Trump may be the Vlad the Impaler of American democracy and the worst president in US history but he has, so far, managed to do something no previous president has managed: he’s put an Israeli prime minister on a tight leash and forced him, against his will, to do his bidding.
This is not to sing Trump’s praises. He has no interest in stopping the bloodshed for any moral reason. He is, as I’ve written before, totally transactional by nature. The Middle East challenges him. It’s his opportunity for glory. He knows how important it has been in human history. He knows it is where three of the world’s great religions were born. He knows about the wars and failures others have faced in taming the beasts which have raged there.
But that doesn’t mean he cares much about Israelis or Palestinians. They are mere props feeding his vanity. Nevertheless, and for the reason I mentioned above, he’s been intent on brokering a ceasefire; on achieving something few have done before. He wants the acclaim. He wants that Nobel Peace Prize. He thirsts for the recognition it will bring.
There many obstacles in his path. The ceasefire could break down at any moment (and very possibly will). But so far it has held. And when it’s been threatened by one party or the other, he’s herded the cats back in their cages.
For example, a Palestinian resistance cell fired an RPG that killed two IDF officers. Note, that claims by Ryan Grim of Dropsite News and Curt Mills of The American Conservative, that the bulldozer they were driving struck IDF unexploded ordnance, is based on a number of anonymous sources. His version relies on a source who had unspecified access to US intelligence reports on the incident. That makes it third-hand. I have not found any other media sources confirming this version. It also seems unlikely that the two victims, quite senior officers (a major and a sergeant), would have been driving a bulldozer.
Hamas has not denied the attack happened as Israel claimed. Nor that a resistance cell carried it out. But it denied any connection to it. It said that it has no fighters in that area and hasn’t been in contact with anyone there since March.
Netanyahu immediately ordered a resumption of attacks which killed nearly 100 Gaza civilians. There was no goal of attacking the militants or any military target. It was killing for killing’s sake. To send a message written in blood.
He further announced the immediate closure of all humanitarian aid crossings, a major ceasefire violation. Witkoff and Kushner, his key advisors, got on the phone and forced Netanyahu, the master of the “duck and weave,” to reverse course. The bombing largely stopped. The crossings are scheduled to open today. All this is a major achievement considering the Israeli leader faces enormous pressure from his hard-right ministers, who thirst for Palestinian blood, the entire elimination of a people. The Trump advisors’ successful efforts were a remarkable development. No US president since Eisenhower directed an Israeli leader to stop a war and succeeded.
Who knows if Trump’s plan will work. It’s entirely possible it will all come crashing down, as I’ve mentioned above. But until it does, it’s unprecedented to see Netanyahu reined in by a US leader. Past presidents couldn’t do it; some didn’t even bother to try.
The shame of the Democratic Party
All this poses a tremendous embarrassment to Democrats. For 75 years, this Party has tried every way possible to manage, cajole, bribe Israel into doing what it wanted. But it never had the guts to do what Eisenhower and Trump have done: to face down Israel and overcome its resistance.
Israel is an albatross around the Democratic Party’s neck. It is the nation that has defied it. The nation that has humiliated its presidents. The nation that refused to listen. Yet no Democratic president has ever been willing to force the issue; to do what had to be done to get done what needed to get done. These leaders have all known what needed to happen. They all knew in the past there had to be a Palestinian state to finally resolve the conflict. But they never backed up words with deeds. That made, and makes the Party a paper tiger. Malignant narcissists like Netanyahu see right through that. He’s a master manipulator. He understands the psychology of the mark and how to exploit it in pursuit of his own interest.
But in Trump, the Israeli has met his match. The US president is everything Netanyahu is and more: narcissist, manipulative, liar, bluffer, grifter. On a grand scale. Bibi has met his match.
Democrats have always been afraid of Israel. Perhaps because of the Israel Lobby, and the power of Jewish voters and pro-Israel donors. Perhaps because they have an affinity with Israel and Zionism. Whatever the reason, the Party has refused to act. It has let the region fester, when it could have played a role in forging a just peace.
