He contrasts the recent announcement that the US will make good on the 1995 act passed by the US Congress declaring Jerusalem as the Israeli capital with the policies of the two most notorious anti-Israel US presidents, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama:
In the mid-1940s, an on-balance pretty good Democrat president, Harry Truman, demonstrated far more vision and understanding of an overarching West than his State Department:Neither of those former presidents actually came out and said that Israel was the cause of all the Middle East’s problems. But they both based their regional diplomacy on the assumption.In 2006, while promoting a book that likened Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians with South African apartheid, Carter opened a window on his real thoughts. "The heart and mind of every Muslim is affected by whether or not the Israel-Palestine issue is dealt with fairly,” he told an interviewer. He added that the U.S. is hated by "former close friends" such as Egypt and Jordan, "because we won’t do anything about the Palestinian plight."This is what the American-Israeli scholar Martin Kramer calls “linkage” -- the myopic tendency to see Israel as a wrench in the wheel of America’s Arab policy. In that interview, Carter even called it the "linkage fact." But, to be fair, the concept didn’t originate with him.
This is what the American-Israeli scholar Martin Kramer calls “linkage” -- the myopic tendency to see Israel as a wrench in the wheel of America’s Arab policy. In that interview, Carter even called it the "linkage fact." But, to be fair, the concept didn’t originate with him.
It goes back at least to the end of World War II. In 1945, the State Department sent newly inaugurated President Harry Truman a memo warning of “continual tenseness in the situation in the Near East largely as a result of the Palestine question.” State’s recommendation was to avoid Zionist activists and think about America’s long-term interests.
Truman (like Trump) had a low opinion of expert advice. In 1947, he ordered a reluctant U.S. ambassador vote “yes” in the United Nations General Assembly on the creation of the Jewish state. The contrary assessment among the diplomats Truman derided as the “striped pants boys” was, I think it is fair to say, misguided.More recently, we see that much of the "Arab world" actually has had a "meh" response to the Jerusalem announcement:
When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey called an emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic States to protest Trump’s Jerusalem decision, more than half of the invited heads of state and prime ministers didn’t bother to show up.And then there is the approach of the Most Equal Comrade. As we've learned in the last few days, the MEC's administration apparently was letting Iranian proxy Hezbollah run cocaine into the United States, because it was more important to the MEC - and his State Department - to get a worthless "deal" in Iran's nuclear program. That kind of emphasis on appeasement of a mortal enemy was on full display in his answer to a question about the Israel-Palestinian issue:
In an appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he was asked if reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions was a necessary precursor to reviving the peace process. “If there is a linkage between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, I personally believe it actually runs the other way,” he replied. “To the extent that we can make peace with the Palestinians -- between the Palestinians and the Israelis -- then I actually think it strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with a potential Iranian threat.”With the recent Jerusalem announcement, and the presence of Nikki Haley, who has, over the course of this year proven to be a national treasure, America seems to finally be getting its head on straight regarding what actual problems are in the Mideast, and what phenomena aren't really such a being deal.
Does the rest of the world hate Israel too, as no country appears to support Trump who is of course arrogant (as opposed to diplomatic) enough to threaten those countries not in favor kinda like he did those NFL players who took to their knee and we all know how that went for him. No, neither Carter nor Obama nor the rest of the world hates Israel or Jews but you know, it's our world too and most of us don't want to see it blow.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. You have that backwards. Where does any other country get off telling the US where it's going to put an embassy?
ReplyDeleteAnd Carter and Obama most certainly hate Israel.
Don't want to see the world blow? Then support the effort to come up with a way to scrap the JCPOA.
Well, battle lines drawn. For a long long time. So I guess you go boys, Donnie, Nettie and you and your ilk. Not sorry that I and a huge preponderance of others on this sphere here disagree.
ReplyDeleteThe great Nikki Haley conducted herself like a boss after the UN’s shameful vote this morning
ReplyDeleteMany people don't do bully bosses. You're welcome to do all the bidding of bullies at your will.
ReplyDeleteYou well knew how the vote would turn-out. This bully bidding of Trump is not at all popular, not in America and not in the world. We want peace on earth and this appears to be promoting anything but, wouldn't you think? I've talked to Jews coming back from vacations in Israel who say everything's hunky dory until they tour the West Bank. Then they get a worried look on their faces and exclaim, that this is not sustainable. It's not just Carter and Obama kind sir.
ReplyDeleteWell, doing something about the television programing and the classroom materials in the West Bank would be a start. You know, not indoctrinating the area's children in the view that Israel is not a legitimate country and that Jews need to be driven into the sea.
ReplyDeleteAnd the use of the word "bully" elicits a head shake. As Ambassador Haley said today, the US is overwhelmingly the biggest financial contributor to the UN coffers. We expect to be shown some respect for our generosity.
