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Trump’s Treatment of Comey Is the Stuff of Which Netanyahu’s Nightmares Are Made

Bytut editor

May 14, 2017


Lame reaction of Republican lawmakers and strong support of GOP voters for FBI director’s dismissal is bad omen for Israel’s right wing

ed note–I/we will spare the reader with the usual extended commentary, other than to say pay attention to those parts highlighted in red, and especially the following ominous reference to a major terrorist attack in the US to derail Trump’s push for the creation of a Palestinian state, to wit–

‘Netanyahu and company can pray for the kind of divine intervention that saved their hides before, such as the Monica Lewinsky scandal that sapped Bill Clinton, or, though a billion times different of course, the Twin Towers bombing that changed Bush’s course…’ 

Chemi Shalev, Haaretz

One shouldn’t envy Benjamin Netanyahu right now. You can easily imagine him waking up with a jolt in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, after another one of Trump’s traumatic tweets haunt in his nightmares. “I thought Bibi was OK. What an actor. What a disappointment. Loser!” reads one. “Netanyahu sucked up to me like crazy. I didn’t buy it, but everyone can see his true colors. The tapes will prove!” reads another. Then there’s “The Democrats couldn’t stand Bibi but suddenly they’re on his side? Give me a break!” or “Netanyahu talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. Sad!” or, the ultimate horror:  “Netanyahu’s tried long enough. It’s time Israelis gave someone else a chance, like Americans. Is Yair Lapid the guy?”

Admittedly, such a harrowing scenario is still far-fetched, but it’s no longer completely inconceivable. This is the kind of treatment that the president gives to anyone who crosses him or gets in his way, as he showed for the hundredth time this week. After he sacked James Comey, who he once praised; after he let loose on the outgoing FBI director as if he hadn’t devoted his life to keeping America safe; after he thumbed his nose at the media, ignored Congress and made fools of his advisers, spokespersons and vice president by coming up with alternative rationales for firing Comey, which contradicted everything they had said in his name; after he slaughtered yet another Washington sacred cow, carved it up barbecued it and ate it up as prime steak – after all these, Netanyahu would be wise to be apprehensive, if not downright anxious, by the thought of how Trump might react if he – and Israel – got in the president’s way.

The announcement by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Friday that Trump “will express his desire for dignity and self-determination for the Palestinians” is a clear warning that Israel might have gotten caught in its own honey trap. Netanyahu fawned over Trump as a champion and savior just because he was the anti-Obama and he bestowed countless superlatives on the president after one solitary bombing of a Syrian airfield. This makes it much harder for Netanyahu to suddenly reverse course in midair and admit that he got it all wrong. In this regard, it’s possible that Israel is already inside the corrals, one of the late Ariel Sharon’s favorite terms, which means – inside the pen from which the only exit is to the slaughterhouse, though the cows don’t know it yet. 

Trump isn’t the first U.S. president to commit to Palestinian self-determination, but history can’t give Netanyahu much solace. It was another hero of the Israeli right, George W. Bush, who first expressed explicit support for Palestinian self-determination, in a letter sent to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at the end of August 2001, a few days before the September 11 terror attacks. Trump is repeating Bush’s commitment, which was also endorsed by Barack Obama, and he’s also doing it in a Saudi context, as the U.S. negotiates a gargantuan $100 billion arms deal that will create thousands of new American jobs. Guess in which capital, Jerusalem or Riyadh, Trump wants to leave a better impression.

Self-determination means that the Palestinians have the right to determine their own future by themselves including, if they so wish, the establishment of an independent state. Obviously, Trump’s mere words won’t change realities on the ground, but a president who commits to self-determination will be hard put to turn a blind eye to Israeli efforts to change the status quo or to impose solutions on the Palestinians, including the delusional plans of autonomies, Bantustans or second class citizenship that Netanyahu’s coalition partners were dreaming about when Trump was first elected.

The generally lame response of the Republicans to Comey’s outrageous dismissal should also send alarm bells ringing in Jerusalem. GOP legislators may have been shocked by Trump’s brazenness, they may view him as heading for a collision with the U.S. Constitution and with the rule of law, they may even be seeing impeachment on Washington’s horizon, but with a few notable exceptions who mumbled their reservations in public, most of them are lining up behind Trump or at least invoking their right to evade the media and hide in the bush. Netanyahu needs to ask himself whether he’ll be able to enlist his trusted allies in the majority party to confront the president on an issue such as the establishment of a Palestinian state, if they wouldn’t dare look Trump in the face when he fired America’s top law enforcer in the middle of an investigation against him.

