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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The term simpatico took on new life last Friday night, August 23, in Glendale, Arizona, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stepped onto the stage and was welcomed by Donald J. Trump. Simpatico is a word rarely used and means in part, “characterized by shared interests.” It has been absent from our political context for years after the friendship between Republican President Ronald Reagan and former Speaker of the House Democrat Tip O’Neill.

Watching history unfold on our television, my husband and I saw upwards of 20,000 attendees at Glendale’s Desert Diamond Arena explode with extended applause and cheers the moment RFK Jr. walked onto the stage following Trump’s first-rate introduction. Trump and Kennedy together—Republican and Democrat—have connected in areas of common ground. They are reviving simpatico to “Make Health Great Again,” secure our southern border, and support Israel’s moral war to defend its nation in an unasked-for war. Both leaders clearly understand that terror is the Islamic Regime’s key export to the Middle East and around the world.

Shabbat was not celebrated that Friday night in the Desert Diamond Arena. Nonetheless, as a pro-Israel Christian, I viewed it as a political Shabbat—unity conveyed as a kind of shalom! I was refreshed and hopeful that political conversations could once again grow in civility.

RFK Jr. represents an Israel-related legacy from his uncle John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his father Robert F. Kennedy, who were assassinated five years apart. I decided to revisit the CBS Archives, where I relived with tears my clear remembrance of seeing CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite in New York City take off his glasses and look up at the clock as he reported the unthinkable news.

Visibly holding back his emotions, Cronkite solemnly announced that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had died from an assassin’s bullet at 2 p.m. EST on November 22, 1963. During my senior year of high school in 1963, CBS was one of only three television channels. The 35th president of the United States, riding in a Dallas, Texas, presidential motorcade with his beautiful wife in a stunning pink suit, was only 46 years old.

The weeks followed with our entire nation in shock and mourning, much like 9/11 when our country united in grief. For those of us who remember President Kennedy’s assassination 61 years ago and saw the attempted assassination of President Trump on TV on July 13, we felt that shock again, yet thankfully with a miraculous outcome. Of course, today’s toxic political atmosphere in no way resembles our national mourning in 1963. Then, political party did not matter. Today, more than a few Americans voiced regret that Trump’s would-be assassin had missed his mark. 

The Kennedy family history of pro-Israel support is a generational mix. John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy veered away from the anti-Semitic leanings of their father, patriarch Joseph Kennedy. The three brothers, all politicians, were known for their support of the Jewish state and initiated important actions on behalf of Israel and the Jewish community.

For RFK Jr., his family story is especially poignant and challenging. Five years after JFK’s assassination, 42-year-old Robert Francis Kennedy sought the Democratic nomination for president. In 1968, a Palestinian domestic terrorist assassinated him. During his immediate arrest, by his own admission, legal immigrant Sirhan Sirhan voiced the hatred he harbored for Robert Kennedy, who supported Israel’s 1967 Six-Day War. Sirhan declared, “I did it for my country.”

Before Trump’s massive rally on August 23, I listened to Kennedy’s exceptional speech at his Phoenix, Arizona, press conference. There he announced his suspension, not termination, of his campaign. Kennedy initially ran for the Democratic Party nomination, but on October 9, 2023, he had declared himself as an independent after disillusionment with his party. He left saying that the Democratic party had “dramatically departed from the core values I grew up with.”

Kennedy described it now as a “party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big ag, and big money.”

Then, in a pivotal moment during his press conference, Kennedy explained another decision to millions of his supporters: “Many months ago, I promised the American people that I would withdraw from the race if I became a spoiler. … In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path of electoral victory in the face of this relentless, systematic [Democratic] censorship and media control. So, I cannot in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours or ask my donors to keep giving, when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House.”

Kennedy went on to say, “Our polling consistently showed that by staying on the ballot in the battleground states, I would likely hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues: censorship, war, and chronic disease.” Adding to his already dramatic announcement, he said he was in the process of removing his name from the ballot in the 10 battleground states. His speech on YouTube is inspiring.

RFK Jr. admits that his agonizing decision has created division in his large extended family, where some feel betrayed, and others support his position. The current family landscape is an added problem he previously encountered on another issue.

Last year, after beginning his Democratic presidential campaign on April 19, rumors began circulating on social media that he was an anti-Semite. Upon hearing that, his good friend, celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, invited Kennedy to a public dialogue to clarify his positions. This dialogue was held in New York on July 25, 2023, and was entitled “On Jews and Israel,” transcribed by Jaime Kardontchik. After I learned more about RFK Jr.’s policies regarding Israel, it was clear that this propaganda was intentional. RFK calls his own experiences and struggles “the government’s censorship-industrial complex.”

Here are some of his significant statements in the dialogue with Rabbi Boteach:

“Three great causes drove me to enter this race … then persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump.” The causes he cited were: free speech, the war in Ukraine, and the war on our children.

• “The Holocaust was the worst aberration in modern human existence. I grew up with those thoughts, and I grew up believing that the state of Israel was an extraordinary blossom in the desert, an oasis of democracy and values of human rights mixed in a sea of totalitarianism.”
• “I have taught law for 35 years. There is no country in the world with a judiciary like Israel. … And that is evidence of the humanity that you see in all of Israel.”
• “A Palestinian who wants to criticize its government had better do it in Israel. If he does that in the West Bank [or in Gaza], he’ll be arrested and tortured and killed.”
• “The Israel Defense Forces send their people to do ‘retail combat’ door to door, putting IDF soldiers at risk to avoid civilian casualties. Israel is unique in the Middle East … only attacking military targets. The Palestinian Authority, in contrast, has a long tradition of deliberately targeting civilians.”

Kennedy is no stranger to ancient (or modern) Jewish history or its enemies; in fact, his knowledge is encyclopedic. He understands Israel’s 3,700 years on their land. He understands the anti-Semitic hatred poured into the minds of Palestinian children. He mentions that former Palestinian leader Arafat died a billionaire and that Hamas leaders have hundreds of millions of dollars.

He recounts the numerous deaths in his family, his wife’s suicide, and his extended family, then shares that he “takes those tragedies and tries to help other people, to lighten the burdens of others, knowing what to say to console them and try to make something good in my own character that comes out of these tragedies.”

At the end of their dialogue in New York last year, Rabbi Boteach asked Bobby—the name Trump used Friday night to introduce him—“Do you believe in God?” Bobby replied, “God is the center of my life.” And then he said, “Shmuley, I am going to be a great champion for Israel.”

President Reagan and Tip O’Neill would be proud of the Trump-Kennedy partnership.

We welcome you to join our CBN Israel team to pray and reflect on this Scripture in Proverbs 27:17, offering wisdom to encourage, coach, and challenge each other: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

Prayer Points:

• Pray for the Trump-Kennedy alliance to produce great campaigning results.
• Pray for believers to prayerfully encourage teamwork.
• Pray for vigilance and protection for Trump, Vance, and Kennedy.
• Pray for our God of Angel Armies to deploy them to Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide.  In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.