So Trump's not a bully? Our current ambassador who I have no quarrel with also claimed this move at this time reflects the will of the American people. I don't think so. It may be a close call, like the election was, but it in no way reflects the unified will of the American people. It reflects the will of Donald Trump and a non-citizen, Benjamin Netanyahu for sure and he's an agitator too. Look, we're not stupid. We know when we're being bullied and we know when we're being bull shitted. On to the repercussions, and they're not only one way from Trump to the rest of the world by any means. I am not at all saying that Israel is not a legitimate country. But what's in dispute is still in dispute. I lived through the bull of Nam and all the other hubris and brouhaha since and I'm extremely skeptical of tough talk and even tougher actions. They don't impress me one bit. Is this going to bring peace? Is that what your ilk is after? Or are you so wrapped up in yourselves as to think you came here not to bring peace but a sword? On behalf of your Lord?
ReplyDeleteNam has nothing to do with this.
ReplyDelete"Bringing peace" is hardly a goal in and of itself worth fooling with. Israel getting to exist as a legitimate sovereign nation - with a Jewish identity and with Jerusalem as its capital - is what Haley is insisting on.
How is Trump being a bully in this situation? Keep it to this situation if you want to be taken seriously. Per what I said, and what Haley said - and, yes, what Trump said, for that matter - the US is far and away the biggest bankroller of the UN. Why that continues is a worthy subject of discussion. It's a shame that the US taxpayer's hard-earned money is going to a worthless sewer of totalitarianism-promotion and basic human decency hatred. But as long as that's the case, the US is not going to sit idly by and have its interests and values given the finger.
Yeah, my hard earned money as well as yours. This is not the explicit will of the American people. If you don't see how Trump is being a bully in this situation I can't help you. I'd say screw him, shove your money up your ass, but apparently the 35 abstentions did not have the courage to do so. Don't talk to me like I'm out of my head on this dude.
ReplyDeleteAnd Truman's striped pants boys were right, Israel has been nothing but terrible trouble since it took back their God-given land, but of course your ilk thinks the trouble lies anywhere but Israel. The 77 diplomats who signed the letter warning against Trump before the election were right too. To his further discredit, 88 retired Generals and other military officials signed a letter of support for this bully buffoon. These people who think theirs is the only side God is on....
ReplyDeleteAnd every war we've entered and contemplated entering is connected with Nam in my mind. War is a terrible waste though we are always waging it over everything. You want to see unity? Look to the nay votes. And the abstentions...
ReplyDeleteThere it is, folks, on record. He's tried to deny that he thinks Israel is nothing but a thorn in the world's side is now exposed as having exactly that position:
ReplyDelete" Israel has been nothing but terrible trouble since it took back their God-given land, but of course your ilk thinks the trouble lies anywhere but Israel. "
Demonically toxic stuff.
And "in your mind" there may be a "Nam" connection, but anybody reading this is going to have to have a little fleshing-out of what you mean to be convinced.
You're nuts man !
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the Vietnam war was about the US seeking to enforce the 1954 Geneva agreement that North Vietnam stay out of South Vietnam's business. It was a proxy war within the Cold War because the North's aim was to topple the South and thereby increase the sum total of Communist territory in the world.
ReplyDeleteHow is the US announcing that it will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem similar, or some kind of parallel?
Also, you have really backed yourself into a corner by going on record with a position on Israel that you have vehemently tried to deny having.
I saw the way hubris worked in name and subsequent engagements. Our current Commander in Chief is the King of Hubris. Hubris is the parallel and disaster in the making is the game of war for us since WWII. And we all lose WW III much to some Evanjellie glee. And am I supposed to be afraid, very afraid for my views on Israel? I only vehemently deny I'm anti Semitic.
ReplyDeleteMy corner contains multitudes. Including my Pope.
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ReplyDeleteThe Haley tantrum was not a show of American strength. Indeed, given the circumstances of the occasion, it was exactly the opposite.
ReplyDeleteIt was the ultimate show of moral strength.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.themaven.net/theresurgent/contributors/nikki-haley-to-un-take-your-condemnation-and-shove-it-bEXwM5JdtUamrVmuC5HSgQ
ReplyDelete"Who could forget the parade of tyrants the UN featured for their 70th anniversary just a couple years ago: Putin (Russia), Jingping (China), Castro (Cuba), Rouhani (Iran), as well as the oppressive bullies of Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan, Qatar, and Ethiopia. No one could possibly be surprised to see such an ignoble institution that boasts more anti-democratic regimes than freedom loving countries rally behind an anti-American resolution introduced by notorious human rights abusing Yemen.
What was surprising – for Americans and for the world – was to see the United States actually stand up for itself. For decades, the United States has continued funding an absurd percentage of the entire UN budget. In 2015 for example, the U.S. paid nearly $3 billion to the UN, which accounted for more than 185 other countries combined.
Yet during that same time we have willfully submitted to the corruption that surrounded us, ceding moral high ground when it shouldn’t be ceded, and sacrificing leadership authority when it shouldn’t have been sacrificed. And we have watched as the same countries that slap us across the face with one hand, extend the other one outward towards us asking for financial aid.
To the delight of many fed up Americans, ambassador Nikki Haley expressed that with this most recent insult, our national patience has officially run out."
So I guess Donnie and Nettie and 9 fairly dinky countries go it alone on moving our embassy. At best they have the support of half the American electorate. This is why I call this a bully move at this time. Hope it doesn't precipitate WW III. Don't you?
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