The reaction of Trump’s voters can’t be encouraging either. Since Trump fired Comey, his voters’ support for getting rid of the hitherto admired FBI director rocketed up from 38 percent to 62 percent, and counting. As in many other arenas, Trump’s voters persuaded themselves in record time that he knows what he’s doing and that all the media brouhaha is fake news and a blatant Democratic effort to discredit their hero. Netanyahu’s gotta wonder how they’ll react if and when Trump tweets that the Israeli prime minister is bad news himself.

Perhaps Netanyahu will be able to convince Trump that it isn’t worth his effort to invest heavily in advancing the peace process, though that’s a risk in and of itself, because Trump thinks he’s god’s gift to mankind and doesn’t like to hear otherwise. Alternatively, Netanyahu and company can pray for the kind of divine intervention that saved their hides before, such as the Monica Lewinsky scandal that sapped Bill Clinton, or, though a billion times different, of course, the Twin Towers bombing that changed Bush’s course or the passing of ObamaCare which deprived Obama of the political strength he needed to push the peace process forward. Netanyahu and his ministers can always fall back on the tried and true method of playing along with the president until the Palestinians inevitably emerge as the true rejectionists, although, one must note, Mahmoud Abbas seems to have mastered this trick and has deftly turned the tables on Netanyahu in recent weeks. 

If all else fails Israel can always try to rely on pure logic: Is conceivable that a president who is so ignorant, so arrogant, so self-absorbed and so inconsistent; a president who has brought his approval ratings to record lows in record times; a president who has infuriated so many world leaders, made mortal enemies of the American media and has now sparked a constitutional crisis and elicited unavoidable comparisons to the Watergate Affair and the ultimate punishment it wrought on its perpetrator, Richard Nixon – is it logical that he, of all presidents, will be the one who will bend Israel’s arms and cause it to make the concessions it really doesn’t want to?

It sounds implausible, for sure, but no less implausible than Trump’s very election, his erratic behavior in office, his still inexplicable ties to the Kremlin and his no less unfathomable ambition to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. There’s enough there, you must admit, to keep Netanyahu awake at nights, which will at least spare him those Twitter-induced nightmare.

By tut editor

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4 thoughts on “Trump’s Treatment of Comey Is the Stuff of Which Netanyahu’s Nightmares Are Made”

