Lunacy normalised

It’s a little old news but as this is my first post in a good, long while, the relative timeframe is kinder to my endeavours. The decision by the US government to recognise Jerusalem officially as the capital of Israel has sparked criticism across the spectrum asides from the Israeli government, nationalistic Jews and evangelical Christians (the latter actively trying to nudge the ‘end of world’ ever nearer, as was evident in their support for Gulf War Two). So, one might like to see a cogent, coherent counter-vailing view to the orthodoxy, that Trump’s ‘mashing of buttons’ (to adopt a gaming term) actually works, even – or especially – if it is to the horror of the establishment.

Sadly but perhaps inevitably, such evidence is scarce, so some hoops will need to be jumped. Doing what even George W Bush though passé and stupid are further grounds to believe that Donald Trump will be ranked one of the worst presidents ever, to sit alongside the antebellum’s three immediately preceding presidents and the 1920s Warren G. Harding. Yet still a solid 37% believe in their man and, by electoral college mathematics, that may be enough for re-election.

To return to the main topic, The New York Times could find someone to defend the decision to sit alongside many other excoriating ‘think-pieces’. It was just a shame they found someone who had emerged from the boondocks. There’s being contrarian and then there’s asking the inhabitants of Arkham Asylum their opinions on law and order in Gotham City. According to Bret Stephens, it was all the fault of the Palestinians! They should shut up and reform their “klepto-theocracy” (the kind Ted Cruz would have initiated had he won the presidency instead of Donald Trump) rather than “fuelling a culture of perpetual grievance” because southern conservatives have long accepted the outcome of the American Civil War…

And no right-wing snarling would be right without a piece of erroneous mythos, that the Palestinians could have had their own sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital if the had only accepted offered at Camp David in 2000. No matter that they were worse than the Oslo Peace Accords which Israel and Palestine had already agreed seven years earlier (George H W Bush paying the political price for pressuring Israel and Bill Clinton reaping the subsequent diplomatic reward). No matter that in 2008, the Palestinians, now under Abu Mazen, conceded virtually everything, including a much reduced right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants (capped at 100,000) and conceding 95% of Jerusalem to Israel, far from the pre-1967 borders that would see Israel permanently retain the whole old City and the Greek and Armenian Quarters. No matter that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that even such heavy concessions were not enough. No, let’s focus on the abortive Camp David Talks in 2000 for which the Israelis were just as much as the Palestinians for ending.

Finally remembering that his brief was to talk about the Trump decision, Stephens says that Jerusalem is already Israel’s capital, with the Knesset based there and where Israeli leaders entertain visiting US presidents. To finally bow to the will of the US Senate in 1995 (a nutty, right-wing one) merely aligns “deed with reality” and honour a campaign pledge. Yes, because diplomatic fictions count for nothing. Why not advocate a genuine two-state solution – that there are two Chinas, one in Beijing and one in Taipei. Oh that’s right, China might be so provoked as to invade Taiwan and what was all that talk about branding China a currency speculator – disappeared into the ether. Why worry about the territorial integrity of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova – just align deed with reality that Crimea is part of Russia now, that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are ‘independent’ statelets and Transdniestr will not be returning to the Moldovan fold anytime soon. It makes things all so simple. Why not go further and say there is no ‘special relationship’ between the UK and USA that is anymore special than with two dozen other states. It’s a diplomatic fiction – abolish it! This is what the people of Pennsylvania voted for – plain speaking. And if you tread on anyone’s toes and they pipe up, you punch them before they can punch back. If the world is against you, 128-9 despite your threats, then screw them. Come in Space Cadet Stephens, you have normalised lunacy.