Jordan and Egypt had been placed on Pence’s itinerary so the U.S. could be seen as operating in consultation with many actors on the Middle East policy; however, the real action had always involved just three parties—Israel, the Trump administration, and its hard-right political base. After a short flight from Amman, Air Force Two landed at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, where the weather was mild and clear. First to greet Mike and Karen on the tarmac was Israel’s tourism minister, Yariv Levin, a Knesset member in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party. The bespectacled minister bowed excitedly from the waist as he pumped the vice president’s hand and continued to bow even after Pence moved down the reception line to Ron Dermer, the American-born Israeli ambassador to the United States, and then David Friedman, the right-wing New York attorney who had worked for Trump and family on real estate deals before his controversial appointment as U.S. ambassador.
Friedman was a law partner of Trump’s personal lawyer in the Russia investigation, Marc Kasowitz, and had known the president for more than twenty years. Ambassadors Dermer and Friedman had much in common; they were both born in the United States and were supporters of Trump and virulent critics of Barack Obama. Dermer, born in Miami Beach, had renounced his American citizenship in 2005. He said early in 2016 that Obama had colluded with dark forces at the United Nations, and he had been outraged when the Obama administration had not vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that criticized the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Minister Levin, quite hawkish himself, was the embodiment of Israel’s internationally condemned policies on occupation. He lived in the town of Mod’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, about eighteen miles west of Jerusalem, portions of which are along the 1967 West Bank border and are not recognized by the European Union as being part of Israel. When the handshakes were completed, he spoke words that became the theme of Pence’s two-day visit. “Thank you for your important part in the president’s declaration and in the recognition of Jerusalem as our capital,” he said. “I am convinced that your wife, Karen, and you will feel at home here.” Pence had every reason to feel at home among the people of the Holy Land, the land of Israel and where evangelicals believe the second coming of the Messiah will be staged.6
Mike and Karen Pence camped in a suite at the King David Hotel, where the three top floors had been designated for their entourage. The eighty-six-year-old hotel was in the heart of Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City and Mount Zion. Hotel staff had been bustling in preparation for the vice president’s twice-postponed trip. As Mike and Karen had settled in for the night, the staff was content they had satisfied their one request—they had been told there should be no alcohol in their room.
The official delegation included Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, who had special interest in the region and had traveled there before. Ayers was on the board of an Atlanta megachurch named Leading the Way, which was headed by Rev. Michael Youssef. Many in his church believed that Bible prophecy required that Jews be called to Jerusalem before the so-called end of days when Christians would be called to heaven and those who have not given themselves to Jesus—Jews, for instance—would die in the final reckoning. Youssef and Ayers had traveled to Egypt in April 2017, just before Ayers formally started working with Pence. (Pence, just months into his vice presidency, seemed to be building a foreign policy approach separate from the president and the State Department.) They had met with members of the Egyptian parliament and inquired about treatment of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority. Ayers had been with Pence when Sisi hosted him in Cairo and had sat next to him across the table from King Abdullah in Jordan.
On the morning after his arrival in Israel, Pence met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office, where he had more reason to feel at home. Netanyahu lavished praise on Pence and Trump. “Mr. Vice President, I’ve had the privilege over the years of standing here with hundreds of world leaders and welcome them, all of them to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. This is the first time that I’m standing when both leaders can say those three words, ‘Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.’ I want to thank President Trump and you for that historic statement, which I know you supported and championed. I look forward to discussing with you, as we’ve just begun, how to further strengthen our remarkable alliance—it’s never been stronger—and how to advance peace and security in our region, which is our common aim.”7
While the vice president conducted his official business, Karen Pence toured the Old City of Jerusalem with little fanfare. She did agree to an unusual on-the-air interview with Calev Ben-David, an anchor at i24, a Jerusalem English-language television channel. The ground rules for the interview, done at the King David Hotel, were that Ben-David would not ask political questions. Accordingly, he asked Karen how she defined her role as the vice president’s wife, and she responded in a form and substance that channeled her husband.
“Well, first of all, it’s a privilege, and it’s great to be here in Israel, one of my favorite places in the world,” she said, smiling and shaking her head back and forth as her husband frequently did when he answered reporters’ questions. “I think the role of the Second Lady is, well, first of all to support the administration,” she said. “I talked with First Lady Melania Trump, and we talked about what my role should be, and she strongly encouraged me to choose an initiative near and dear to my own heart. Art therapy [in education] is my main focus.”8
After the interview, Karen Pence joined her husband for the main event of his trip, the speech at the Knesset. Like so much in Israel, even the hall was a reminder of the unresolved status of a country where many basic disagreements remained unresolved. The most visible decoration was a Galilee limestone inlaid sculpture titled Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, possibly the most photographed art in Israel. It was the work of famed artist Dani Karavan, who had petitioned to have it removed when the Netanyahu government said it would cut some official funding to artists who do not perform or present their works in the contested—some said illegal—Jewish settlements in Arab areas. “The wall in the Knesset, sometimes I am ashamed that I did it,” Karavan said. “I have asked many times that they move it or cover it up with a rug until the Knesset embodies the spirit of the country’s Declaration of Independence.”9
When the time came for him to speak, Pence entered and took a seat next to the speaker of the Knesset, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, who spoke first in Hebrew, then in English. “It’s my true honor to invite the vice president of the United States, Mr. Michael Pence, to deliver his address.” Pence stepped over to the lectern to a standing ovation by most and began to read from a teleprompter: “Members of the Knesset, Justices of the Supreme Court, citizens of Israel.”
