WHAT TRUMP IS DOING IN JERUSALEM AND WHY HE IS DOING IT
John Chuckman
“‘Declaration of war’:
Trump’s Jerusalem decision lights Middle East powder keg” - Russia Today
Trump does seem like a dangerous idiot suddenly and
unexpectedly set loose on the world of international affairs, a world which normally
assumes an appearance of restraint and order and careful words.
With virtually everything he touches, he resembles a big, ungainly
child breaking things – International trade agreements, North Korea, Iran, Syria,
Russia, and, now, Jerusalem.
He seems to enjoy creating new problems and tensions, he
does it so much. It’s certainly a way to maintain yourself as the center of
attention, much as with his stream of “tweets,” only notable for their ability
to shock and surprise millions unused to such words from a man in high office.
Trump’s psychological make-up has something in it of the Oscar
Wilde line about it being better to be talked about badly than not talked about
at all.
Of course, there is only one explanation for this decision
on moving the American embassy to Jerusalem.
It is not an act to promote peace in the region. It is not
even an act in America’s own long-term interest. Quite the opposite, indeed. It
goes against the cautions expressed by many statesmen. And Trump is not
religious, neither Jewish nor a practicing Christian, so Jerusalem and efforts
to push dusty old Biblical texts into contemporary world affairs mean nothing
to him.
Netanyahu is known to have heavily lobbied for this move,
over and over. And we know from the inadvertent testimony some years back of
high-level witnesses – former Presidents Sarkozy of France and Obama of the
United States - what a relentless, headache-inducing man Netanyahu can be. Obama
opined to Sarkozy, during an accidental open-mic event, about having to deal
with daily calls from him after Sarkozy had complained about having to deal
with him.
Trump has most certainly been assured that there will be
favorable reciprocity for his taking this action, and deals are what Trump
likes. There simply can be no other motive for what he is doing. What form could
that reciprocity take, apart from generous campaign contributions, which are
perhaps less needed by billionaire Trump than most other candidates?
Trump is a man with a massive, unquenchable ego, and he is
undoubtedly tired of being attacked in the press. He has had a terrible time with
the press - the big national press, what the British used to call “the quality
press,” both print and broadcast - where he has been treated in a relentlessly
hostile manner.
It is not prejudice to observe, but simply a fact, that a
large portion of America's high-end press and broadcasting is owned and managed
by Jewish Americans.
And the practice of that press’s journalism always has been
to treat Israel extremely favorably, whatever views, liberal or conservative,
they may take of domestic American affairs. As just one example, the New York
Times has long had the practice of submitting all stories concerning Israel to
the official Israeli censor before publication, hardly the stuff of unbiased
journalism.
So, it is probable that we will see a definite, but gradual,
change in the tone of Trump's treatment by the press.
Any easing of the intense opposition to him, any effort to
make him look more sensible and friendly and palatable, especially in the
high-end press, can only ease the constant controversy under which he works and
help his chances for re-election.
Remember, we know from his own words, Trump relishes being regarded
as “presidential,” even if he is so frequently incapable of behaving so. He
likes dressing “white tie” even if his conversation resembles that of the
manager of a small trailer park in Arizona on the Mexican border who sells XXX
videos as a sideline.
Trump’s action, of course, means that any Democratic
candidate in 2020 will be at a disadvantage publicity-wise, unless that
candidate raises the Israel-Palestine stakes still higher. Which is always
possible. Just consider the past words and acts of a number of Democratic
candidates, as for example, Hillary Clinton, who was once recorded screeching
insanely that she was ready wipe Iran, a country of about 80 million people,
off the map.
This explains just one of the reasons Trump’s action is not
in his country’s long-term interest. America has suffered a great deal already
in a bidding war that way, a bidding war for press support and campaign funds,
over the narrow interests of a small country which seems never to be able to
live in peace with its neighbors and seems always to demand increasing levels
of American support and subsidy.
Israel is a country which seems incapable of controlling its
behavior, but it one also blessed with the extraordinary birthright resource of
a large and successful and influential group of co-religionists in America plus
an even larger population of Christian fundamentalists who regard the plain nightmare
madness of the Book of Revelations as sacred text and promise.
Never mind what Trump’s act does for international affairs.
The contemporary American view, and certainly the view of Trump, is that most
of “those people” out there don’t count anyway, especially most of the Muslim
world.
After all, America has spent the last decade and a half
killing about two million of them, creating countless refugees, and literally
destroying several countries. And the last year’s rhetoric from Trump and some
of his supporters might well make you think America views Muslims as the just
target of a new Holy Crusade.
Muslim refugees – who are the direct result of America’s destructive
Mideast wars, wars conducted largely for Israel’s benefit – are frequently not written
and spoken about in America as refugees, they are shamelessly regarded as undesirables,
as security risks, as criminal elements. Such stuff flows daily like an open sewer
from articles and reader comments in that part of Internet journalism which has
served as Trump’s unqualified source of support, the Alt-right.
It, of course, plays right into the hands of Israeli
politicians and lobbyists who relish anything which makes their aggressive,
law-breaking efforts to seize still more of the property of others resemble
some kind of worthy campaign against the forces of darkness.
NOTE: Less than a month later, Trump, in an interview with the New York Times at the Trump International Golf Club, said he believes members of the news media will cover him in a more favourable light in 2020. Surprise, surprise.
