I find that the older I get, the easier it is to speak my mind. I thought about that recently while watching a speech by former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who is 91 and left office as prime minister in 2003. The speech came at a fraught time for Canada, after President Donald Trump unleashed a merciless trade war against the country on baseless grounds – part of a larger campaign against America’s other close allies.

In Israel, where I live, most people love Trump and view him as an unshakable friend, but the American president’s recent antics are a reminder that if a staunch ally of the United States like Canada can be in Trump’s crosshairs today, tomorrow he could abandon Israel.

“We have worked with and collaborated with the United States in the past, and I’m telling you, we will do so in the future,” the former Canadian prime minister told his audience. “We are good neighbors and friends, but we are a proud and independent country.”

Addressing Trump directly, he added: “And for me, I can tell you that sometimes I can say this from one old guy to another old guy: ‘Stop this nonsense.’”

Perhaps the most stunning scene of Trump’s second term so far was the ambush that he and Vice President JD Vance laid for visiting Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is now into his fourth year leading his country’s defense against Russia aggression. Rather than treating Zelenskyy as a defender of freedom, Trump and Vance did everything possible to embarrass their guest.

Chretien was outspoken about that too. “My mother taught us good manners. She would have been ashamed of me if I had treated anyone the way that the president treated my prime minister and the president of Ukraine in the last few weeks.”

He’s right. That’s not to say that allies such as Canada and the United States can’t have disagreements, but it only demeans the office of the presidency of the United States to throw America’s weight around as if it were some kind of playground bully.

The dressing down that Trump gave Zelenskyy stunned people around the world, including in Israel. And with good reason. It’s a reminder that any Israeli prime minister could be the target of Trump’s wrath, and Benjamin Netanyahu has been in the past, though he and Trump have since reconciled.

In his first term as president, Trump reportedly felt double-crossed by Netanyahu, who is said to have committed Israel to join the United States in its 2020 operation to kill the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qasem Soleimani, but then backed out. But what seems to have really put Netanyahu on Trump’s blacklist was that the Israeli prime minister congratulated President Joe Biden on his election as president in 2020 – acknowledging the truth, that Biden won.

Commentators in Israel have noted that with an unpredictable president like Trump, he could throw Israel under the bus. Trump’s foreign policy is devoid of democratic values, as was in evidence with his approach to Gaza, where he proposed permanently exiling most of the territory’s 2 million Palestinians. That’s what he was saying until recently, when he suddenly claimed nobody was expelling Palestinians from Gaza. He has also switched gears and softened his stance on Ukraine.

Trump may be capable of wonderful things in the Middle East, including arranging the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and perhaps even progress toward the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state. But he could also be an agent of chaos that could be disastrous for Israel – and the United States.

Cliff Savren is a former Clevelander who covers the Middle East from Ra’anana, Israel. He is an editor at the English edition of Haaretz.