A question. Do you think if Lapid or some other "centrist" Israeli leader manages to become PM, Trump would treat them the same way he treats Netanyahu?
Israel would still be an ethnonationalist state, with Jewish Supremacy the apartheid law of the land, but with a slightly gentler approach to Palestinians.
But it's leader wouldn't be an openly authoritarian corrupt guy.
I'm not sure if you saw any clips from the Macron-Trump meeting. He "likes/loves" the French language, even though Macron corrected him a few times, which is unheard of.
So, knowing this, why don't we teach all foreign leaders some French and get this problem solved once and for all?
But doesn’t yr explanation beg the question of why every president - even Obama - treats Israel in the same way? It’s all way beyond Trump’s aspirations in particular! I do not understand it.
Trump sees Russia as likely to prevail over Ukraine so he wants to be seen as backing the winning horse. He didn’t even hedge on compromise or mediation—he just 100% adopted the Russian nationalist position and pantomimes his “tough-negotiator” bonafides by verbally beating up on Zelensky, the loser. He also sees Israel as likely to crush the Palestinians and thus supports them for the same reasons.
He only respects strength and pays no lip service to international law or pursuit of justice as having any motivating basis or principle in international relations. This differs from the Biden administration who knew Ukraine was doomed from the beginning and paid plenty of lip-service to the plight of the Palestinians. Trump is worse, but not by that much.
That the American debate about the Israel-Palestine conflict is entirely seen through the prism of a culture-war binary and competing reductionist narratives is undoubtedly true, but that wasn’t Trump’s doing. That really started in the Obama/Netanyahu era.
I'm not at all sure how much support there would be for Israel, among the likes of the craven Hakeem Jeffries, in the absence of all those generous AIPAC campaign contributions, or whether Trump would've modified his behavior with Zelensky if he had received a $100 million "gift" from a Ukrainian Miriam Adelson. Yes, those free trips to Israel for elected officials keep the cultural "attractions" of the country alive but I have trouble believing in the wider appeal of Israel's ethno-mationalism when the immediate appeal of financial support and, on the other side, the threat of political annihilation for defectors, is so clear. As for Trump himself, he will do nothing to jeopardize his vision of a Trump Riviera on the Volga.
It was embarrassing. Trump was lauding himself as a "peacemaker". He even jokingly (or not) said he's greater than George Washington, daring the "fake news media" to jump on that one. Zelensky was making it clear that there would be no deal without security guaranteed, and Trump was being very dodgy (saying not to worry about security; let's get the deal done first, then we will worry about security). So with his dodginess, he was pretty candidly flouting the basic rules of diplomacy; it was pretty obvious that Trump's strategy was all arm-twisting.
But then came the last ten minutes. Zelensky asked a valid question: the war had been ensuing since 2014, from the end of Obama's second term through Trump's first term, Biden's term, and now Trump says he will end it. So contrary to Vance's claim, it wasn't just Biden who wouldn't end the war; even Trump himself went a whole four years. During those years, Putin violated many cease-fire agreements (my feed is full of people contesting this, I've tried doing my own research but it's inconclusive). So basically, "mah nishtana ha'layla hazeh"? (why is this night different from all other nights?)
Vance and Trump's reaction was very instructive in "how to not mediate." The way they both spoke to Zelensky was basically "shhhhh, let the grown ups do the talking, go play with your GI Joes while the grown ups take your natural resources and your territory." And then they turn it on Zelensky and make him the one who doesn't want a deal. But Trump and Vance made it clear: they don't care about the Ukrainian people or their safety, they only care about their own bottom line.
Damn. That is amazing. I've been confused by this, but yeah, now I see it. This ethno-nationalist outcome is akin to I. Wilkerson's Caste book. They detect this caste system that American Power has created in its own society, and then they want in on the "whiteness." Poor whites want it, too, because they feel inferior to all those "foreigners" who are making more $$ than them. Jews want it b/c of the history of feeling inferior to the Christian Europeans... Non-white Christians get to cling even tighter to that Christian/Catholic identity to try keeping themselves higher up on the caste scale, and Blacks - whether Christian or not, no matter what they do - are put at the bottom like India's Untouchables... So what happens with the "Arab" or "brown" Israelis, like what happened with the recent Florida shooting where an Ashkenazi Jewish American man shot at 2 Israeli Jews whom he thought were Palestinian (b/c they were brown)? And still, why should the rest of Americans be funding this Culture War?
The US actually gives Israel a pre-filled, interest-bearing, debt card.
Spot on "DEBIT." Not even "CREDIT."
