The “Neocons” are back on the pages of The American Conservative (TAC) to rightfully be denounced, as they so richly deserve. But what about TAC’s favorite “anti-NeoCon,” Donald Trump, and the National Conservative Movement which claims him so eagerly?
I have some quibbles with this article which I note, but not with Rothkopf’s accurately pointing out all that Trump did against Palestinians and Iran, on behalf of Netanyahu.
BLUF: "That's because the idea that Trump, who announced that Israeli victims of the Hamas attacks would be "avenged even beyond what you're thinking about," while refracting all of America's Middle East policymaking through the tired dishonest prism of the 2020 "rigged election," would be a better leader for America in terms of the Gaza war is, in his own words, "absolutely ridiculous."
"No, I mean it really is ridiculous. Stop. Please stop with such nonsense.”
If only Donald Trump were president. If only Trump were president, there would be no war in the Middle East, right? If only Trump were president, no American soldiers would be at risk in the region. If only Trump were president, Iran would be defanged. If only Trump were president, Israeli leaders would fall in line thanks to his leadership, charisma, fluency in Hebrew and his ability to fly like an eagle.
Every statement above is equally 'true.'
Unfortunately, but utterly predictably, we are currently being forced to endure an onslaught of nonsensical comments like these. Some come from the source you would most expect, Trump himself. Some come from his rabid supporters. And some come from more serious commentators who have faulty memories.
For example, in the wake of the recent deaths of three U.S. soldiers in a drone attack on U.S. military base on the Syrian-Jordanian border, Trump asserted the attacks were "yet another horrific and tragic consequence of Joe Biden's weakness and surrender."
He went on to say that he been in office, "(We) would right now have peace throughout the world. Instead, we are the brink of World War III." (Giving credit it where it is due, at least he did not in this instance repeat his September 2023 classic alleging Biden's "cognitive impairment" had us at risk of World War II.)
Trump also asserted that "[T]hree years ago, Iran was weak, broke and totally under control." Never mind that Trump's own administration regularly cited Iran as one of the world's greatest threats. Never mind that U.S. bases were regularly targeted—and U.S. soldiers died—while on Trump's watch. Never mind battles continued throughout the region while Trump was president.
Donald Trump TruthSocial post in which he claims 'the Iranian-backed Hamas attack on Israel would never have happened' if he had been presidentCredit: Screenshot
Trump lies. Blatantly. Frequently. On Truth Social after the October 7 attack on Israel, he wrote the attack would never have happened on his watch. "Just like the Iranian-backed Hamas attack on Israel would never have happened, the war in Ukraine would never have happened.” (Emphasis added.)
The problem with this particularly analogy, of course, is that the war in Ukraine actually began in 2014 and continued unabated throughout Trump's term. And he did precious little to stop it while, (TP-he escalated it, in fact) simultaneously, publicly and repeatedly, cozying up to and praising the aggressor in that war, Vladimir Putin. (That is not quite correct, as John Mearsheimer pointed out. And former Trump administration officials brag of all that they and Trump did in opposition to and as provocation of Putin. As seen here, as just one example, along with “Camp Trump”: Quote: "The OST is the third arms control agreement Trump has left. He took the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty in 2019. There are fears for the future of the last treaty limiting US and Russian strategic nuclear weapons, New Start, which is due to expire in February next year, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the US has signed (observing a voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests) but not ratified.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/21/open-skies-us-russia-arms-treaty-trump-pulls-out)
So, maybe we expect these lies from Trump and those who parrot his nonsense. But what about statements like that of respected Portuguese politician and author Bruno Maçães who said of Trump on X/Twitter, "He would be bad but not as bad as Biden. For the simple fact that his considerable pride would not allow him to be daily humiliated by the Israeli leadership like Biden has been."
Or the concurrence from highly-regarded Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid, who said, "Yes, I think it's more than plausible that Trump would be tougher on Israeli officials because he's crazy and incoherent, in contrast to Biden's stubborn consistency and seeming indifference to being pushed around and embarrassed by a close ally." These guys ought to know better. Perhaps they were kidding. (Emphasis added.)
Shadi Hamid and Bruno Macaes opine that Trump would have handled Israel's leadership in the Gaza war better than BidenCredit: Screenshot
After all, Trump was toyed with plenty by world leaders during his time of office, starting with but not limited to Putin. Just give Kim Jong Un or Xi Jinping or MBS a call if you don't believe me.
Also, if Biden, long skeptical of Benjamin Netanyahu, was nonetheless too quick to embrace the Israeli leader too closely (and he was), Bibi led Trump around by the nose, with the U.S. president performing circus tricks for him in public and allowing America's Israel policy to be shaped by a coterie of advisors ultra-sympathetic to Netanyahu (including Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump's ambassador to Israel David Friedman and donors like the late Sheldon Adelson). In fact, back in the day, guys like Friedman regularly stepped up to defend Israel's prior bloody attempts to put down resistance in Gaza.
Wait, there were problems in Gaza that were not settled under Trump? I'm confused.
But I digress. Ambassador Friedman has been a strong supporter of Israel's current actions in Gaza with nary a hint of pushback as the toll of dead and injured civilians in Gaza rose higher and higher. Trump, when asked about rising casualties in Gaza said, "Sometimes you have to let things play out." Admittedly, his statements on the war have been incoherent, as Hamid suggested. He's also nuts, as Hamid also accurately stated.
