About That Trump - Netanyahu Rift

If there’s no daylight then there’s no meaningful rift.

This morning commenter It’s Just Me linked to a generally fine article at The Hill. The author basically tracks Tom Friedman’s article from a week or so ago, saying that Netanyahu is no ally of America. He says he thinks Trump finally ‘gets’ this obvious fact of geo-political reality:

Netanyahu is not America’s ally — and Trump finally knows it

Antisemitism is real. It is ugly, persistent and absolutely worth condemning at every turn. But criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu — the man, the politician, the schemer — is not antisemitism. It’s realism, and it’s long overdue.

So when Donald Trump bypassed Israel on his recent Middle East tour, choosing instead to shake hands in Riyadh and Doha while skipping Tel Aviv altogether, it wasn’t hatred. It wasn’t betrayal. It was distance. It was pragmatism. It was a reminder that the U.S. is the superpower — not a client state, not a donor, not a servant. And it doesn’t need to stop in Tel Aviv to make that point.

That distance says something the political class in America has been afraid to utter for far too long: Benjamin Netanyahu is no friend of the U.S. He may call himself an ally. He may speak before Congress. He may wrap himself in shared values and talk about Western civilization. But strip away the optics, and you’re left with a man desperately clinging to power, willing to endanger global stability, fan the flames of war, and burn bridges with the very country he pretends to revere — if it means keeping himself out of a jail cell.

…

We all get that. I suppose it’s news that these sorts of statements are now being allowed in Americaa, but of course none of that is the real point.

My comments on this tracked my earlier comments on Friedman’s article—this is just more of an effort to get someone more amenable to US politics than Netanyahu, but it is not ultimately a repudiation of—much less even a backing away from—Jewish Nationalism as America’s overriding ideology directing out foreign policy:

Generally very good article, but ... he can't go there. Note how he has to start by first protesting, in effect, that he's not an anti-semite. Fine, but who's he afraid of? Why should he need--obviously in his own mind--to say that? Also note that he never feels able to state the actual power base that gives Netanyahu and Israel the power to direct US policy. That power base is money--money is what runs American politics. Where does the money come from, what enables it, etc.? Lots of issues he still doesn't want to touch. Still pretending that Netanyahu--abhorrent as he is--can be blamed for the fundamental problem.

Note also that Trump continues, even as he snubs Netanyahu, to send Israel the instrumentalities for conducting genocide and ethnic cleansing and to conspire to complete this horrible deed. Why is that? Who controls Trump and can force him to do these things that have nothing to do with US interests as understood by the American people? Why can't the author tell us?

Michael Tracy provides confirmation of all this, via Trump mouthpiece Steve Witkoff and Judge Nap provides confirmation via Trump’s own mouth. First the Judge:

Trump said last night that there is no rift between him and Netanyahu.

As I’ve repeatedly stated, not liking Netanyahu is a sort of baseline for normal human reactions. Anyone who actually likes this guy—probably starting with his own mother—probably fails that test of basic humanity. But that’s not the point. The point is, are you willing to support Netanyahu’s genocidal policies, as Jewish Nationalists everywhere do? And Trump confirms that, yes, he supports those policies—and proves it by sending Israel the instrumentalities for genocide, just as he continually urged Netanyahu to “get the job done.” Those are not the words and actions of any normal human being. Abhorrent as he is, Netanyahu may still serve as a scapegoat for completing the Gaza Genocide Project with a bit more window dressing to try to sell it to an increasingly queasy Western public. To preserve the “normality” of Jewish Nationalist domination of our geopolitics.

Now Michael Tracy. The reason for including the tweets about Iran is that Trump’s policies closely track the Jewish Nationalist positions dictated to him. Behind all the back and forth and seeming policy switches that we see in public, Trump keeps coming back to the policy dead ends of Jewish Nationalism:

Michael Tracey

Michael Tracey

21h

If this is the Trump/Netanyahu "rift" that so many people on here were credulously hyping, I'd like to know what "agreement" would look like.

As the apocalyptic end-game Israeli offensive in Gaza gets underway, Witkoff says: "I don't think there is any daylight between President Trump's position and Prime Minister Netanyahu's position." With Netanyahu's position being the final "conquest" of Gaza. So there you have it.

Witkoff says the "red line" for Iran is no enrichment, not even one percent, which everyone who's followed this issue over the past 15 years knows is a complete nonstarter for Iran. This also happens to be the position of Senate Republicans and Israelis who favor bombing Iran

The use of the phrase "red line" is conspicuous, because Trump/GOP still love mocking Obama for drawing a "red line" with respect to Syria in 2012, and then failing to bomb Syria quickly enough. So they're eager to prove they'll enforce their "red lines," unlike the weakling Dems.

If anyone suspected that the purpose of this "negotiating" exercise was to set up an impossible endpoint (humiliating Iranian capitulation) and then when Iran balks, use that as a pretext to bomb Iran ("We tried to negotiate first!") there is growing evidence for your suspicions.

Of course, all this is playing out in the context of a building crisis for Anglo-Zionist geopolitical dominance. Leaks are springing up all over within the ship of state, but so far Trump is maintaining course rather than seeking safe harbor. That’s the big story.