Before Pence could continue, the thirteen Arab-Israeli parliamentarians who had been seated during the welcome now stood and unfolded signs that bore a picture of the Dome of the Rock, with an inscription in Arabic and English: “Jerusalem is the Capital of Palestine.” Security guards moved in; a melee ensued. The guards grabbed the posters and hustled the Arab members of parliament out of the Knesset. Netanyahu and other parliamentarians clapped rhythmically, supporting their expulsion.
While the protest occurred, Pence stood silently, his hands stiffly at his side, mouth set in a vaguely pained expression. He waited, his gaze shifting mechanically back and forth. Finally, Edelstein spoke in Hebrew, calling for order and observance of protocol, then turned to Pence: “Mr. Vice President, I apologize.”
Pence, who had probably been forewarned about the protest, resumed speaking: “It is deeply humbling for me to stand before this vibrant democracy.” He stopped as the remaining Knesset members responded with another round of applause.10
While he spoke in a calm and measured voice, the vice president did not say anything to soothe Palestinian concerns. He said the date for moving to Jerusalem had been shifted a year earlier than originally announced, since, after all, “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. And as such, President Trump has directed
the State Department to immediately begin preparations to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In the weeks ahead, our administration will advance its plan to open the United States Embassy in Jerusalem, and that United States Embassy will open before the end of next year.”
“Our president made his decision, in his words, ‘in the best interests of the United States,’ but he also made it clear that we believe that his decision is in the best interests of peace. By finally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the United States has chosen fact over fiction. And fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace.”
The quiet in the hall was often broken by applause. However, Netanyahu and his allies were silent as Pence said, “President Trump reaffirmed that, if both sides agree, the United States of America will support a two-state solution.” However, they did respond positively when Pence said Trump was prepared to abandon the six-nation Iran nuclear deal, which Obama had negotiated to control against Iran creating nuclear weapons.
The Iran deal had been supported throughout Europe and by a number of Republicans in Congress. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, for one, warned against Trump decertifying the agreement. However, Netanyahu hated the deal and was pleased to hear Pence describe it as “a disaster,” and promise that “the United States of America will no longer certify this ill-conceived agreement.”
Although most of what Pence had to say related to current issues and was readily understood by the Israelis, some of his allusions to history and scripture were more opaque. The speech had been laced with references to the Old Testament and several mentions of Abraham as prophet of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. Evangelical Christians often go overboard in their discussion of faith among the Founding Fathers of the United States—Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Ben Franklin were not particularly religious—so it was natural for Pence to speak of America’s founders’ respect for the Bible and for Judaism.
“Our founders,” said Pence, “turned to the wisdom of the Hebrew Bible for direction, guidance, and inspiration. America’s first president, George Washington, wrote with favor to ‘the children of the stock of Abraham.’ Our second president, John Adams, declared that the Jews, in his words, ‘have done more to civilize man than any other nation.’”
To his listeners, including some tuning in via a live transmission on the internet, Pence’s remarks surely sounded pious but ordinary. However, a New York University scholar, Joshua Blachorsky, was taken with the fact that Pence used the word faith fourteen times. Faith, in isolation, did not express the essence of Jewish religious life, and Blachorsky wondered if Pence’s audience understood what he meant. Then Pence said, “It was here, in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, that Abraham offered his son, Isaac, and was credited with righteousness for his faith in God.” Blachorsky repeated those last words to himself—“was credited with righteousness for his faith in God”—and thought, “That isn’t right. The line is adapted from a key phrase in Genesis 15:6, central to Christian doctrine. The accepted text does not use the word ‘faith.’ Instead, it references ‘righteousness.’”
