I’ll admit that I didn’t wake up until 4am last Friday to listen to the Biden vs. Trump presidential debate in real time, but I did wake up an hour later (when the morning paper was delivered to my door) to listen to the second half before going back to sleep.
No surprise there. Joe Biden’s performance was rather pathetic, mainly due to the obvious effects of his age (81), his weak, almost mumbling voice, his occasional stutter and confusion for a few seconds, which was embarrassing for those of us who appreciate all he has done for Israel, and a perverse delight for those who would love to see Donald Trump back in the White House next January.
Anyone who has followed Biden’s public performances since he was elected president in 2020 would not have been surprised by his poor performance, but rather by the fact that the team of professionals surrounding him believed he could cross the Rubicon safely. That said, if you read Biden’s remarks rather than listening to them, I think you’ll find that, overall, all of the messages he was trying to convey were delivered very coherently.
Trump remained as arrogant and spiteful as ever, even though he couldn’t interrupt Biden when he was speaking (as he did in the 2020 debates, because both candidates’ microphones were turned off when the other spoke), but the look on Trump’s face said it all: his disdain for Biden and the current presidency.
Biden at least tried to answer most of the questions he was asked honestly. Trump, unlike the last election, repeatedly avoided answering “difficult” questions, such as whether he would accept the election results in November next year, whatever they may be. Trump (78 years old) also exudes confidence, even if he occasionally stumbles over his words or spews lies and fake news like a fountain. If there is a winner in this debate, it is undoubtedly Trump.
Neither candidate is fit to be president.
My main conclusion from this debate is that neither of the two candidates, but neither of them, is fit to be president of the United States from 2025 to 2028. My criterion is not which of the two will better serve Israeli interests (although Israelis would naturally prefer a president more biased toward our views and interests), but which of the two will better serve the American people and the world order that was designed under American leadership after America entered World War II.
Twenty-four years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, this world order seems increasingly disorganized. With or without last week’s debate, my conclusion at this point is that neither presidential candidate is truly equipped to handle a crisis. However, Biden has a more consistent policy on most issues, while Trump has a history of acting impulsively on both domestic and international issues.
Currently, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that would bar a person who has been indicted or convicted of a crime from running for president, but there is still the vague possibility that various legal issues could prevent Trump from running again. In recent years, Trump has been indicted on four charges, including one in which a Manhattan Criminal Court convicted him on May 30, 2024, of 34 counts of falsifying business records (for hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels).
In Biden’s case, serious consideration has been given within Democratic leadership since last Thursday about whether he should be replaced as the party’s presidential candidate.
Against this backdrop, one cannot help but wonder why a properly functioning democratic system would produce such a candidate in the first place, and whether liberal democracies like the United States should have better systems in place to protect themselves from questionable candidates. In the United States, the only way to achieve this would be to amend the Constitution, but currently there are only three qualifications required to run for president: be a natural-born U.S. citizen, be over 35 years old, and have lived in the U.S. for 14 years.
In Israel, the president may attempt to form a government with any member of parliament as prime minister after the election. According to Article 6(a) of the Basic Law of the Knesset, all Israeli citizens aged 21 or older on the date of the submission of the candidate list are eligible to be elected to the Knesset. A court may strip a candidate of this right if, by law or by final judgment, he or she has been sentenced to more than three months in prison and has not yet completed the sentence of seven years from the date of the submission of the candidate list.
A candidate may also be denied the right to run if, as provided by law, he or she has been convicted of a serious terrorist offence or other security offence and has received a final sentence of seven years or more of imprisonment, and has not yet completed 14 years of serving that sentence as of the date of submission of the candidate list. In such cases, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission may allow the candidate to run if he or she determines that the offence for which the candidate was convicted does not involve moral turpitude.
In the case of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after criminal charges were filed against him on November 21, 2019, the High Court ruled on May 6, 2020 that a member of parliament against whom criminal charges have been filed but whose case has not yet been adjudicated cannot be part of a government formed by someone else, but can form one.
But back to last week’s debate. During the debate, did Israel get any indication as to which of the two candidates would best serve Israel’s interests? While Biden defended his record of support for Israel’s security since October 7, Trump criticized Biden for not letting Israel defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip and for acting like a Palestinian even though Hamas considers Biden a very bad Palestinian (whatever that means). He also claimed that Hamas would not have invaded Israel last October if he had been president. (He also said that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he had been president.) In fact, based on the debate, Israel cannot conclude which of the two presidential candidates would best serve Israel’s interests and needs over the next four years.
Judging by the track record of both presidents, I believe Biden is a more generous and trustworthy person, but recent polls show that about 50% of Israelis support Trump being elected the next US president.
The author has worked in the Knesset as a researcher for many years and has published numerous journalism and academic articles on current affairs and Israeli politics. Her latest book, “Israeli Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job,” is published by Routledge.
