Yoav Baram – In my great and unmatched wisdom
In order to truly understand exactly how incredibly dumb, narcissistic, embarrassing, dangerous and disconnected from reality the president of the united states is, all one has to do is follow his Twitter account or his public remarks attempts. I write ‘attempts’, because watching Donald Trump speak is like watching an Orangutan who learned to communicate in sign language – his handler could probably understand what he’s trying to say, but the rest of the public needs a translation (and my deepest apology’s for comparing the amazing creature that is the Orangutan ape, with the deplorable creature that is Donald Trump).
After his decision to abandon the Curds in northern Syria to the mercy of Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Trump released the following tweet:
280 characters of narcissism and the mental maturity of a 12 years old.
The reason why its worth spending a minute on this Tweet, is that it takes Trump only a few sentences to advertise to the entire world exactly how flawed – borderline mental disorder – his personality is, and how much we are dealing with a sick individual, whose link to reality is doubtful at best – and what Psychologist could only define as acute dissociation (full disclosure – I am not a Psychologist, but you really don’t have to be one in order to make such an obvious diagnosis).
Putting aside Trump’s feeble threats made towards Turkey, it is worth while focusing on a single sentence out of this truly stellar Tweet; “In my great and unmatched wisdom” is a sentence we might see in announcements made by great emperors and powerful kings in historical period Dramas. Its a sentence we might expect to hear from the likes of Emperor Nero who appointed his horse consul and burnt Rome to ashes, or by the likes of Queen Cersei from Game of Thrones.
Its a sentence so unreal, so inconceivable, so ludicrous and ridiculous, so completely detached from reality and from every day speech – that no one, and I mean NO ONE – unless you’ve somehow found yourself in a D&D night with Gandalf the white – will dare speak like this today, unless he does so as a joke. It is obvious Trump did not write it as a joke.
Less than 72 hours later, and after being criticized from both foreign and domestic allies – another timeless statement by Trump made headlines, when in his defense for abandoning the Curds – Trump said they did not help America in its fight in world war 2, and on the beaches of Normandy. If embarrassment could cause immediate death – it is likely that hundreds of thousands of Americans would have lost their lives to Trumps overwhelmingly stupid remarks.
You don’t have to be one of his greatest haters to realize by now that president Donald J Trump is a mistake of historic proportions, one could say comical proportions, if any comedy could predict the ludicrous reality that we are now facing. In paraphrasing a famous Winston Churchill quote: Never before has someone so stupid affected the lives of so many.
The question is what made Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – whose considered to be quite a clever and intelligent person – to put all his eggs in the shaky and unreliable basket that is Donald Trump, when every amateur blogger with an average of 4 readers a month could have guessed what a colossal disaster Trump will be before he was even inaugurated.
Whatever his reasons may be, it took Netanyahu’s foreign policy of several years now – around 72 hours to completely crumble. Early signs of this collapse came from no other than Netanyahu’s greatest ally; they started with Trump’s flaccid response to the interception and capture of a US intelligence drone by Iran last June – calling off the American response while its warplanes were already en route.
It continued with Trumps weak response to the sabotage and capture of foreign oil tankers by Iran in the Persian gulf, proceeded with his non-response to Iran’s brazen attack on the Saudis largest oil refinery a couple weeks back, and escalated further with the latest move to abandon the Curds who helped US forces defeat ISIS in northern Syria.
For all of the above, Netanyahu received from Trump an american recognition of the Golan heights and the transfer of US embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem – 2 completely worthless and empty gestures with virtually zero strategical value.
Doubtful we’ll see these signs of Bibi and Trump/Putin in the next Israeli elections (the sign reads “Netanyahu – a different league
The same could be said for Netanyahus other ‘bestie’ – President Vladimir Putin, following the arrest of Israeli Naama Isaschar – who was caught in Moscow airport with 9 grams of hashish in her possession and sentenced for 7 years in a Russian prison as a bargaining chip for releasing a Russian hacker who is being held in Israeli custody and awaiting to be extradited to the U.S.
Isaschar holds both an American and Israeli passports, and anyone who thinks she was a victim of random checks in Moscow airport doesn’t give the proper credit to Russian security forces. Officially – Alexei Burchov – the Russian hacker whose held in Israeli custody – was involved in an online credit cards theft, but between the lines its pretty obvious that Burchov was involved in much more serious operations, such as the Russian involvement in the American presidential elections. This will certainly explain Moscow’s suspicious interest in him considering the fact that Russia and Putin are not exactly known for their deep concerns for their subjects well being…especially not ones who are involved in a straight forward credit card scheme.
