Donald Trump’s postponement of his trip to Israel in the wake of Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticism of him is big news today.
Here’s Donald Trump’s tweet from 7 a.m. this morning:
I have decided to postpone my trip to Israel and to schedule my meeting with @Netanyahu at a later date after I become President of the U.S.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2015
That follows this tweet from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu last night:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Donald Trump’s recent remarks about Muslims. — PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 9, 2015
So Donald Trump did the impossible: managed to make Israel look good! Netanyahu wrote:
The State of Israel respects all religions and strictly guarantees the rights of all its citizens.
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 9, 2015
Though the PM was careful to get in a knock at Islam:
At the same time, Israel is fighting against militant Islam that targets Muslims, Christians and Jews alike and threatens the entire world. — PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 9, 2015
Netanyahu also said that he had agreed to meet with Trump because he’ll meet with any US candidate.
Here’s our piece showing that Israeli policies are just as racist as the ones that Trump is proposing re Muslims. Here’s Mairav Zonszein’s piece on the same subject, showing the endorsement by Israeli politicians right and left of policies that explicitly discriminate against Palestinians. Here’s Yousef Munayyer’s observation of the similarity of the politicians’ appeals:
BREAKING: Trump refers to muslims as a “demographic threat” to the country…..oh wait never mind, that’s Netanyahu
— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) December 10, 2015
Here’s Trump’s announcement last week that he would be going to Israel:
Well I love Israel and Israel is our real strong supporter if you look at what is going on. And I will tell you what– and I will say it here. My people say, Oh don’t say…But very soon I will be going to Israel I will be meeting with Bibi Netanyahu who is a great guy.I actually– he asked me to make a commercial during his election run. And I made a commercial. Meaning, I said nice things about him. He’s a good man, he’s worked very hard, he has absolutely no support from President Obama. Absolutely none. So I will tell you I am very very very pro-Israel.
Netanyahu is a heroic figure for American Republicans after his outright defiance of Obama on the Iran deal. Here’s Shibley Telhami’s poll this week showing his popularity.
“Please name a national or world leader you admire most?” Benjamin Netanyahu was most frequently mentioned among Evangelical Christians (16%) ahead of Ronald Reagan (11%) and Barack Obama (10%). Among Republicans, Netanyahu ties Ronald Reagan (12%), but only one percent of Democrats select Netanyahu as most admired leader.
[F]avorable views of Netanyahu among Republicans stayed within the margin of error of last year’s results from (51% compared to 49% in 2014) while unfavorable views increased slightly from 9% to 13%
Here’s Trump’s endorsement for Netanyahu in 2013:
I’m a big fan of Israel. You truly have a great prime minister, in Benjamin Netanyahu, there’s nobody like him. He’s a winner, he’s highly respected, he’s highly thought of by all… Vote for Benjamin. Terrific guy. Terrific leader.
Jacob Kornbluh reports on Trump’s claim that Netanyahu reached out to him on that occasion.
Trump’s sin was to suggest that Israel might not want to make peace (which, he added, was “ok” with him).
What a shame. They would have made such a lovely couple.
If Trump keeps up his diatribe he may end up needing “Zionist ” money to get to the White house. Some powerful Muslims are fighting back.
“Lifestyle, a home decor chain based in Dubai, is removing all Trump-branded products from the shelves of its 195 outlets across the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Tanzania. ”
http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/09/news/companies/donald-trump-muslim-dubai-lifestyle-retail/index.html
I must confess to a very selfish desire:
I would love to see Trump and Natanyahu both being in power at the same time. There is deliciously unknown quality as to which way the fight would have went when two egotistic narcissists were to try to outdo each other. It would be spectacle to behold, the fireworks would explode and Trump would have no choice but to call things like they are with Israel, Israel lobby, and pro-Israel media.
And being who he is he would say it outright, loudly, and every attempt to shut him up would cause him to double down.
Hell, if I am dreaming, may I also dream about Trump ordering an independent commission of enquiry into 9/11?
Israeli papers reporting that Prime Minister did not request cancellation. http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.691126