by James M. Wall
Bibi Netanyahu has long begged for others to recognize that “Israel is a Jewish state”. No one has agreed to do so. So, Bibi and his Likud right-wing party did it for themselves.
Netanyahu is the Donald Trump of the Mediterranean. Both men are driven by a desperate need for political and economic power for its own sake, coupled with an equally strong need to be loved. Donald wants the love for himself and, by extension, his family. Bibi seeks love for himself and his tribe.
They arrived on the world political stage at just the moment to sustain each other.
In its sham negotiations with the Palestinian people, recognizing Israel as the Jewish state was always Israel’s basic demand. Bibi does not care that it is impossible to have a state that is a democracy of exclusively Jewish people. To identify Israel as a Jewish democracy is to label the nation with an oxymoron.
Both Trump and Bibi embrace non-democratic tyrants. Donald and Vladimir Putin are currently cementing their affair in public. Most recent example: The “would/wouldn’t” game Trump played against his own intelligence agencies.
Seattle-based Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein, writes that like Trump, “Bibi Netanyahu, desperate to find a few paltry allies somewhere, anywhere, has cultivated a bromance with Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Orban isn’t such a metzieh (Yiddish for ‘a find’). He is the far-right, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic anti-Semitic premier of Hungary. Netanyahu is the far right, Islamophobic, racist, anti-refugee-PM of Israel”.
Donald Trump’s embrace of strongmen tyrants will not be his downfall, even though he embraces Russian President Vlad Putin, who has intervened in our 2016 presidential election and assumed to be working to do the same in our 2018 mid-term election.
American establishment types are outraged over Trump’s blatant and undisguised racism. But Republicans nominated him while Democrats failed to defeat him. Those who voted for him, and those who did not oppose him with vigor, gave him a big electric train to keep him amused. The train is called, “the most powerful job in the world”.
Nor will Trump’s cringe-inducing sexual conduct and mindset bring him down. His sexual and financial conduct look to those who swear by him, as just good old Trump doing his thing. And even among voters not enamored of him, at least he is neither Hillary nor Barack.
Will the Mueller investigations deliver hope? Is impeachment a way to take back that electric train? Probably not. Impeachment would simply give Vice President Mike Pence the White House, where he would be a slicker, more rational Trump.
Unless Pence is dragged down with Trump by either Mueller or impeachment, he is next in line.
A conservative radio and TV talk show host in the 1990s, Pence successfully ran for Congress in 2000 where he became the House Republican conference chairman, before being elected governor of Indiana in 2012. The Republican party made him Trump’s running mate.
Trump’s soulmate Netanyahu is confronting legal findings in Israel, which could lead to his ouster. But just as Trump could be replaced by Pence, Bibi is the leader of the right-wing Likud which would replace him with an equally hard-right leader.
The two nations, partners in oppression, are now radically right in political outlook. Opposition parties in Israel and the U.S. show few signs of being able to change that outlook anytime soon.
These depressing times we are currently in puts me in mind of the Randy Travis (picture above) song, “Pray for the fish”, a country music favorite of many, including me. The song has to do with the fellow who was about as evil as any fellow in town had ever been.
One day this fellow, whose name was Eddie Lee Vaughn, recognized himself as saved. The preacher was ready to baptize him in the river on the edge of town. A big crowd had gathered. Randy Travis tells the story of what happens to the fish when Eddie Lee Vaughn was washed of his sins. Click below for the song performed by Randy Travis.
Click here for words of the song
Voters and high-rollers with money gave us Trump and Pence, Netanyahu and Likud. What will they leave behind? And what happens to the fish still swimming in the river? Pray for them.
Wallwritings 
I am disappointed as someone who knows better that Russia didn’t do anything in the US elections that Israel hasn’t done in spades and became the old normal. Moreover, it is the war-mongering 3-letter agencies and their presstitutes that are stoking the anti-Putin hysteria, as successfully as Netanyahu is able to stoke anti-Gaza sentiment.
As Paul Craig Roberts wrote, “President Trump is accused of treason for trying to make peace!” Trump’s job is to meet with the other super-power leaders, who may be detestable, but no more so than your elected leader, or Hilary for that matter.
Against America’s corrupt leaders, including Obama who toppled the democratically elected leader of Ukraine provoking Russia while satiating your corrupt 3-letter agencies against him, Putin has even brought stability to Syria and stemmed the flow of refugees, in fact making is safe for their return. The Zionist backed al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorists on the Golan border are just about cleaned out, leaving the American-backed ISIS in al-Raqqa as the next target.
Considering Jesus’ concern for life and dignity, Putin is the lesser evil over anyone the US has offered up in the last couple of decades.
Love this! Praying for the Fish!
In the West Bank right now, I’m hearing both despair and a derisive clapping of hands. “So what else will they do? We are not going away.” Thanks for this, Jim.
Indeed James we need to pray for the fish who ain’t done nothin’
Hi Jim, Glad you used the song. Nice touch.
Pray for the fish indeed, in the light of the swamp of autocrats and thieves.
And thanks for the report from the West Bank, dear Pauline.
ALL the fish want a place to swim in the Jordan. Pray for the fish. Indeed.
Good one, again. Thanks… Like the song too…
I’m not a great one for praying for fish. Nor am I able to untangle the first letter (above).
However, there IS a major difference between Trumpland and Netanyahuland. At the time of our 2016 elections, we COULD have had Bernie Sanders as the candidate, rather than Hillary Clinton.
But the national Democratic Party (not the people) decided that Clinton WOULD BE the candidate. There has been no such equivalent in Palestine/Israel. Instead, Israel (but not Palestine) has decided it can be both DEMOCRATIC and Jewish Only. (eyes rolling!)
ALL the above are at one in a single consensus: Fish are for frying (not praying over).
I was enjoying reading until I got to this – ” he embraces Russian President Vlad Putin, who has intervened in our 2016 presidential election and assumed to be working to do the same in our 2018 mid-term election.” Is there NO ONE who understands that NO EVIDENCE has been submitted to substantiate this claim from certain members of the powers that be…only handpicked analysts from three of the 17 intelligence agencies were involved in producing the evidence-free “assessment” under serial liar James Clapper back in January 2017. Enough! The US has intervened in other countries’ elections, including Russia’s – celebrated by a cover story in Time Magazine, no less! – or just overthrown their governments, dozens of times. Anyone remember the overthrow of Iran’s elected government and the return of the Shah? Anyone remember our Assistant Secretary of State Nuland discussing who should replace the elected government of Ukraine in a telephone call to the US ambassador?