Sometimes watching leftists tear their hair out over President Trump's moves is worth the ticket. Certainly a lot of Americans feel that way.
Aaron David Miller is the guy that CNN and your shul (if it doesn't know any better) invites to discuss Israel. Here are his credentials:
Robert Malley co-wrote an article with Aaron David Miller, another speaker at the AIPAC conference, which argued that, “A national unity government between Fatah and Hamas appears within reach… America shouldn't stand in the way -- regardless of whether Hamas recognizes Israel or formally renounces violence.”
Miller, by contrast, told the American Zionist Movement conference that Israel and the PA are equally to blame for the fact that peace has not yet been achieved. He said that “both sides lack leaders who will make decisions and who are not prisoners of ideologies.” Miller said that he “cannot imagine either Israeli or Palestinian leaders getting up in front of their people and announcing that the conflict is over.”
According to Miller, the other major “missing ingredient” today is “effective US leadership.” He praised former President Jimmy Carter as well as former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and James Baker as “the only American leaders who understood that you have to use not just honey, but also a fair amount of vinegar” in dealing with Israel.
And here's sweet music from Aaron David Miller confronting the horror of excellent relations between the US and Israel.
I predicted with the certainty of a believer that within a year, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu would be annoying the hell out of one another. My logic was based on the simple proposition that two big and prickly egos can hardly occupy the same space at the same time—and who are two bigger egos than Trump and Netanyahu?
Obamaites have been pushing this line forever. But Netanyahu did everything he could to maintain good relations with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. It was their choice to conduct a war with him. And their lefty anti-Israel apologists insisted on blaming Israel for it. Or, in this case, its PM.
Netanyahu has his flaws. But that's never been the issue with Obama.
By the end of 2017 and the president’s announcement declaring Jerusalem the capital of the state of Israel—a decision largely explained by Trump’s need to cater to the Republican base and his lack of respect for foreign policy elites—I should have gotten the message there would be no train wreck coming.
Just watch the vice president’s recent trip to Israel—a mutual lovefest like nothing I’ve ever seen in some 40 years of watching American leaders interact with their often irascible Israeli counterparts. Mike Pence’s trip was less important for what it accomplished than what it reflected and represented: Under Trump: the U.S.-Israel relationship has undergone a transition from a valued special relationship to one that’s seemingly exclusive. The need for “no daylight” between the U.S. and Israel used to be a talking point wielded by staunchly pro-Israeli supporters against Democratic and Republican presidents alike; Trump has turned it into official policy, and many foreign policy hands worry that the U.S. interest is being lost in the process.
These were the same foreign policy hands who had no such worries when they insisted we do everything that the Saudis, Qataris and even Iranians said we should. The Qatar Firsters and Iran Firsters care about our national interests the way that Jeffrey Dahmer cared about the homeless.
Pro-Israeli vice presidents have come and gone to Israel (Al Gore, Joe Biden), but none seems to have left the impression Pence did.
The highlight of Joe Biden's pro-Israelness came when the Iran Firster politician threw a tantrum during his visit in Israel that wrecked diplomatic relations for months because there were houses that might one day be built in Jerusalem.
“The Jewish people’s unbreakable bond to this sacred city reaches back more than 3,000 years,” Pence said in a speech to the Israeli legislature that was infused with religious references. “It was here, in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah that Abraham offered his son, Isaac, and was credited with righteousness for his faith in God.”
This is an administration backed by religious people, both Jews and Christians. And that's another reason it's going pro-Israel.
Currently, 79 percent of Republicans say they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, compared with just 27 percent of Democrats —a gap wider than at any point since 1978.
The Dems have gone leftist. And that inevitably marks a descent into anti-Semitism.