The most recent act in this tragedy is the implosion of the Biden presidency in the face of his refusal to stop, or even reduce the genocide in Gaza. That was followed by Kamala Harris’ disastrous presidential campaign which crashed on the rocks of Gaza. She made the mistake of thinking she could utter platitudes in the name of peace and easing suffering, while spurning opportunities to do anything tangible. She wanted to go along, didn’t want to deviate from Biden’s failed approach. She paid the price for her stolidity.
What direction will the Party follow after this catastrophe? Will Trump’s approach, Israel’s ghastly slaughter and the disgust it has aroused in the US electorate, induce it to change course? To cut military aid. To impose sanctions. To support UN resolutions criticizing Israel, and ICC rulings that demand accountability for its crimes. To lay down ultimatums and make an intransigent nation pay the price for its actions. Presuming the Democrats have a reasonable chance of regaining the presidency in three years (by no means guaranteed), will they learn any lessons? Or repeat the disastrous policies of the past?
This is a test Democrats must face. Either they can act, or they might as well just fold up their tent and slink off into the night of political oblivion. Given the way its Congressional leadership is sleepwalking through the Trump presidency, the prognosis is not good. Watching Schumer mumble his way through a Senate speech; or Hakeem Jeffries refusing to endorse the New York City mayoral candidate of his own Party–is painful in the first case and enraging in the second.
But there are stirrings that bring some cause for hope. Watching AOC and Bernie Sanders at CNN’s recent town hall makes one realize what an effective resistance looks like. It also causes despair when compared to the somnolence of Congressional Democratic leadership. To paraphrase Marx: Democrats unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains to failures of the past.
Richard, I am interested that you describe an IDF major and sergeant as “quite senior officers”. Looking at IDF casualty lists, I have often wondered whether there are any soldiers in the IDF below the rank of sergeant – even 19-year-olds seem to hold thank rank, and I don’t think I have ever read of a private or a corporal in the IDF. At the same time, almost every unit seems to be described as “elite”.
Will Bibi & Co. sit out three years and continue 78 years proces of annexation in 2029. 5000 years and counting …
Israel Will Lose US Support if it Annexes West Bank: Trump
”I made the promise to the Arab States.”
(Israeli military line moved further into Gaza than agreed to)
After 20+ years of blogging I came to realize we have been kept occupied with minor incidents as a greater plan slowly unfolds.
Democrats and Republicans are on the same page on Global policy as alliances shift .. a tectonic drift unstoppable …Trump and Biden are both MAGA … Israel is part of the privileged group of nations … old colonial empires of Europe and the “New World” … white supremacy … Manifest Destiny … our garden and jungle out there … fascism returns … making Russia a pariah state (Ivo Daalder and to great disappointment John Kerry) … Russia doesn’t belong to Western Europe.
■ VDL Building a Secure Fort Europe
■ Seven ME wars by neocons set the stage for war refugees, populism turning into hate and fascism
■ Today EU criticized after pausing sanctions on Israel
EU High Representative and Vice-President Kaja Kallas addressed the EU’s delicate stance on Gaza. Commission will pause all sanctions on Israel and its coalition members. Member states need the state of the art weapons of war for “security” and the tightly knit bond with Israel’s intelligence sharing with the Nine Eyes. Wealth of the GCC states is shifting back to New York-London-Paris-Frankfurt.
Interesting read: Kapitalismus ohne Demokratie.
… never had the guts to do what Eisenhower and Trump have done …
Must include JFK – Johnson turned the tables on Israel policy – and IMO GHW Bush and James Baker III deserve mention too. Who was behind the assassination in Nov. ’63? Changed America and the world.
link to pbslearningmedia.org
I believe Jeff Siddiqui is right. As long as the U.S. continues to support Israel whether Netanyahu is in charge or not, Israel will never agree to a Palestinian nation and Trump is not going to put pressure on Israel to change. He is not going to settle this conflict.
Muslim Community Seeking a Peace Negotiator 🥹
*) see also Abraham Accords
Netanyahu puts blame on European states pushing Palestinian statehood … price tag policy 💪🏽
Israel has never respected any peace agreement it made and always managed to blame the others for “Breaking” the peace deal. This time too, is not destined to succeed, already we see Israelis killing Palestinians and significantly, the West Bank is hardly covered by the news media.
