Some 550 new immigrants from the Bnei Menashe community visited the Western Wall for the first time on March 9, 2022. Photo: Yehoshua Halevi/Courtesy of Shavei Israel.

America, the land of George Floyd. The country of mass school shootings. A country that in recent years has been led by Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Are either of these leaders, or their respective political parties, flawless? I think not.

On the Republican side, you have QAnon — and people like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). On the Democratic side, you have people who urge the police to be defunded and advocate for socialism. Both parties have problems with racial attitudes and antisemitism.

Yet there are some American politicians — and some American Jews — who want to condition aid for Israel based on the Jewish state’s political leadership.

As Prime Minister Menachem Begin once asked, is Israel a banana republic? Support for Israel should be unconditional based on Israel’s values, democratic nature, and commitment to peace and justice.

Israel, a 74-year-old vibrant democracy in the Middle East, has done wonderful. Yes, it can do better, but it is still special and doing great.

And like many other things in the world, Israel’s political system is far from perfect. On November 1, Israelis are heading back to the polls for the fifth time in under four years. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and now the leader of the opposition, has the chance for a comeback. Against that backdrop, there are media reports that senior American politicians are warning of a backlash if certain politicians end up in the government or positions of power.

Meanwhile, Israelis are happily living their lives.

In June 1982, Joe Biden was a senator from Delaware, and confronted then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during his Senate Foreign Relations committee testimony, raising the possible cut off of some aid due to the construction of settlements. Begin forcefully responded, “Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history.”

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist movement, which both Begin and Netanyahu emanate from, noted in 1940 that, “We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmed agree with it or not.”

Americans — including American Jews — and world leaders would do well to remember these words and times. Nothing is perfect. Not Israel — and not America.

Ronn Torossian is a public relations executive.