are deeply troubling and crossed into dangerous territory. He claimed that Trump “is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time” and warned that if he were in the Israeli cabinet, he “might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” He also accused Israel of attacking civilian population centers in Beirut while claiming many killed “have nothing to do with Hezbollah.”
These statements are morally reprehensible. It is a vile lie that Israel has no staunch allies besides the U.S., and there is no innocent reason to say it except to sow division and undermine Israel. Vance has reversed reality: It is the terrorists (Hamas, Hezbollah, and their Iranian backers) who deliberately target Israeli civilians first, lie about it, and then blame Israel when it responds in self-defense. Every honest person knows this.
These are disgusting, morally reprehensible comments. Vance lacks Trump’s instinctive strength and moral clarity on Israel’s right to defend itself, and I hope that Secretary of State Marco Rubio might reconsider opposing him now that the VP’s true colors have been revealed.
But Vance is not Trump. And he is certainly not the reason that Iran has no nukes today. Trump is the one who ordered the strikes that set the program back years. Vance’s comments reveal a worldview fundamentally at odds with Trump’s proven record of strength toward Israel.
Trump has repeatedly vowed not to allow Hezbollah or other Iranian proxies to keep attacking Israel. He has a proven record of decisive action, including the embassy move that no predecessor dared, and the resolve to enforce any agreement or hit harder if Iran cheats.
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Trump remains Israel’s strongest defender and ally, during a time when being that is despicably unpopular and not without huge personal and political costs. He has already made the Middle East dramatically safer for Israel through bold actions that previous administrations only talked about: recognizing Jerusalem, the Golan, the Abraham Accords, Soleimani’s elimination, and the direct hits on Iran’s nuclear sites.
The record is clear and, while tenuous due to our inability to trust Iran, the language of the MOU is strong and accomplishes the interests of both America and Israel. Everything else is just noise.
Jeffrey Lax is a Professor of Law at the City University of New York and Chair of the Department of Business at Kingsborough Community College. He holds a Juris Doctor from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a Master of Business Administration from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business, Management, and Finance from Brooklyn College.