To give Trump credit, he did criticize Israel for not being prepared for the 10/7 attacks, even going so far as to call for Netanyahu to be "impeached." But in the same breath he offered praise for those "smart" Iran-backed terrorists at Hezbollah.” (TP-remember Trump’s spat with Netanyahu for giving into the truth that Trump lost the 2020 election!)
And in the midst of the crisis, Trump, that master of nuanced foreign policy messaging, said he would add refugees from Gaza to his planned, expanded, new and improved Muslim ban. In the same vein, he declared that all "resident aliens" in the U.S. who joined pro-Palestinian protests since the October 7 would be deported should he be re-elected.
As for Israel's tactics in Gaza that have cast such a bad light on American support, Trump has shown no sign he would have called for anything else. Indeed, he has been quiet as a church mouse in terms of criticism of the horrors wrought by the IDF. Nowhere, nowhere will you find Trump calling for Israel to stop its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, to wind down its war or to initiate a cease-fire.
When Trump says he achieved peace in the region, of course, he is referring to the normalization deals his administration branded as the "Abraham Accords." There was much to recommend these and they certainly deserve to be cited as among Trump's few notable foreign policy achievements.
Donald Trump posts an alternative reality on TruthSocial: 'Three years ago we had PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!'Credit: Screenshot
But the normalization process was allowed to be hijacked by Netanyahu into an argument that the Palestinian issue no longer mattered—a big mistake. (TP-it wasn’t “hijacked,” it was exactly what Trump, Kushner, and Friedman all intended!) That mistake was compounded by the imminence of an Israel-Saudi normalization deal that loomed just before the 10/7 attacks and which is often cited by Hamas as a trigger, threatening to further marginalize the Palestinian issue as it did.
But beyond all that, Trump's Middle East policies ranged from ill-considered to disastrous. With regard to the Palestinians, it is to be remembered that Trump shut down the U.S. consulate that served them and his moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem was a thumb in their eye.
And, now that we're on the subject, he also recognized Jerusalem as solely Israel's capital, recognized Israel's illegal annexation of the Golan Heights, and through his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, changed U.S. policy on settlements, saying they don't violate international law. The Palestinians refused to even speak to the Trump administration for much of its term.
Trump era split screen: Palestinians protest near the Israel-Gaza border while U.S. and Israeli dignitaries applaud at the opening ceremony of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, May 14, 2018
Unilaterally pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal made the region more dangerous, and since then Iran has gained advanced nuclear capacity. Trump's warmth to Russia (TP-but see above) close ally of Iran and Hamas, certainly was not constructive. And don't forget Trump's effort (thwarted by his own staff) (TP-and as Trump pointed out, he wasn’t leaving without the oil first!) to pull U.S. forces out of Syria and his general weakening of U.S. influence worldwide, which would certainly matter when it came to managing the diplomatic consequences of any of the current crises in the region.
The reality is that throughout his presidency, the world lived in constant dread of whatever lunacy Trump would decide on the fly or because of weird grudges or his base or the phase of the moon. His desire to leave NATO is one example. (TP-explained correctly by Steve Bannon that any threats of that, was only as extortion to make Europe “contribute” more to Trump’s (and the US) NATO Command, to make it stronger and more threatening to Russia, and China, and Iran). His threats to start a war with North Korea are another. And who can forget his vision of building a moat along the U.S. Southern border, filling it with alligators and then launching missiles at immigrants who were making their way across Mexico toward the U.S.?
I think that should pretty much debunk all of the current mythology circulating about how the current crises would look under a Trump presidency. As for his being able to speak Hebrew, he is barely able to speak English anymore. And let's be honest, his relationship with eagles has also been well documented. It's not good.
'If Biden, long skeptical of Netanyahu, was nonetheless too quick to embrace the Israeli leader too closely, Bibi led Trump around by the nose, with the U.S. president performing circus tricks for him in public'Credit: KENT NISHIMURA - AFP
The Biden administration has made serious mistakes in its handling of the current Gaza war. It embraced the Netanyahu regime too fully. While it has tried to advocate for humanitarian aid and an approach to the invasion of Gaza that better protected and respected the lives of Palestinian civilians, the Netanyahu government, as critics like those cited above have rightly said, has abused the relationship with Biden and the U.S. in manifold ways. The risks of the conflict spreading remain tangible. The path to peace is unclear.
On top of the above, the alienation of important parts of Biden's political base in an election year is real and a cause for concern for many Americans who see Trump as a grave threat to democracy in the U.S.
But it should be a source of unease for all who share the objective of peace and stability in the Middle East. Because whatever missteps Joe Biden and his team may have made in handling the current crisis, they are experienced, gifted, hard-working, well-intentioned and infinitely more capable and effective than what a second Trump term would bring.
That's because the idea that Trump, who announced that Israeli victims of the Hamas attacks would be "avenged even beyond what you're thinking about," while refracting all of America's Middle East policymaking through the tired dishonest prism of the 2020 "rigged election," would be a better leader for America in terms of the Gaza war is, in his own words, "absolutely ridiculous."
No, I mean it really is ridiculous. Stop. Please stop with such nonsense.
(Emphasis added, throughout.)
David Rothkopf's latest book is 'American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation.' He is also a podcast host and CEO of The DSR Network. Twitter: @djrothkopf