The Christian concept of serving God by having faith alone—without needing to follow the commandments laid down in the Old Testament—was not consistent with what the Old Testament says and what Jews know. However, it is central to the Christian view of Jesus and the Resurrection, and it is oft repeated by end-of-days evangelicals. To a biblical scholar, it sounded like Pence was making a sneaky attempt to pass off Christian Right theology to a roomful of Jews. One thing was certain: this was not the kind of question that would have been raised had Trump been giving a speech to the Knesset. Trump had created his own controversy in his first week in office by failing to mention the Jews in a statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Did Pence purposely preach Christian theology to a Jewish audience? “I think that’s the $64,000 question,” said Blachorsky weeks later. “Is he such a Christian man that he can’t speak without dropping some theology in there and that his theology will be good Christian superstitious theology? I would love to ask him. If it was unintentional, someone needs to fire his speechwriter. There should have been no way that—if he didn’t mean to say this—that it got into his speech. This is supersessionist theology: Christianity has superseded Judaism in terms of who shall inherit the earth.”11
Blachorsky posted an analysis of Pence’s biblical references on his Facebook page. Amit Gvaryahu at Hebrew University caught Blachorsky’s post, and the two scholars spoke about it. Gvaryahu found Pence’s stealthy mention of Christian theology to be outrageous and penned an opinion piece for the newspaper Haaretz, which published it several days after Pence’s departure. LUCKY, read the headline, THE JEWS DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT MIKE PENCE WAS REALLY SAYING.
Gvaryahu wrote: “It takes a special kind of chutzpah to stand in front of a Jewish audience and explain their own tradition to them using language and texts that historically have rendered actual Jews pathologically redundant to the world, and still today cast us as a tool for the salvation of Christians.”12
The two doctoral students talked further about their analysis of the speech and wondered whether other speeches by Pence in other settings could have the same right-wing Christian dogma. One hint came a few days later, on January 27, recognized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Trump was Twitter-silent about the day, but Pence issued his own tweet:
A few days ago, Karen & I paid our respects at Yad Vashem to honor the 6 million Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust who 3 years after walking beneath the shadow of death, rose up from the ashes to resurrect themselves to reclaim a Jewish future.
The language was distinctly Christian. For Jews, the six million who died in the Holocaust were seen as Nazi murder victims, not “martyrs.” In fact, martyrdom is a Christian and Muslim conceit, and Jews are not encouraged to purposely sacrifice themselves. Likewise, the term rising “up from the ashes” suggested a kind of resurrection not associated with the Jewish experience of World War II. (Given the millions of Jews who were murdered in Nazi gas chambers and crematoria, the word choice was also extremely insensitive.) To use such a term suggested that Pence regarded the Jews as either Christians in waiting, who needed to be converted, or tools for the fulfillment of prophecy. Either way, they were not spiritual equals.
* * *
Although Bible scholars and political critics would have found trouble in Pence’s performances, his mission to the Middle East was hailed as a success at the White House, where staffers counted twenty-nine interruptions for applause during Pence’s speech at the Knesset, just less than one per minute. Pence had also been careful to mention Trump frequently and in the most glowing terms. (This performance served him so well that when the embassy was opened, ahead of schedule, Pence’s name was emblazoned on the commemorative plaque, right below the president’s name.)
Back in Washington, Pence attended the president’s State of the Union speech, where he applauded vigorously and stood when his fellow Republicans stood. Trump later said that Democrats who did not cheer him were “un-American and like death … treasonous.” The next morning, Pence was on the road again, this time to West Virginia—a conservative state with a Democratic senator named Joe Manchin—praising the president’s performance and his accomplishments. He took aim at Manchin, who had actually tried to work with Trump, for voting against a Republican tax overhaul, among other things. “It’s not just the tax cuts,” Pence said. “Folks, Joe is just going to keep voting against West Virginia. But West Virginia needs to let him know.”13
Manchin was angered by Pence’s attack and said, “The vice president’s comments are exactly why Washington sucks.” This tone, crude and angry, had come to be the norm in much of American politics. Of course, observers have forever moaned about the coarse quality of public debate, with each generation suggesting things were worse than ever before. However, with the advent of Trump, the trend toward divisiveness had gotten me
asurably worse. In his demeanor, Pence suggested he was working against this trend, but in his rhetoric and positions, he was amplifying it.14
Soon after the State of the Union address, Mike and Karen Pence boarded Air Force Two again, this time for a mission to Asia. The first stop would be in Japan, where officials were worried about North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. Then it would be on to South Korea—the site of the Winter Olympics and where Trump’s bellicose rhetoric toward North Korea was causing deep concern about nuclear war. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un had scored a victory against Trump by suddenly announcing that North Korea would participate in the Olympics and sending his sister Kim Yo-jong to attend the games. This move was taken by the nervous South Koreans as a signal from Kim that he was someone they could deal with.
The South Koreans, seeking to soothe tensions with North Korea even more, arranged for Mike and Karen Pence to sit near Kim’s sister at the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics. Instead of smiling, shaking hands, or merely nodding in recognition, the Pences sat expressionless and were the only ones in the official grandstand who remained seated when the unified Korean athletes passed in review. Later, they ducked attendance at a reception where Pence might have met members of the North Korean delegation; South Korean officials sought détente, but Pence’s posture did nothing to soften Trump’s frightful, hair-trigger threats of war.
The Shadow President Page 29