JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: YET AGAIN TRUMP GIVES WHAT IS NOT HIS TO GIVE - THE MATTER OF THE LEGALITY OF JEWISH SETTLEMENTS ON PALESTINIAN LANDS - CONTEMPT FOR THE RULE OF LAW FROM THE "LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD" - WHY TRUMP DOES WHAT HE DOES FOR ISRAEL'S NARROW INTERESTS - ISRAEL'S STATUS VIS-A-VIS AMERICA - HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE IDENTITY OF CONTEMPORARY JEWS VERSUS THE ANCIENT HEBREW PEOPLE

John Chuckman


COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY DONALD MACINTYRE IN THE INDEPENDENT



“Trump declaring Israeli settlements legal is indefensible – Palestinians deserve more than vote-grabbing

“The settlements, which are swallowing more and more land and resources, remain the biggest obstacle to a negotiated end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”



It's just the latest shameful chapter in the story of Trump's relationship with Israel.

He has proved the most servile and corrupt President since Lyndon Johnson in all matters touching Israel.

He has ignored international law a number of times to give Israel something that is not his to give – Golan, Jerusalem, West Bank properties – and he has created some ugly international situations on Israel’s behalf.

The unnecessary vicious assault on a law-abiding Iran – his just arbitrarily tearing-up of a valid treaty, extreme war-like sanctions, serious military threats, even using the word “obliteration for 80 million people – is a direct result of trying to please Netanyahu and the important big donors in the United States who want pretty much whatever Netanyahu wants.

So were Trump’s crazed steps against the United Nations – quitting UN Human Rights, quitting UNESCO, cutting UN Palestinian aid funds, threatening voting members in the General Assembly by telling them they are being watched how they vote, and owing the UN around a billion dollars in back dues.

A rather vicious and focused set of acts taken against international law and order.

The basic driving political force for these deeds in the United States is less votes, I think, than money.

America's campaign finance system is almost totally corrupt, as are its laws governing the activities of political lobbies.

It's often joked that America gets the best government money can buy, and it really isn't far from the truth.

The concept, "money is free speech" dominates American politics.

Israel has some of the best organized and financed lobby groups in the United States. It also has a clutch of American multi-billionaires who identify very closely with Israel for all of their huge campaign contributions. Those are Trump’s main targets for such policies.

The lobby groups not only supply cash but also expert professional and technical assistance with campaign work. They are also quite influential in press coverage in America’s “quality” press and broadcasting, all of which is managed with great deference to Israel’s interests.

As far as numbers, American Jews make up about 1.5% of the country’s population. “Fundamentalist” Protestants, depending on your definition, total between 6% and 25% of the population, the world’s largest such group and certainly a large segment of the electorate.

However, American Fundamentalist Christians are seen in polls as not being a particularly well-informed group, as you might expect with a good part of them waiting for the Second Coming of the Lord. Likely, in most cases, they not even aware of many of Trump’s acts, only having a general awareness of his friendliness towards Israel.

But the money and influence people of course follow and analyze and weigh the value of every step.

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Response to another comment:

I think it is more complicated than that.

Israel, de facto, is an American colony in the Middle East, a special one with many extraordinary privileges. Many citizens freely move back and forth, and so does money and influence and technology.

Israel almost always operates on the two levels simultaneously - that of small "independent" country and American imperial colony.

It makes for a bizarre and complicated relationship.

It compares in many ways to France's old relationship with Algeria, which France considered as an integral part of metropolitan France, although the relationship has dimensions making it still different in nature than that.

The concept of Israel includes the very emotional claim of being refuge for the world’s formerly terribly abused Jews. That claim of course ignores the healthy, prosperous situation of Jews in America and in many other places. It also ignores the fact that the majority of the world’s Jews do not live in Israel. Indeed, America alone has about as many Jews as Israel does.

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Response to another comment:

Sorry, you are confused.

The Jews you speak of in London are European people, not Middle Eastern people. “Judea,” apart from being a long-dead concept like “Troy,” is not their place of origin.

The Ashkenazi and the ancient Hebrews are not the same people, except for the religion they profess.

The Ashkenazi go back on the order of 900-1000 years according to DNA work.

Their native language is Yiddish, a dialect of German.

Most of their customs and dress are derived from central and eastern Europe, as deli food and most of the dishes eaten on holidays.

Even the dress of the ultra-Orthodox does not reflect the Middle East at all, but central and eastern Europe of the 18th and 19th centuries.

It is most likely that the closest we have to direct descendants from the ancient Hebrews are indeed the Palestinians, and what a bitter irony that is. Two thousand years of history have made many changes in them, including religion, but it is a well-established historical fact that the Romans did not expel populations from conquered territories.

The Romans wanted the farmers farming and the taxpayers paying taxes. The whole “wandering Jews following expulsion from the Holy Land” story is just that, a story, one which more closely binds European Jews to the ancient Hebrews, but it just cannot be historical.

The Hebrews, at least some of them, clearly at some point in history became evangelical, having seen the great success of Christianity, which did start as a small Hebrew sect, and they proselytized in many regions, creating what became remote Jewish colonies.

A larger Jewish population gave more opportunity for marriage, too, something that is always problem for small groups. That is why there are varying traces of Semitic characteristics found in the DNA of Ashkenazi people.