Trump’s Matzah Markup – Tariffs on Israel Just in Time for Passover
For 25 hours and 5 minutes this week, Senator Cory Booker held the Senate floor and the country’s attention, infusing dispirited Democrats with hope, conviction, and resolve. Within hours of Booker’s record-breaking speech, Democrats decisively won the first statewide election of Trump’s second term and, with it, the liberal majority on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.
This ten-point victory in Wisconsin – a state Donald Trump won by a single point just five months before – sent a clear message of rejecting Trump’s policies and Elon Musk’s $20 million effort to buy the election. JDCA played a critical role in Wisconsin, making 30,000 direct voter contacts in support of Justice-elect Susan Crawford, and we’re grateful to the hundreds of volunteers from across the country who joined this effort.
Also on Tuesday, Democrats overperformed in two Florida House races, cutting the margin by which they lost these solidly red districts by an average of 20 points since November. This builds on two Democratic state legislature wins – including in a deeply red Pennsylvania district – the week before, and suggests a growing trend of Republican electoral backsliding. If this continues, it will not bode well for the GOP in the midterms, suggesting Democrats are on track to win the House majority next November.
“LIBERATION DAY”
If only “Liberation Day” had started and ended there. An inspirational demonstration of Democratic resistance, followed by a sweeping Democratic victory in a critical swing state, was liberating after ten weeks of oppressive policies emanating from the Trump White House.
Unfortunately, Trump’s “Liberation Day” resulted in sweeping tariffs that tanked the stock market, will increase prices for Americans, risk a global trade war, and may push America and the world into a recession. Not to be missed in the expansive tariffs imposed by Donald Trump on about 60 countries, trading blocs, and uninhabited islands, is the fact that Trump placed a 17% tariff on Israel.
TRUMP’S MATZAH MARKUP
Trump’s tariffs will damage Israeli industries that rely on exports to the United States and will make kosher and other Israeli products more expensive for American consumers, especially American Jews. One can consider it a “matzah markup” because the price of Israeli goods, including imported matzah, will increase just in time for Passover.
While the Israeli government tried to thwart the punitive measures by lifting all tariffs on U.S. goods the day before, Trump imposed his tariffs anyway, at a higher rate than those imposed on American adversaries, including Iran (10%). Trump has sent a stinging message of American betrayal of Israel. As the president of the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel, Ron Tomer, said on Thursday on Israeli radio: “We are all going to feel this in our pockets.” He went on to explain that, for Israelis, the tariffs felt like “abandonment by a friend.”
Even congressional Republicans spoke out, expressing concern about the tariffs on Israel. For those who believe that Trump will always make special exceptions for Israel, think again, and read/share our list of ways Donald Trump has abandoned Israel, including, but not limited to, the 17% tariffs.
Last week, I wrote about the fact that Signalgate included the Trump administration exposing highly-classified Israeli intelligence regarding the Houthi threat and left Israeli national security officials reportedly “furious” with their Trump counterparts. The week before, Trump’s chief negotiator, Steve Witkoff, asserted that Hamas – the brutal terrorist organization responsible for the horror of October 7 – should be “politically involved” in the future of Gaza.
Not only are these moves a violation of existing U.S. policy toward Israel, but they violate the interests of both countries and the trust that exists between our two peoples. The list of measures that Trump has taken to abandon Israel goes on, and it’s worth sharing with anyone who wrongfully believed Donald Trump would be “good” for Israel or Jewish Americans. His record demonstrates the complete opposite – it’s only been ten weeks, and Trump has betrayed Israel and American Jews.
ACTUAL LIBERATION
As we prepare to mark Passover, it’s worth considering the meaning of “liberation,” which Trump egregiously misused in the context of tariffs. These tariffs aren’t liberating Americans from anything other than our financial stability and well-being.
The real meaning of liberation is the freedom that comes after resistance and sacrifice. During Passover, we’ll celebrate our liberation from the Pharaoh in Egypt. More recently – this past week – we celebrated possible liberation from Trump by winning an election in Wisconsin and listening to Cory Booker on the Senate floor.
Ten weeks after Trump’s inauguration, Booker held the Senate floor for more than 25 hours for three reasons: (1) He wanted to “liberate” the Senate from the dark legacy of segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond, whose 1957 filibuster blocking the Civil Rights Act held the Senate record for 68 years; (2) Booker and Democrats are aiming to “liberate” the country from the oppressive policies of the Trump administration, with a particular focus on Republican plans to gut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to pay for extending Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires; and (3) Booker wanted to “liberate” us all from the despair that Trump has ushered in, “finally bringing some fire.” Booker demonstrated how to forcefully resist Trump’s attacks on our democracy, rights, national security, and economy. To quote the late Congressman John Lewis, Booker showed us all how to “get in good trouble.”
Booker succeeded – while quoting the Bible and wearing a yellow ribbon hostage pin – and we couldn’t be more proud of the effort. Now it’s up to all of us to follow in his footsteps on the road toward liberation, recognizing that the path may be long. And while it took our ancestors 40 years to flee Egypt and finally reach Israel, the 2026 midterms are only 577 days away – just around the corner.
Stay involved with JDCA, and we hope you’ll join us on Tuesday, April 8, at 12:00 p.m. ET for a special virtual discussion with political commentator, strategist, podcaster, and YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen to talk about Democrats meeting the moment and the importance of messaging.
Shabbat Shalom,
Halie Soifer
CEO, Jewish Democratic Council of America