March 09, 2017
Banksy Protest Mural, Palestine
Source: Bigstock
I spoke to Palestinian pollster Dr. Khalil Shikaki, who told me that one of the few things Palestinians and Israelis agree on is that the situation in Israel will get worse for both parties during Trump’s administration. Haviv Gur, a senior analyst at The Times of Israel, asked me if I was embarrassed about Trump’s executive order. I told him I loved the travel ban and saw it as very necessary right now. Gur called Trump incompetent and laughed. I like Haviv a lot, but he has the same sickness the entire Judeo-Christian world has. It’s a snobby disdain for arrogance. The executive order was rushed, but it had to be. It’s essentially a military action. Jews should appreciate that. I don”t think one of the countries on Trump’s list would allow an Israeli passport into their country. They are at war, but they don”t seem to want to recognize that. They don”t even like guns. Getting a handgun permit is a nightmare and carrying it around comes with a huge litany of stipulations.
I did meet one Trump supporter in Jerusalem, senior contributing editor of The Jerusalem Post Caroline Glick. She’s a brassy broad who looks like Mel Brooks” wife and is totally over pretending that a two-state solution could work. “That guy has balls,” she said of Trump, “I love his tweets.” She lives in the settlements and calls them neighborhoods. She recognizes that even when Clinton laid out a peace plan that was basically everything the Palestinians were asking for, they left the negotiation table. They don”t want to settle this. It’s a naive trait of the West to assume everyone wants to negotiate and come to a peaceful solution. We shouldn”t assume other cultures see democracy the way we do. Muslims are different from us and even living next to them is a pain in the ass. Ask India. Shit, ask Muslims. Israel’s only future is to stop apologizing and embrace the Trump mentality. It’s also the only future for the West.
