Dear America,
Once again, Donald Trump has made an empty, futile gesture, for the failure of which he will blame everyone else. He will insist that his effort merit's a Nobel Peace Prize even though it never had a snow ball's chance in hell of yielding any result, much less a positive one. The salient issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is really only one thing, and Trump's pro forma mention of it changes nothing about the Palestinian insistence on a sovereign state of Palestine and the Israeli insistence that it never happen. Inclusion in the putative "agreement" that Trump has brandished is nothing more than Netanyahu's empty promise to consider it and Hamas will see it as such, that is, a new expression of the status quo, and Netanyahu will see it as the same. And the nomination of Trump as the overseer of the peace does nothing to alter his carte blanche endorsement of any action that Israel takes in the end. All of the rest of Trump's proposal is nothing but decorative drapery. Hamas is never going to disarm, even if it were to somehow agree to do so as proposed, much less commit to peace with Israel; the other Arab states will never perform the functions Trump would assign to them unless the Palestinian state is effectively a fait accompli, and this empty gesture does nothing to assure that it will come to exist; Hamas will never release all of the hostages as long as Israeli troops are in Gaza; there are so many parties to all of the palliative provisions that neither consensus nor participation by all of them in any of the other wishful thoughts in the putative agreement can ever be fully implemented; and so on. The would-be agreement is nothing but a bunch of Trump's rambling thoughts that even the sycophants in his administration could not smooth out to form a cohesive, unified proposal for a Palestinian future, and I use the word Palestinian in this instance to include the entirety of what used to be called the Levant. It must be remembered that all of it was once also called Palestine, and there was no Israel back then, just as there is no Palestine now.
In the final analysis, this entire exercise in futility is nothing more than Trump's self-serving bid for a Nobel Peace Prize, and whether they admit it or not, everyone who would be a party to the proposal knows it. But everyone on the world stage has been so cowed by Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop approach to international relations that they see no option other than to go along to get along, knowing that the whole thing is nothing more significant than a Gilbert & Sullivan operatic farce. It will reveal itself to be a great sound and fury signifying nothing in a matter of days. That's my prediction, though I must say that with the insertion of certainty--mandatory compliance with consequences for failure to do so for both Israel and Hamas and the elimination of Trump's lingering influence on the process--it could be a credible, peaceful solution to a millennium long conflict. And in time, a feasible plan might emerge if the Arab and European states take over the process and modify the terms so as to make them somehow enforceable on all of the combatants. But as long as Trump is involved, it will be just another self-promotion in an ignoble effort at self-aggrandizement.
The equivalent is going on here in the United States. Trump's BBB (Big Beautiful Bill), a euphemism for "My rich friends and I will take some more money and the American citizens will give it to us," has eviscerated the Obama-Pelosi effort to give our less affluent citizenry at least a semblance of affordable health care by creating impediments to qualification for federal subsidization in favor of favorable tax treatment for those who already have more money than they could ever spend. But now that the federal treasury is essentially bankrupted in order to accommodate Trump and his friends, congress needs to pass at least a temporary spending bill--a "CR", or "continuing resolution"--in order to even temporarily allow the government to continue providing what we pay it for. Trump is demanding that the Democrats go along without remedy for that denial of fundamental benefits for those who's fathers didn't give them $500 million fifty years ago. Again, much adieu about Trump giving up nothing. A government shut-down is inevitable.
I don't know about you, but I'm sick of Trump's outlandish theater and all the chaos that ensues. But our only hope of obviating future performances by the Bombast in Chief is for his enablers, the Repoltroonican Party, to grow some testicles and rein him in, or... Remember that there's an election coming up in a little over a year. We can seize control of our fate at the ballot box by voting the Republicans out and creating a Democrat/Independent majority in our legislature. Even Republicans, or at least some of them, must see that the only other choice is Trump declaring marshal law and refusing to leave us alone with the acquiescence of his party. Remember to vote, and remember what is at stake.
