We now see the Bennett/Lapid team for what it is. Just this morning I read the following:
Bennett proclaims that Jews have no right to pray on the Temple Mount.
Lapid asks for a delay in removing an Arab village built illegally in Jerusalem.
Is any further comment needed?
It's human to err, but to harm the State of Israel over personal pique is traitorous. I refer to Israel's Bennet. He was a man of the right; a man who was a part of the Likud party. Then, because of some difference with Netanyahu, he decided to take the premiership away from Netanyahu. To do that he had to stitch together most of Israel's remaining parties, including the Communists and other left leaning groups. Indeed, he even had to get the Arabs to join and with their their impossible demands.
Here is the situation: most Israelis lean to the right. Between Bennet and Netanyahu there is no contest. Most Israelis favor Netanyahu. Bennet, when he parted company with Netanyahu, brought few Likud representatives with him. In the recent election, he beat Netanyahu by a hair. If he loses one or two supporters, Israel will go into a new election. So what are the chances?
Bennet's Arab supporter says that the Temple and all surrounding areas belong to Muslims. That means that the rickety and dangerous bridge up to the Temple Mount will not be repaired.
Lapid of the center-left, and the man alternating the premiership with Bennet has assured the Americans that there will be no surprises. That is widely understood to mean that if, and when, Israel finds it crucial to protect its land and its people by striking Iran preemptively, it will not do so without first getting approval from America, the same American who forced a past prime minister, Rabin, to enter into the disastrous Oslo Accords. Note: These same Americans who Naftali is now negotiating with are the Obama team who lost no love for Israel the last time they were in power.
How much damage must the Bennet/Lapid team do before Israelis call for a new election? Abbas has already submitted his list of non-negotiable demands to the Americans. Abbas seems to have figured out who's now really in charge. Why bother negotiating with the Israelis.
Choosing a U.S. president isn't easy. Look at what we chose in the past. JFK, was a man that bedded every skirt that came in his direction. Of course, even Ike had a thing with his driver. But one affair counts for nothing, compared with JFK and Lyndon Johnson. Truman and Nixon were true to their wives. Okay, so fidelity to one's spouse is not the best yardstick.
And, of course, we don't want a man prepared to engaged in a crime, and, covering up for a crime is a crime. That's how they caught Nixon. His staff committed the Watergate break-in. He had nothing to do with that, but he tried to cover for his staff and that indeed was a crime. But a lot of civil rights legislation was passed on his watch. And, while it is true that he bombed trails the Vietcong used in Cambodia, he and Kissinger did negotiate the end of the Vietnam War.
Historically one of the biggest blunders the U.S. made in modern history was the Vietnam War. It amazes me that more attention isn't given as to how we got into this war. It is true that a great deal of political pressure was put on Eisenhower to start a war with the Vietcong. But he dealt with that pressure in a political way without actually getting into the war. His solution was to say he needed ever more information. He announced that he'd send in observers. And, so he did; maybe a hundred or so servicemen. (David Halberstam in The Best And The Brightest laid it all out.)
JFK upon becoming president decides this is a war he wants to get into. As a French colony, the southern part of Vietnam had become Catholic. This introduced a conflict with the indigenous Buddists. When the French implored the U.S. to help them keep their colony, JFK decides to join the conflict. But how to do it without Congressional approval? To get what he wanted he decided to use the American observers. However, if he was going to get into this war, he needed to increase the number of observers many fold. Also, his observers needed more than pads and pencils. They came armed to the teeth with the latest in military equipment.
In the end, Johnson got the Tonkin Gulf Resolution through Congress making the war now legal, but it took Nixon and Kissinger to end this disaster. It was an ignominious end to this adventure, but it was the only thing available to America.
Less noted by most Americans except Cuban Americans was the Bay of Pigs disaster. Under Eisenhower the Cubans, who had escaped Castro's state, arrived at an invasion plan. However, they never realized that their plan would have to be executed during the subsequent administratio; namely, the JFK administration. JFK didn't like the invasion planned for the Bay of Pigs. However, he didn't want to take the responsibility for calling off this operation. Cancelling was not politically acceptable. What he did was not cancelling the operation, but simply denying it air cover. Even Abe Goldman, JFK's close friend, later told him that to allow such an operation to proceed without air cover doomed it to failure. It meant sacrificing the lives of virtually all the attackers. Cuban-Americans have not forgotten.
A successful American president needs to look and sound well. Writing a book helps. Remember Portraits In Courage? Or, that stirring line, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." The American elite liked that far more than Truman's "The buck stops here."
We now come to Trump and Biden. There's a lot to dislike about Trump. My pet peeves regarding Trump are as follows: Right-to-life (I favor a woman's right to choose.) Demeaning the Corona Virus shots and the wearing of masks. (The irony here is that Trump did a fantastic job of getting the drug companies to develop a vaccine far faster than anyone had thought possible.) He also runs down people who annoy him in a counter productive way. (I was horrified when I heard him say that John McCain was no war hero. McCain may not have been the ideal presidential candidate for the Republicans, but he most certainly was a war hero.)
So what do I like about Trump? He not only got the economy running, he got Black and Latino unemployment figures to historically low levels. He and his fence reduced illegal inflow across our southern border to historical low levels. He incentivized drug companies to develop vaccines against the Corona Virus at record speeds. His moves in the Middle East were brilliant and led to the Abraham Accords. (Regrettably the current administration-- Obama holdovers -- are peddling in the opposite direction.)
As for Biden, he's Obama light.
