RUTHIE BLUM: A BEAR HUG FOR ALL THE MULLAHS TO SEE

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=18429

The strong reactions elicited by Wednesday’s joint press conference held by U.S. President Donald ‎Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are warranted, but mostly for the wrong ‎reason.‎

One commentator after another has been highlighting and debating about the supposedly major ‎about-face in American foreign policy vis-a-vis the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that was being announced ‎from the podium.‎

‎”So I’m looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like,” Trump said, ‎alongside a beaming Netanyahu. “I’m very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with ‎either one. I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two. But ‎honestly, if Bibi [Prime Minister Netanyahu] and if the Palestinians — if Israel and the Palestinians are ‎happy, I’m happy with the one they like the best.”‎

As soon as the two leaders left the stage, pundits and politicians in America, Israel and the Palestinian ‎Authority began weighing in frantically on the significance of that statement, reporting on it as though ‎Trump had declared the United States was no longer supporting a key pillar of its Mideast policy.‎

Well, everyone can and should relax, because nothing whatsoever has changed on the ground. ‎Whichever way one slices it, the reality remains the same: The Palestinian leadership is not seeking ‎statehood alongside Israel, but resistance against Jewish statehood. PA President Mahmoud Abbas ‎and his henchmen in Ramallah, as well as the Hamas rulers in Gaza – with a particularly bloodthirsty ‎new chief there who has said his organization should emulate the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist ‎group Hezbollah – make no bones about demanding that any territory they claim to be their own be ‎void of all Jews.‎

Nor did Trump disavow the two-state solution; he simply said that it is up to the Israelis and ‎Palestinians to decide how to proceed. In other words, he was completely repudiating former ‎President Barack Obama’s strong-arm approach. More importantly, he was doing so while proudly ‎showing appreciation — and even affection — for Netanyahu.‎

And herein lies the seismic shift that is causing such a stir. ‎

For the past eight years, the White House and State Department have operated on the basis of an ‎ideologically dim view of Western greatness and power. Obama made no secret of this in Europe, prior ‎to his inauguration, where he stated outright that no countries are better than others. Shortly after ‎taking the reins, he began to court the radical elements of the Muslim-Arab world, abandoning the ‎moderates in order to appease their jailers. And his very first phone call was to Abbas.‎

Under such circumstances, a modern, America-emulating democracy like Israel didn’t stand a chance. ‎To make matters worse, whenever Obama looked at Netanyahu, all he could see was a Republican – ‎or an evangelical Christian — disguised as a secular Jew with a hint of an Israeli accent. It was not a ‎happy relationship, despite both parties’ protestations to the contrary.‎

Then in walked Trump and things instantly took on a different tone. The new U.S. president not only ‎snubbed Abbas, purportedly refusing to answer his calls, but promptly invited Netanyahu to ‎Washington, where he gave him a literal and figurative bear hug for all the world’s mullahs and other ‎detractors to see.‎

It thus made no difference when Trump told Netanyahu that Israel would also have to make ‎compromises in any future deal with the Palestinians. Indeed, the words at the press conference were ‎secondary to the music and body language. ‎

What was said afterward, however, was momentous. According to a press pool read-out of the ‎meeting, Trump and Netanyahu “agreed that there will be no daylight between the United States and ‎Israel … [and] that the Iran nuclear deal is a terrible deal for the United States, Israel, and the world. ‎The president assured the prime minister that Iran must not, and will not, obtain nuclear weapons ‎capability. … It is a new day for the United States-Israel relationship, defined by a responsible approach ‎to the challenges and opportunities our two countries face in the Middle East.”‎

For Trump to grasp that his country and Israel are fighting the same war is cause for trepidation among ‎their shared enemies. The Palestinians — a footnote in this global story — may finally lose their ‎leverage. It’s about time.‎

Ruthie Blum is the managing editor of The Algemeiner.‎

Comments are closed.