Isn’t it naïve to think that an American president, as leader of the free world and leader of the greatest democratic nation on earth (is the U.S. still the greatest democracy on earth????) will tolerate racist and imperialistic behavior by a small pseudo-democratic nation, simply because it is a Jewish nation? Or are we counting on the fact that our “war” is with Muslims and so is Trump’s?
Isn’t it foolish to believe that everything a candidate said and promised during elections can and should be taken seriously? Just looking at what happens at home, shouldn’t we at least have some reservations about how serious we can take promises made to get our attention, our trust and our vote?
Isn’t it dangerous to start acting under the assumption that we will be allowed to do what we want, because Trump is with us? So much of what we want to do, plan to do, dream to do, but didn’t dare to do for the past years is so liable to result in a serious escalation of Palestinian resistance that we may not be able to control it?
Isn’t it sad that we think we can now go forwards with immoral actions affecting the lives of many thousands of people just because we believe nobody is going to stop us from doing so?
The answer to all the above questions is a resounding “YES”.
It is naïve to believe, that Trump is going to be bothered any length of time with a problem that men far greater than him have broken their teeth on. First of all he will learn very quickly that an unleashed Israel will be extremely detrimental to U.S. interests, and second, being the shrewd businessman he is, he will learn quickly who he is dealing with and make his own conclusions as to the reliability of his Israeli “partners”.
It is foolish because already now changes in the tone of Trump’s words may be discerned and even more so in utterances of his subordinates on the subject of Israel and we had better realize that Trump is going to learn very quickly that “what you see from here, is not what you see from there”.
It is dangerous because Trump as a novice to politics and certainly to international politics and relations (will he be able to pinpoint Israel on a world map at all?) does not have the ability to judge what effects, planned actions by Israel may have (and I doubt he would care, it is far from his bed) but we do. Israeli politicians know extremely well what may happen, and I am sure they are being told all the time what may happen (Only this Friday it was published that Netanyahu was briefed on the dangers of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem). But also Israeli politicians do not care about the local consequences, here the rule used by Israel for many years: “What does not work with force will work with more force”, is still arrogantly applied whenever it comes to the West Bank. And of course until now the main thing that held us back was International repercussions, but these are now moved out of the way. (Who cares about Europe, those anti-Semites?)
But most of all it is sad. Sad, because Israel will continue at an increased pace, to realize the dreams of the most extreme elements in this country, and, even if at some point Trump will realize what is happening and he will try to stop it, it will be too late. Too late to stop the rise of fascism, too late to reign in racism, too late to stop the process of dehumanization of anything and everything not Jewish.
Trump will not even realize that any leniency towards Israel will have such disastrous results, which, even if Trump comes to his senses and will stop the imperialist behavior of Israel and will force a two-state solution down our throats (which he may very well do at some point, notwithstanding the bragging of Israeli politicians that nobody can tell us what to do), it will not turn back racism, bigotry and fascism. This will take much longer and hurt much more. And will require a different type of leader than those we have now.
But still, I wouldn’t be surprised if already Netanyahu has given instructions to look for a white donkey, just in case Trump will come to visit his new embassy in Jerusalem.