Bibi Trump and Donald Netanyahu

AROUND THE BLOCK

I learned today…

Two Peas in a Pod - שני אפונים בתרמיל

I learned today, courtesy of Thomas Friedman, that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are essentially the same person. Which is why Friedman now refers to them as Bibi Trump and Donald Netanyahu.

I actually didn’t really learn this today; I’ve always known it. But Friedman’s Times’ column today provides the particulars behind the contention.

In case you haven’t read it, here’s the 
link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/opinion/netanyahu-trump-israel-election.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

And here are some key takeaways: 

• They are both men utterly without shame, backed by parties utterly without spine, protected by big media outlets utterly without integrity.

• They are both funded by a Las Vegas casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson.

• They are both making support for Israel a “Republicanʼʼ cause — no longer a bipartisan one. 

• Netanyahu has openly embraced a racist, anti-Arab Israeli party and racist, anti-Arab rhetoric, unlike any previous Israeli prime minister.

• Trump is increasingly turning America into a banana republic, firing cabinet officials and senior bureaucrats who refuse to carry out his impulsive orders, which are often illegal and mostly related to preventing legal and illegal immigration or asylum requests along the Mexico-United States border.

• Both Trump and Netanyahu are being investigated for serious financial improprieties. 

• Neither man is interested in being a leader for all their people. Each has chosen to rule by dividing his people, not uniting them.

• Bibiʼs strategy was to demonize Israeli Arabs, and Trumpʼs was to demonize Muslims and Mexicans and immigrants from what he called “shitholeʼʼ countries.

• Both Trump and Bibi worship only one thing — raw, naked power, and they are not afraid to exercise it. 

Sadly, there’s more, so I urge you to read the column in its entirety.

As of this writing, Netanyahu has apparently won enough votes to form a coalition that will ensure another term as prime minister, even if that coalition had to include a small, racist, anti-Arab Israeli party — "a party so vile that the Israeli Supreme Court barred its leader from running." 

Will Trump win re-election in 2020 by, among other things, continuing his unfettered indulgence of white supremacists?

Too early to tell. But, as Friedman concludes, "Four more years of Netanyahu and six more years of Trump wonʼt just change America and Israel. It will change the world — and not for the better."