  1. You don’t get it — God is on the side of the Jews. Nothing on your site seems to acknowledge this.
    Oh, one more thing…, he’s promised to love those who love the Jews and to curse those who hate the Jews.
    Hope this helps
    ed note–some ‘evidence’, from the Jews’ own book, the Old Testament, about how much GAAAAWD ‘loves’ the Jewish people. Hope this helps–
    ‘I will pronounce my judgment on these people (the Jews) because of their wickedness in forsaking me…
    I brought you into a fertile land, but you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable…
    The priests did not ask ‘Where is the Lord?’ …
    Those who deal with the law did not know me and the leaders rebelled against me…
    Therefore I bring charges against you, your children and against your children’s children…
    These people have forsaken me, the spring of living water…
    Your wickedness will punish you and your backsliding will rebuke you…
    Long ago you broke off your yoke and said ‘I will not serve you!’ Indeed on every high hill, you lay down as a prostitute…
    Why did you turn against me and become a corrupt, wild vine?
    Although you wash yourself with an abundance of soap the stain of your guilt is still before me…
    As a thief is disgraced only when caught, so too is the house of Israel disgraced…they, their kings and officials, priests and prophets have turned their backs to me and not their faces…
    You have all rebelled against me…
    In vain did I punish these people and yet they did not respond to correction…
    Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravening lion…
    These people have forgotten me…Even the worst of women can learn from your ways…
    On your clothes men find the lifeblood of the innocent poor, and yet in spite of all this you dare to say ‘I am innocent!’
    But I will pass judgment upon you, O Israel…You have lived as a prostitute with many lovers. Look up to the barren heights and see, is there any place where you haven’t been ravaged? By the roadside you sat, waiting for lovers. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. You have the brazen look of a prostitute and refuse to blush with shame…
    These people are fools…They do not know me. They are senseless children and have no understanding. They are skilled in evil and know not how to do good…
    Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem…Look around and search her squares…If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth I will forgive this city…
    Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them…a wolf from the desert will ravage them…a leopard will lie in wait near their towns to tear to pieces any who venture out, for their rebellion is great and their backslidings many…
    Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me. I supplied all their needs and yet they committed adultery and thronged the houses of prostitutes…Should I not punish them for this? Should I not avenge myself upon a nation such as this?
    ‘O house of Israel’ declares the Lord,
    ‘I am bringing a distant nation against you,
    An ancient and enduring nation,
    A people whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand…
    They will devour your harvests, sons and daughters, your flocks and herds…
    With the sword they will utterly destroy the fortified cities in which you trust…
    Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear…
    Should you not fear me? Should you not tremble in my presence?
    Among these people (the Jews) are wicked men who lie in wait like men who snare birds…Their house are full of deceit, they have become rich and powerful and have grown fat and sleek and their evil deeds have no limit…
    They defend neither the orphans nor the poor…
    Should I not punish them for this? Should I not avenge myself upon a nation such as this?
    A horrible thing has happened in this land of Israel…
    The prophets tell lies and the priests rule by their own authority and my people love it this way…
    Therefore this is what the Lord says of Jerusalem–‘This city must be punished, for it is filled with oppression…
    As a well pours out its water so Jerusalem pours out her wickedness…Violence and destruction resound in her and her sickness is forever before me…
    Take warning, O Jerusalem, or I will make your land desolate so no one can live in it…
    And yet, their ears remain closed and the word of the Lord is offensive to them. They find no pleasure in it…
    From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain, prophet and priest alike, all practice deceit…
    The leaders dress the wound of these people as though it were not serious, and yet, are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all…They do not even know how to blush…
    Therefore they will fall among the fallen and will be brought down when I punish them…
    I will bring an end to the sounds of joy in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate…
    Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit and no one repents of his wickedness, saying ‘what have I done?’
    Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle…How can you say ‘We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord?’ when the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?
    Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners…
    No one speaks the truth…They have taught their tongues to lie and they weary themselves with doing evil…
    It is because they have forsaken me and instead followed the stubbornness of their hearts that I will make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them…
    There is a conspiracy among the people of Jerusalem…
    They have returned to the evil ways of their forefathers who refused to listen to me…
    Therefore I will bring upon them a disaster they cannot escape and although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them…
    Do not pray for these people nor plead for them, because I will not listen in the time of distress…Do not pray for the well-being of these people, for I will not listen to their cry…
    Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague…
    The prophets of Israel tell lies in my name…
    I have not sent them or spoken to them…
    They are prophesying to you false visions and the delusions of their own mind, saying ‘No sword or famine will touch Israel.’
    But those prophets will perish by sword and famine and those who listen to them will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem…
    There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or daughters…
    I will pour out upon them the calamity they deserve…
    Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
    Who will mourn for you?
    You have rejected me, so I will lay hands on you and destroy you…
    I can no longer show you compassion…
    I will bring bereavement and destruction on these people for they have not changed their ways…
    Your wealth and your treasures I will give away as plunder, because of all the sins of your country…
    For my anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you, for I, the sovereign Lord am against you, Jerusalem, and will punish you as your deeds deserve and will kindle a fire in your forests that will consume everything around you…
    Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you, for you have kindled my anger and it will burn FOREVER…–book of Jermiah
    Besides this however, i.e the incoherent ramblings of an incoherent book that is the basis for an incoherent religion, there is history itself which is the greatest proof out there concerning the ‘love’ that ‘GAAAWD’ has for the Jews. No GAAAAWD would sit by and allow his ‘chosen people’ to endure what they have endured if indeed they were his ‘chosen’.

  3. ‘Netanyahu and company can pray for the kind of divine intervention that saved their hides before, such as the Monica Lewinsky scandal that sapped Bill Clinton, or, though a billion times different of course, the Twin Towers bombing that changed Bush’s course…’
    Sounds like the potential for an attack some where in the western world or event to shake up the western world.

  4. The wild card is what Trump would do if Judea, Inc. decided to pull something akin to 911 on U.S. soil again. Are they willing to find out?
    And what Constitutional crisis? The one the Jewish media says exists?

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