The Donald Is Getting Played

The American Conservative was founded in order to try and convince the George W. Bush administration that Saddam Hussein was incapable of building a proper bicycle, let alone acquiring and operating nuclear weapons. In this we failed, as some of you youngsters out there may have guessed. Although we gave it the good old college try, our opponents were far too well-financed and well-placed in government and in all traditionally important posts for Pat, Scott, and myself to win. 

And what an opposition we faced: Leading the fight for war was Humpty Dumpty himself, in his Halloween military uniform and ready to fight: Norman Podhoretz, supported by his son, John “Four Pizzas” Podhoretz. The rest of these modern Spartan fighters were people like Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and the knight in shining armor, William Kristol. Although Uncle Sam got rid of Saddam, Iraq did not become Switzerland—in fact, it did not even become Libya. The neocons, however, not only failed to eat humble pie after the Iraqi disaster; they’re back on top, urging the Donald to be Don Quixote and go after the Iranian windmills. And if you think the neocons played Dubya like an old ukulele, I hate to think what simile applies to what Bibi has done to The Donald. Trump has been played big time by Netanyahu, and not for the first time either.

Never mind, as they say. Israel has been playing Uncle Sam since 1948; but if I keep this up I will be accused of virulent, Nazi-like antisemitism. What I think will happen is that Iran will run out of money sooner than we run out of bombs and will throw in the towel. But while both sides are playing tough guy, there will be no oil, no gas, no jet fuel, no helium, no naphtha, no fertilizer—none of the stuff we know little about and take for granted, (though more in Europe than here).  

Trump, of course, has already announced a great victory, but for some strange reason it reminds me of the euphemism Emperor Hirohito used in 1945: “The war situation has developed not necessarily in Japan’s advantage.”  Ironically, war with Iran was not on anyone’s radar screen… anyone’s but Netanyahu and his buddies in DC, that is. So Bibi urged this war on The Donald, and Trump fell for it, especially after Israel convinced him it was going after Iran on its own. A cheap, three-day victory was inevitable, or so our great allies the Israelis promised. Unlike Odysseus, who resisted the lure of the Sirens by plugging the ears of his sailors and tying himself to the mast, Trump—never too strong on the classics—fell for Bibi’s bull. 

As far as Israel is concerned, the war against Iran was a must, as Iran is an existential threat to the only democracy in the Middle East. The “Israel is always right” policy has never been openly challenged, thanks to the Damoclean Sword of antisemitism hanging over all our heads. In Britain and the U.S., where the media is openly pro-Israel, the crimes committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank rarely receive significant attention. To its great credit, the New York Times continues to expose the horrendous crimes committed by Israeli settlers against unarmed West Bank Palestinians. The violence involving beatings, arson, murder, and vandalism has become routine. Extremist settlers now openly publish their attacks online, recently boasting of having driven Palestinians from their lands, which the settlers now occupy. 

What is to be done? Absolutely nothing, so far as the Trump administration is concerned. The situation would now be almost comical, if it weren’t for its tragical aspect: settlers call their conquest self-defense. Further north, Israeli forces have now occupied and cleared large parts of southern Lebanon, displacing thousands of people. With the Iran War as a distraction, extremist settlers have intensified their attacks. Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Southern Lebanon—where will this “self-defense” stop? When will the killings of innocents and the illegal takeovers of Palestinian lands halt? 

Not so long as the Israel lobby and its agents in the U.S. of A. can help it. These great crimes are committed with the help of Uncle Sam, but if you raise your voice and demand an explanation, you will be deemed an antisemite and a Nazi. Pro-Israel elements in America refer to it as “Israel derangement syndrome.” In Florida, a pastor has introduced a bill to require schools and state agencies to refer to the Israeli occupied West Bank as Judea and Samaria.

In my humble opinion, the neocons and their Israeli maniac buddies like Bibi, Katz, and Smotrich are having it all their way at present. Israel’s supremacy is undeniable, brutal and all-conquering, and also the reason Uncle Sam is a hated figure around the world.