So many people I know are not OK after the presidential election results became known. After all, I live in Washington D.C,  where over 90% voted for Harris, and I am now in St.Louis, where Harris got 81% of the vote, and St. Louis County, where she got 61%. And virtually everyone I know in these places voted with the local majority only to find out that nationwide, they are in the national minority.

They are almost all surprised that I don’t seem as upset as most of them do (someone told me I was numb, having a delayed reaction), although I do believe that we are in for the rockiest of rides. But I am willing to sit back for now and see how things play out. I want to see if Trump can make anything better and give him credit for that, while I will of course revile him for things that don’t work out best for the country.

But even now, there are some worrying signs, including threats that have been reported against Blacks, warning them that the reestablishment of slavery is a possibility. Of course, it’s not. But……

As for the Jews, I don’t have much concern at this point, although you can’t take anything for granted. For sure, there are antisemites who are supportive of MAGA. But most of his supporters are not, and you can expect Trump and his evangelical base to be more supportive of Israel, although this might have a backlash effect, especially abroad. The coordinated attacks on Jewish soccer fans in Amsterdam at the Tel Aviv Maccabi game are especially worrisome. This attack was carried out by Muslim men, although many were born and raised in the Netherlands.

We heard a very interesting podcast yesterday.  The host was Dan Senor, and the guests were Omer Bigger, a Jewish/Israeli resident of Amsterdam, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch  parliament, native of Somalia, and wife of historian Niall Ferguson. She is very vocal about the dangers of radical Islam, a description no longer much heard, and she has been outspoken for some time. I have read her first memoir, which I found very instructive.

Bigger talked about the general dangers of being Jewish in Amsterdam since October 7, and gave a description of what he experienced running back home from the soccer stadium a few days ago during the recent attack. Ali spoke more generally about the problems in Europe resulting from the large number of Muslims allowed into Europe over the past 20 years, about the refusal of so many to integrate culturally and their development of what she calls a parallel society, about the influence of Hamas and other groups often sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood, and about birth rates and prospective demographic changes and so on. She says that Europe better start working to save Europe, or the Brotherhood will eventually achieve its aims by conquering Europe through peaceful means. She said that as radical, separatist Muslims increase their numbers, all Jews in Europe will be at risk. And, she said, as Muslim numbers increase, so will their political influence.

They both criticized the Dutch government, saying that its strong verbal response to the riots were not sufficient. They said that although there seemed to be intelligence that something was afoot before the violence occurred, nothing was done about it and security at the stadium and real time response was abysmally absent. The podcast, easy to Google, is worth listening to.

Back home, even though only about 25 percent of the Jewish vote went to Trump, the number of Jews in his inner circle, in his family and among his financial supporters will, I believe, be protective of the Jewish community here, and about 70 percent of Israeli Jews think Trump was by far the better candidate for Israel. We shall see.

In the meantime,  back to St. Louis. You need some gold teeth?

There is a story behind this, but that’s for another day (maybe tomorrow).