Trump doesn’t really care about Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Op-ed: The US president’s ‘strong desire’ to promote a peace agreement in the Middle East is intentional deception aimed at presenting him as a statesman with global aspirations. Trump won’t get his hands dirty solving our conflict—that’s our job.
The extent of the Americans' traumatic obsession with Trump cannot be felt from far away. In order to feel it, one must visit the US for a while, listen to the hustle of diners at a local McDonald’s or to an exchange between people grabbing coffee at Starbucks, open the radio to the flood of calls from listeners and flip through remote talk shows on television. Everything revolves around Trump.
It's all fascinating. Dull, uncool issues like world view, ideology, governance, freedom of choice, artistic freedom, racism, international economic relations, tyranny, fascism and, above all, the heart and future of the American vision, are at the top of the public’s agenda at the moment. News channels like CNN and Fox News have doubled their ratings, while entertainment shows—like reality, cooking, fashion or gossip shows—have seen their ratings slashed by 30 percent. The bestseller lists are now dominated by books from the past that describe fascism’s takeover of the United States.
The Trump phenomenon has made Americans ask deep existential questions: Who are we? What unites us? What separates us? Is there anything that even makes us one nation? What is it? Just like the 9/11 attacks reduced—at least temporarily—the attractiveness of television shows like "Sex and the City," Trump’s election temporarily pushed aside shows such as "Girls." The misgivings of men and women living in the big cities were replaced by a focus on life in neglected cities and in the remote periphery—Trump’s land. In America of 2017, people are openly talking about two Americas, a split society that perhaps can no longer be put together.
The American Left is extremely satisfied with what it sees as masses of Americans joining the active resistance to the Trump administration. The extent of the political movement against Trump is indeed impressive, but it’s far from being popular and influential. It’s not influential. There is no chance of impeaching Trump through street protests or a cultural boycott, and not even through court rulings. The law enforcement and legal system in the US is just as distorted and polarized as other public systems.
So far, populism is only being intensified. While Trump’s defeat in his attempt to pass a health care bill to replace Obamacare was interpreted as a political failure, it allowed him to go back to his original image as an unusual, “different,” “popular” populist leader, who is who is seen as unacceptable by Congress, which has no credibility in the American public opinion anyway.
Image-wise, Trump's defeated health care replacement bill actually made him stronger. And so, Trump is approaching a successful conclusion—as far as he is concerned, at least—of his first 100 days as president. Only several days ago, he signed (another) declarative presidential order, this time against environmental regulations. He is extremely fond of presidential orders. And if his Russian ties affair eventually turns out to be a spicy anecdote that is not a suspected crime and does not endanger national security, Trump will safely sail on into the rest of his term. His rivals will get used to him and to his quirks.
Trump’s associates have been showing an interest recently in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the new president’s alleged “strong desire” to promote an agreement between the two sides. This is intentional deception aimed at presenting Trump as a statesman with global aspirations.
It’s a waste of time and effort: Trump has no real intention of jumping into the Israeli-Arab swamp and he has no dream of being the patron of the reconciliation. Occasionally, he will issue a certain statement that will irk Ramallah or Jerusalem, and will be followed by calming clarifications. Trump doesn’t care about our conflict, and he won’t get his hands dirty solving it. That’s our job, and our job only—especially in the Trump era.
(Translated and edited by Sandy Livak-Furmanski)