It’s worth while asking then, what separates Netanyahus celebrated ally – Putin – from Hamas organization in Gaza, when both kidnap Israeli citizens to use as bargaining chips. It is possible that this affair is simply Putin closing an open tab he had with Netanyahu, when the former helped in bringing back Zechariah Baumel‘s remains from Syria to Israel a few months back, a move which was capitalized by Netanyahu just before the Israeli elections. Every blogger with 4 readers knows that the Russians don’t give away free favors – something Israel’s “most capable and experienced Prime minister” surely knows by himself.
Given the fact that its in the power of Israels current minister of Justice – Amir Ohana – to sign a decree that will prevent the Russian hacker from being extradited to the US, and given that the one calling the shots is P.M Netanyahu – its going to be very interesting indeed to see how the latter will choose to play his hand with Putin. If I was a blogger with 4 readers, I’d guess that Netanyahu would do the most beneficial thing for Netanyhau – which is striking a deal with the Russians to hand over Burchov in exchange for Isaschar, and capitalizing on her release just before the third round of Israeli elections expected to take place in a few months. Considering Netanyahu freed over 1000 terrorists for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit a few years back – one Russian hacker suddenly seems like a bargain, and the potential political gain might be worth more to him than turning his back to the Americans, who have clearly turned their backs to the world.
It is now clear to everyone that Netanyahus foreign policy has collapsed quicker than a house of cards. Netanyahu did everything he could to make Israel the spearhead in the fight against Iranian regional aspirations. He did so, relying on a weak, delusional, unreliable, narcissist, and an overwhelming ignoramus – that the only things he cares for – in parallel to one of Netanyajus own traits – are his own personal interests. Its a known secret in Washington that if one really wants to get Trumps ear, all one has to do is order some rooms in one of his hotels, or throw off a big and orchestrated event in one of Trumps towers.
On the other front Netanyahu relied on Vladimir Putin, probably the most dangerous person affecting world order today, and someone whose interests could not be more contradicting to those of Israel. Beyhond his support backing Assad’s murderous regime in Syria, including the supply of advanced S-300 surface to air missiles, and his cooperation with Iran in Syria – the only interest Putin has beyond himself and his fellow oligarchs is creating and supporting chaos and disorder around the world that will strengthen Russia’s image and prove to his subjects just how powerful and stable Russian rule is – clearing from their minds the fact that they are living in a corrupted plutocracy where the average life span for men is 66.
Putting aside that Putin is the one responsible for the rise of Trump to power, as well as being Trumps handler (and the Ukraine affair only proved to strengthen this assumption given that Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars destined to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion in Creme), he’s probably one of the most influential leader in today’s world, even though he rules a country which economic size is equivalent to that of Spain.
The truth is that after a decade of Netanyahus rule – and in complete contradiction to the pretty picture he painted to the Israeli public – Israel today is probably in one of its worst and awkward positions as far as its foreign relations go. When starting his 10 years tenure in 2009, Iran was 1400 kilometers from Israels borders, a decade later Iran’s militants are sitting only a few kilometers from Israel’s northern border with Syria and Lebanon, as well as building its power in Iraq, and it is no longer obligated to any nuclear deal after it was Netanyahu himself who made Trump pull out of the agreement.
In addition to that, Netanyhu is now left with virtually no allies in the US administration, let alone after his intentional and provocative poke in the eye that was his appearance in the US congress under president Obama and the democratic party, as well as taking a partisan stand in his ubiquitous support for the Republican party and Trump. Every blogger with 4 readers knows that you mustn’t choose sides in American politics, which switches from left to right every 8 years on average.
At least in one thing Netanyahu was telling the truth – in compliance with one of his famous propaganda phrases – Netanyhau is indeed “a different league”. Its the league of colossal failure that is his foreign policy – literally his one and only achievement that he vigorously market to Israeli’s in the decade he and his corrupt party have ruled the country. Without allies to rely on, and in the center of Iran’s sights – Netanyhau condemned Israel to deal with a huge and imminent risk by itself, and now he’s using his foreign policy failure to scare Israelis from an impending Armageddon – one which thanks to him – is closer than ever, as well as coughing out on every occasion the great need and importance of forming a bipartisan government given Israel’s “complicated security needs” – that only he of course could handle successfully.
If anyone is looking for the half full glass here, then its probably the fact that at the very least – Netanyahu did not express before the entire world that the Curds did not help Israel in its war of independence, and therefor there’s no reason Israel should now help the Curds…