Your friend,
Mike
Once again, Donald Trump has made an empty, futile gesture, for the failure of which he will blame everyone else. He will insist that his effort merit's a Nobel Peace Prize even though it never had a snow ball's chance in hell of yielding any result, much less a positive one. The salient issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is really only one thing, and Trump's pro forma mention of it changes nothing about the Palestinian insistence on a sovereign state of Palestine and the Israeli insistence that it never happen. Inclusion in the putative "agreement" that Trump has brandished is nothing more than Netanyahu's empty promise to consider it and Hamas will see it as such, that is, a new expression of the status quo, and Netanyahu will see it as the same. And the nomination of Trump as the overseer of the peace does nothing to alter his carte blanche endorsement of any action that Israel takes in the end. All of the rest of Trump's proposal is nothing but decorative drapery. Hamas is never going to disarm, even if it were to somehow agree to do so as proposed, much less commit to peace with Israel; the other Arab states will never perform the functions Trump would assign to them unless the Palestinian state is effectively a fait accompli, and this empty gesture does nothing to assure that it will come to exist; Hamas will never release all of the hostages as long as Israeli troops are in Gaza; there are so many parties to all of the palliative provisions that neither consensus nor participation by all of them in any of the other wishful thoughts in the putative agreement can ever be fully implemented; and so on. The would-be agreement is nothing but a bunch of Trump's rambling thoughts that even the sycophants in his administration could not smooth out to form a cohesive, unified proposal for a Palestinian future, and I use the word Palestinian in this instance to include the entirety of what used to be called the Levant. It must be remembered that all of it was once also called Palestine, and there was no Israel back then, just as there is no Palestine now.
In the final analysis, this entire exercise in futility is nothing more than Trump's self-serving bid for a Nobel Peace Prize, and whether they admit it or not, everyone who would be a party to the proposal knows it. But everyone on the world stage has been so cowed by Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop approach to international relations that they see no option other than to go along to get along, knowing that the whole thing is nothing more significant than a Gilbert & Sullivan operatic farce. It will reveal itself to be a great sound and fury signifying nothing in a matter of days. That's my prediction, though I must say that with the insertion of certainty--mandatory compliance with consequences for failure to do so for both Israel and Hamas and the elimination of Trump's lingering influence on the process--it could be a credible, peaceful solution to a millennium long conflict. And in time, a feasible plan might emerge if the Arab and European states take over the process and modify the terms so as to make them somehow enforceable on all of the combatants. But as long as Trump is involved, it will be just another self-promotion in an ignoble effort at self-aggrandizement.
The equivalent is going on here in the United States. Trump's BBB (Big Beautiful Bill), a euphemism for "My rich friends and I will take some more money and the American citizens will give it to us," has eviscerated the Obama-Pelosi effort to give our less affluent citizenry at least a semblance of affordable health care by creating impediments to qualification for federal subsidization in favor of favorable tax treatment for those who already have more money than they could ever spend. But now that the federal treasury is essentially bankrupted in order to accommodate Trump and his friends, congress needs to pass at least a temporary spending bill--a "CR", or "continuing resolution"--in order to even temporarily allow the government to continue providing what we pay it for. Trump is demanding that the Democrats go along without remedy for that denial of fundamental benefits for those who's fathers didn't give them $500 million fifty years ago. Again, much adieu about Trump giving up nothing. A government shut-down is inevitable.
I don't know about you, but I'm sick of Trump's outlandish theater and all the chaos that ensues. But our only hope of obviating future performances by the Bombast in Chief is for his enablers, the Repoltroonican Party, to grow some testicles and rein him in, or... Remember that there's an election coming up in a little over a year. We can seize control of our fate at the ballot box by voting the Republicans out and creating a Democrat/Independent majority in our legislature. Even Republicans, or at least some of them, must see that the only other choice is Trump declaring marshal law and refusing to leave us alone with the acquiescence of his party. Remember to vote, and remember what is at stake.
Your friend,
Mike
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