Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Advisor: “The State Department Should Be Ashamed”

In an interview with Haaretz, Trump’s Israel affairs advisor David Friedman agreed with Bibi Netanyahu’s assertion that the removal of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, a demand the PA and State Department make amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Below are Friedman’s comments:

“Prime Minister Netanyahu makes exactly the right point. The Palestinians want Israel to absorb countless ‘refugees’ – people who never lived in Israel and whose ancestors were never forced to leave Israel – while their so-called ‘state’ is required to be, as the Nazis said, judenrein (devoid of Jews). It is an entirely racist and anti-Semitic position.”

“Arabs live and work side by side with Israelis in the State of Israel. They attend universities, enjoy the strongest human and civil rights (including women’s rights) in the region, and have access to world class health care. There is no better place for Arabs to live in the Middle East than in the State of Israel. With this background in mind, the Prime Minister of Israel correctly observes that the Palestinian demand to remove all Jews from their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samaria is nothing short of an attempt at ethnic cleansing. The State Department should be ashamed of their misguided reaction to Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks.”

“The United States frequently refers to the ‘two state solution’ as two states for two peoples. The Palestinian response – which the U.S. State Department refuses to challenge – is ‘one state for two peoples (Israel) and a second state just for Palestinian Arabs.’ It is no wonder that the State Department under Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have lost credibility in the region.”

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Hillary Faints, Donald Trump Surging, and 9-11

If Donald Trump ends up as the next US President, pundits will look back at today’s September 11th memorial as the turning point in the race. The even that shifted and cemented The Donald’s surge was the video below, showing a weak knead Hillary Clinton, collapsing on her way into her van.

Yet, 9-11 of 2016 is much more than the seeming turnaround of Donald Trump’s campaign. The date serves as a reminder that the world we all live in is vastly different from the one that existed 15 years previous. Our world is intrinsically intertwined by online movements and behaviours. The developing world is rapidly closing in on a frail and lost West. The Middle East is in complete chaos as the USA recedes to the other side of the Atlantic.

Somehow, Americans have been fed a stream of news on an almost minute by minute basis creating a cacophony of noise that is neither meaningful or meaningless, but rather leaves those who have yet to break free lost and confused. Today they achieved clarity.  The script was broken and this time for good.

This was supposed to be Hillary’s coronation.  A country transformed from the cowboy of Bush to the community organizer of Obama.  Hillary was supposed to bring it all together, but age and stress have taken their toll and now a real estate mogul turned reality TV star is approaching the unthinkable, the Presidency.

The World stands on the crossroads and once again 9-11  is the date which it all happened.

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Israel, Trump, and the End of the Neoconservative Agenda

Whether Trump wins or loses, his focus on neutering what has become a foreign policy dedicated to interventionism and regime change maybe the Donald’s lasting accomplishment. No where else has Trump succeeded in proving to various constituents that interventionism is a failed policy of the neo-conservative elite from both parties.

Many Israel observers are wrong when they suggest that an American policy shift away from actively intervening in foreign conflicts will ultimately be bad for Israel.  The assumption is that a non-engaged America leaves Israel without protection.

The truth is quite the opposite. neoconservative is about projecting American power in ways that ensures a lopsided relationship with allies. In 2005, the Bush administration, with neoconservative principles forced Israel to give up the Gaza strip and was intent on using a weak Olmert to pull Jews out of their historic heartland in Judea and Samaria. For the neocons that ran Bush’s adminstration, it was far better a small Israel dependent on the USA than a larger and stronger Israel that could stand on its own two feet.

Although one can blame Obama for much of the chaos in the Middle East, neocons in both parties pushed an agenda of destabilization in order to assert control.  This has backfired and so has interventionism in general.  One, because it does not work and two, because of the steep price tag attached.

Trump may not grasp the finer points of foreign policy.  He doesn’t have to.  Foreign policy is often times just good common sense.  Perhaps the most intelligent thing America can do is stay out of their allies’ business.

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Is Jewish Money Really Behind Trump’s Support of Israel?

It didn’t take long  before the anti-Israel crowd started attacking Trump and the Republicans for being too pro-Israel.  It is true, the Republican party platform is the most pro-Israel ever and with Trump’s advisors being decidedly right wing it is understandable for those used to seeing the two state solution being vaunted around all of these years assume something much more nefarious is going on.

Here is CounterPunch:

“Candidates for high office in the US need money – lots of it. Until now Trump has been chiefly relying on his own wealth. He has raised less than $70 million, a fifth of Clinton’s war-chest.

The Republican party’s most significant donor is Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate and close friend of Netanyahu. He has hinted that he will contribute more than $100 million to the Trump campaign if he likes what he sees.

Should Netanyahu offer implicit endorsement, as he did for Mitt Romney in the 2012 race, Christian Zionist preachers such as John Hagee will rally ten of millions of followers to Trump’s side too – and fill his coffers.”

So for CounterPunch and millions of others, Jewish money bought Trump. Somehow it is the Jews who always find a way to control the politicians.  

I would like to propose another possibility.  Donald Trump has always been pro-Israel.  Afterall, Trump is from NYC and his close friends and business colleagues are pro-Israel to farthest rightward extent. His new advisor David Friedman, is actually a long time friend and has served as Trump’s lawyer.  We can move beyond Trump’s friends and see that his son in law and daughter are Orthodox Jews.  

The only group of people that have been “hoodwinked” on this sort of thing are the anti-Israel Stormfront crowd and the far left BDS groups.  Jewish money can buy a lot of things, but Trump didn’t need it.  The Donald had already cultivated his views regarding Israel a long time ago.

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The Anti-Defamation League, Israel Policy Forum, and the Republican Party’s Platform…Is it that Bad?

The Republican party’s platform has been hailed as the most pro-Israel platform ever.  If this is the case then why does the ADL and Israel Policy Forum have such a problem with it?

David Halperin, the executive director of the Israel Policy Forum is quoted as saying the following: “It’s unfortunate because president George W. Bush was the president who really famously articulated the idea of two states living side by side in peace and security, which is the kind of baseline goal of US policy ever since.”

According to the Jerusalem Post, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League seemed to agree. “We are disappointed that the platform draft departs from longstanding support of a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict – and the shared vision of successive American presidents and prime ministers of Israel, including the current leadership in both countries, who believed it was the only viable way to secure Israel as both a Jewish and democratic state. We hope the delegates will reconsider and reaffirm this pillar of U.S. policy toward Israel in the final platform,” Greenblatt said in a statement.

These two statements reflect what many mainstream Jewish leaders feel about America’s policy towards Israel. They have locked the two-state solution in as the only solution.  In an expression of pure Orwellian logic, anyone, breaking the two-state paradigm is deemed anti-Israel.  If this logic was true then the majority of Israelis that have decided to remove support for a two state solution are also anti-Israel.

What the Republican party platform actually does, is recognize that the facts on the ground have changed and the Israeli populace no longer supports the failed two-states for two peoples paradigm as a solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict. If anything the RNC should be praised for acknowledging the truth, not derided.

American Jewish leadership is at a cross-roads.  With Israel rising to a stature of global leadership, it no longer is as reliant on America, especially American Jews for help.  This puts self proclaimed American Jewish leaders in a tight spot. The faster they realize that a strong independent Israel means disposing of the two-state solution, there will be more of chance that these moribund organizations will remain relevant, but that kind of thinking would take a miracle.