US Congress continues to lick Israeli boots and Israelis know it especially Netanyahu and they have taken full advantage of it. We will see delays, cessation of hostilities but never a real, lasting peace because Israelis have not been open to it; there is still “free” land to be had!
Bottom line: the only lasting peace can be when Muslims, Christians and Jews are integrated into ONE country with equality for all.
Trump may very well get Netanyahu to accept the Saudi Gulf states and Egyptian plan for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank with a peacekeeping force from those countries in Gaza. I really have zero confidence that this will happen but it could. If Trump does accomplish this, this will be something that Joe Biden should have done and how stupid it was of him that he did not do this! Had Biden done so, Kamala Harris would be president now and not Trump. It was also unfortunate that Kamala didn’t unequivocally state her position that she would have worked harder for Israel Palestine peace which I believe was her real position, instead of relying on Biden’s advisers. There really will be no peace agreement as long as Israel with U.S. backing blocks a Palestinian state but if whatever happens and Trump should get the Nobel, that prize will forever be a piece of shit. GOSH! I sure as hell hope that Trump who helped Israel perpetrate the genocide not to mention every other horrible thing that he’s done, never gets that prize.
*No democratic President since JFK…
Biden wasn’t typical. Clinton tried, he really did. For the same reason that Trump is, but Clinton essentially tied his entire legacy around it, and he thought he would be successful. Of course, we have that video of Bibi from 2001 where he brags about sabotaging the Oslo Accords, that he isn’t afraid of Clinton, and that he knows how to manipulate Americans and called our support of Israel “Absurd”, so there’s that.
And Jimmy Carter, post presidency, was the most outspoken President we’ve ever had on the issue. He wrote a NY Times best selling book about it, and gave dozens of interviews. He went and visited Hamas. He failed as a President, but he spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it. He was a good man. The only POTUS that I can say that about with a straight face.
And google “Gadhafi says that Barack Obama thinks Israel will assassinate him just like they did JFK”, and you’ll find a Haaretz article from 2008 that doesn’t bother even once to deny the allegation that Obama thinks that. And it didn’t bother to deny the allegation about JFK either, it’s pretty disconcerting, they talk about it casually, like it’s old hat. Anyways, I’m not an Obama apologists, what he did with drones and the full 8 years of “war” killing civilians in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan, would make George Bush blush. BUT… If he was legtimately afraid that Israel was going to kill him, considering we know for a fact they tried to kill Truman, and there are more than enough receipts to comfortably conclude they did in fact kill JFK, seems like he should get a little bit of an asterisk next to his name when we talk about Dem Presidents not standing up to Israel. It doesn’t forgive what he did, but it’s context that should be noted, IMO.
Speaking of Rep Presidents, Nixon 100% tried to reign them in too. He got Watergated for it, which was a card that was held and played by CIA and Mossad when he got out of line. But that’s what you get for thinking it’s a good idea to tell Kissinger that he’s going to put the blame on the Jewish leaders in front of 80 million Americans at 9pm on the news. He was the dumbest smart person.. That’s what you get for thinking it was a good idea to employ Kissinger, period. But I buy his explanation that he only helped Golda to prevent the Soviet Union from coming in and filling that void. We know how he felt, that should be the embarrassment to the dems. Nixon was FAR more progressive than any dem POTUS since. He didn’t want to let Golda come visit, he was pissed off about them shooting down that Libyan plane, we have the tapes where he talked to Billy Graham about it.
And he did to an extent. The peace he brokered between Israel and Egypt is still in place. Here’s how he explained it. THIS, how he handled it, and how he summarized it, should be embarrassing to dem Presidents… Richard GD Nixon was more progressive than dem politicians today. He just was. That’s embarrassing. It embarrasses me. To wit:
“This anti-semitism is stronger than we think, you know? It’s unfortunate, but it has happened to the Jews in Spain, it’s happened in Germany, it’s happening, and now it’s gonna happen in America if these people don’t start behaving. It may be they have a death wish, you know, that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.”