A question. Do you think if Lapid or some other "centrist" Israeli leader manages to become PM, Trump would treat them the same way he treats Netanyahu?
Israel would still be an ethnonationalist state, with Jewish Supremacy the apartheid law of the land, but with a slightly gentler approach to Palestinians.
But it's leader wouldn't be an openly authoritarian corrupt guy.
How much of Trump's affinity is personal?
I'm not sure if you saw any clips from the Macron-Trump meeting. He "likes/loves" the French language, even though Macron corrected him a few times, which is unheard of.
So, knowing this, why don't we teach all foreign leaders some French and get this problem solved once and for all?
But doesn’t yr explanation beg the question of why every president - even Obama - treats Israel in the same way? It’s all way beyond Trump’s aspirations in particular! I do not understand it.
Trump sees Russia as likely to prevail over Ukraine so he wants to be seen as backing the winning horse. He didn’t even hedge on compromise or mediation—he just 100% adopted the Russian nationalist position and pantomimes his “tough-negotiator” bonafides by verbally beating up on Zelensky, the loser. He also sees Israel as likely to crush the Palestinians and thus supports them for the same reasons.
He only respects strength and pays no lip service to international law or pursuit of justice as having any motivating basis or principle in international relations. This differs from the Biden administration who knew Ukraine was doomed from the beginning and paid plenty of lip-service to the plight of the Palestinians. Trump is worse, but not by that much.
That the American debate about the Israel-Palestine conflict is entirely seen through the prism of a culture-war binary and competing reductionist narratives is undoubtedly true, but that wasn’t Trump’s doing. That really started in the Obama/Netanyahu era.
Typically brilliant analysis by Peter!
I'm not at all sure how much support there would be for Israel, among the likes of the craven Hakeem Jeffries, in the absence of all those generous AIPAC campaign contributions, or whether Trump would've modified his behavior with Zelensky if he had received a $100 million "gift" from a Ukrainian Miriam Adelson. Yes, those free trips to Israel for elected officials keep the cultural "attractions" of the country alive but I have trouble believing in the wider appeal of Israel's ethno-mationalism when the immediate appeal of financial support and, on the other side, the threat of political annihilation for defectors, is so clear. As for Trump himself, he will do nothing to jeopardize his vision of a Trump Riviera on the Volga.
It was embarrassing. Trump was lauding himself as a "peacemaker". He even jokingly (or not) said he's greater than George Washington, daring the "fake news media" to jump on that one. Zelensky was making it clear that there would be no deal without security guaranteed, and Trump was being very dodgy (saying not to worry about security; let's get the deal done first, then we will worry about security). So with his dodginess, he was pretty candidly flouting the basic rules of diplomacy; it was pretty obvious that Trump's strategy was all arm-twisting.
But then came the last ten minutes. Zelensky asked a valid question: the war had been ensuing since 2014, from the end of Obama's second term through Trump's first term, Biden's term, and now Trump says he will end it. So contrary to Vance's claim, it wasn't just Biden who wouldn't end the war; even Trump himself went a whole four years. During those years, Putin violated many cease-fire agreements (my feed is full of people contesting this, I've tried doing my own research but it's inconclusive). So basically, "mah nishtana ha'layla hazeh"? (why is this night different from all other nights?)
Vance and Trump's reaction was very instructive in "how to not mediate." The way they both spoke to Zelensky was basically "shhhhh, let the grown ups do the talking, go play with your GI Joes while the grown ups take your natural resources and your territory." And then they turn it on Zelensky and make him the one who doesn't want a deal. But Trump and Vance made it clear: they don't care about the Ukrainian people or their safety, they only care about their own bottom line.
Damn. That is amazing. I've been confused by this, but yeah, now I see it. This ethno-nationalist outcome is akin to I. Wilkerson's Caste book. They detect this caste system that American Power has created in its own society, and then they want in on the "whiteness." Poor whites want it, too, because they feel inferior to all those "foreigners" who are making more $$ than them. Jews want it b/c of the history of feeling inferior to the Christian Europeans... Non-white Christians get to cling even tighter to that Christian/Catholic identity to try keeping themselves higher up on the caste scale, and Blacks - whether Christian or not, no matter what they do - are put at the bottom like India's Untouchables... So what happens with the "Arab" or "brown" Israelis, like what happened with the recent Florida shooting where an Ashkenazi Jewish American man shot at 2 Israeli Jews whom he thought were Palestinian (b/c they were brown)? And still, why should the rest of Americans be funding this Culture War?
…and why he likes Putin and Russia.