According to the headlines, Trump is not happy with his former buddy Netanyahu…says Netanyahu is ungrateful for what he, Trump, did for Israel.
We covered the first cracks in the relationship right about here, but more keeps happening.
Let’s first understand that both men, Trump and Netanyahu, were strong leaders. Each man did what he had to do…Trump for America, Netanyahu for Israel.
They were bound to clash. In this, there is no right or wrong.
Well, that’s how I see it, but among columnists, the sophisticates, I appear to be in the minority. Whatever the dispute between the two, I call it even.
The sophisticates say Netanyahu is guilty for…everything! To collar Bibi, they’ll go back to the beginning of time to find an imperfection.
To start with the most ludicrous accusation of all, they say that Jewish American support for Israel at an all-time low…and guess whose fault that is. Netanyahu, of course.
To believe that, you were born yesterday. Otherwise, you are aware that there is nothing new under this sun, either.
You are also aware that alarmists and doomsayers have always been with us…with “facts” and “statistics.”
In fact, and through ebb and flow, Jewish support for Israel has been at an “all-time low” for years, decades, centuries, even going back to the days of the Hebrew Bible.
That’s how far back this goes, and most Hebrews, the rabbis tell us, chose to remain in the fleshpots of Egypt, rather than follow Moses to the Promised Land.
Netanyahu can’t be asked to do more than Moses, not when so many American Jews are assimilated, their Zionism proportionately diluted.
Not when so many American Jews are Liberal, and will likely favor a weak in the knees Democrat and never a strong-handed Republican, such as Netanyahu…or Trump.
Paradoxically, most American Jews do support Israel, in varying degrees. So, this is complicated, and to fault Netanyahu for what’s happening in America is a stretch.
But stretch they do, my fellow columnists.
They say that Netanyahu betrayed Trump over Trump’s Deal of the Century. Not so, unless they’re talking about Netanyahu’s stiff-arm over Jared Kushner’s Part Two.
Part One was glorious. There, through Trump, the United States recognized Israel’s legitimate rights over the Golan Heights, moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, and then, more icing on the cake…the Abraham Accords…followed by smiles and handshakes all around; Trump and Netanyahu the best of pals.
But Part Two was sobering, Trump saying, “Now it’s time to make the Palestinians happy.”
Too happy, for Netanyahu…as this proposal almost took it all back, over land, prisoners and sovereignty; the two-state-solution smacking Netanyahu in the face all over again.
So, justifiably, Netanyahu said I’ll take all of Part One; Kushner’s Part Two, not so much…and for that, they’re calling Netanyahu ungrateful.
As for me, I’ll take “ungrateful “when grateful means jeopardizing the safety of my country, whether Israel or the USA.
Then they accuse Netanyahu of being stubborn and difficult not only against Trump, but against previous US presidents as well.
For nobody was he a pushover.
True, in no White House was he “popular.”
Maybe it’s because they too demanded and expected concession after concession, some of it or all of it to Israel’s detriment.
Preceding Netanyahu, Israel had a number of prime ministers who were willing to give the other side nearly everything it wanted, including the kitchen sink, Jerusalem.
They were very popular.
For me, I’ll take unpopular, and stubborn, and difficult, if it means unyielding for the safety, security, and sovereignty of the Jewish State.
Jack Engelhard, New York-based bestselling American novelist, writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.
He wrote the worldwide book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal,” the authoritative newsroom epic, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” followed by his coming-of-age classics, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” and, the Holocaust-to-Montreal memoir, “Escape from Mount Moriah.” For that and his 1960s epic “The Days of the Bitter End,” contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com