He also discussed how American Jews support Israel, and they believe that our interests ARE the same as Israels.. As he put it, “The fact is, every Prime Minister that I have known, has enlisted American Jews to bring as much pressure as possible on the political process on American Presidents. That’s understandable, I don’t object to it. Now, a President must not go along with it on occasion. Let me explain something about what is called the Jewish lobby in this country. In the first place, Jews, understandably, in the United States, because of what happened in WW2, because of the Holocaust, are going to put first priority on the survival of Israel. Now, as good Americans as they are, they believe that America’s survival, and security, is directly related to Israel’s. In other words, their belief is, that being for Israel first, means that, that does not mean that your’re putting America second, because they think it goes together. An American President, however, has to approach it in a different way, in my opinion. He’s got always to think first of what’s best for America, and that’s true whether it has to do with the Israeli’s, or whether it has to do with Irish, or the Germans, or what have you, or the Poles, etc. Usually, what’s best for Israel is also best for Israel, and vice versa. But on occasion, for example, an American President must make a decision that does not in effect give the Israeli’s a blank check. And one example of that is a decision I made. I decided early on in our administration that we were going to seek good relations with Egypt and others of Israel’s neighbors. Many of my Israeli friends didn’t like that, because they wanted a special relationship with Israel, and Israel-only. But I have always said, that Israel’s interests are better served to have the US a friend of Israel’s neighbors and potential enemies, than to leave a vacuum which the Soviet Union will fill. I still believe that, and I believe that should be American policy today.
We could not allow the Soviet Union to intervene unilaterally there. Because if they had, we would have been forced to intervene. I know that Senator Mansfield had told us earlier in the month, right after the war, he said”we don’t want another Vietnam there”, but another member of Congress, who was in majority on the democratic side, made it very clear in contrast, he said “We want to be sure that Israel continues to have support”, and I said I will not let Israel go down the tube. And I knew, that under the circumstances, we could not stand by and let the Soviet Union move in. And that would risk a world war. So under the circumstances, therefore, I approved an alert of our forces, nuclear and conventional. A couple of days after that, Brezhnev backed down, and finally the ceasefire went into place. This is all, by now, the 26th of October, only 20 days after the Yom Kippur war had began. November 1, the tide had changed by that time, the ceasefire was in place, Golda Meir shortly after that, flew into Washington, thanked me, uh, very generously for the support that we had given. And November the 7th, after a time elapsing of 6 years, Egypt and the US normalized relations, and Henry Kissinger started on his very successful shuttle trip.
Summarizing it all, I think it’s very important to note here, two things. 1, this is not a demonstration of detant failing, but succeeding. Unless I had the personal relationship with Brezhnev, unless he knew, from what I said to him at Camp David, that we would not stand by. Unless I had developed that kind of relationship, and unless he was looking forward to another summit the next year, I do not think that we would’ve been successful in keeping them out. That helped.
The second point is, that we handled the whole situation in a way that saved Israel, but at the same time, did not totally alienate the Egyptians. Because the Israeli’s, by the time the ceasefire occurred, had totally surrounded the Egyptian third army, which is on the other side of the Suez Canal. So they held back, and the Egyptians were appreciative of that. And so as a result, this was one of those wars that ended with peace without victory. And peace without victory, is virtually the only kind of peace you can have, that will survive in that kind of situation. You can have too great a victory. If it is too great, what happens is, you plant the seeds for another war.”
100%… hurts to admit…
Biden was so disappointing. Democrats need to stop being afraid to do the right thing. It’s killing them. Trump, these first few months, also allowed Netanyahu to have at this war . Netanyahu probably figuring he had free rein- no problem.. genocide can be argued. Trump went after “anti-Semites” and college protestors here. Then something changed. Netanyahu must have realized he hit a wall of diminishing returns, the horror in Gaza of complete destruction and that the whole world was seeing this. And Trump took good advice and advanced a plan. Got the hostages home– and an opening at least for ceasefire. A long way to go….