Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer was not only brave but right recently when he called for new Israeli elections and the ouster of hard-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has disturbed the world with his relentless and relentless assault on the people. Gaza.
“Deep down, we love Israel,” said Schumer, a Democrat and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history, as he explained why, for Israel to survive and thrive, Netanyahu must go.
Opinion columnist
Robin Abkarian
“We should not let the complexities of this conflict prevent us from stating the plain truth,” Schumer said. Palestinian civilians do not deserve to suffer for the sins of Hamas, and Israel has a moral obligation to do better. “The United States is obligated to do better.”
Senate Republicans were upset that Schumer dared to tell the truth to Bibi, so they immediately invited the Israeli leader to address them alone. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles) said he would invite Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. To his credit, Schumer declined Netanyahu's request to deliver a private speech to Senate Democrats, but he welcomed the idea of addressing the entire Congress.
“Israel has no stronger ally than the United States, and our relationship goes beyond any president or prime minister,” Schumer said in a statement. “I will always welcome the opportunity for the Prime Minister of Israel to address Congress in a bipartisan manner.”
What is the contribution of former President Trump at this delicate moment?
The 2024 GOP presidential nominee has once again demonstrated that he is incapable of displaying the intellectual, emotional or political nuance required of world leaders.
“Any Jewish person who votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump told podcast host and MAGA sycophant Sebastian Gorka. “They hate everything related to Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
Trump's increasingly desperate rhetoric reflects his increasingly desperate legal and financial situation.
He has failed to raise enough money to cover a multi-million dollar judgment against him in a New York fraud case and now finds himself in a previously unimaginable place.
He contemplates what must be – for him – the horror of declaring bankruptcy or selling some of his prized real estate, much of which appears to be worth less than he claimed, which is partly why he's in this predicament to begin with. place.
Trump is like a cornered animal, spitting and growling his way into November.
And just over a week ago, he warned Ohio auto workers of a “bloodbath” if he didn't win the 2024 campaign. His choice of words sparked a lot of comment about whether he was speaking narrowly about the fate of the auto industry in a second Biden administration, or more generally. About what a loss would unleash from his disillusioned voters. (The actual quote was ambiguous: “Now, if I'm not elected, it will be a bloodbath for everyone — that'll be the least of it. It will be a bloodbath for the country.”)
In any case, looking for accuracy or clarity in Trump's rhetoric is meaningless.
But, for the sake of argument, let's assume he was speaking figuratively and not literally calling for armed rebellion if the election fails again.
Does anyone really think that if Trump loses a second time to President Biden he will go quietly?
He did oversee an actual bloody massacre — the one that took place on January 6, 2021 — and seemed to enjoy it very much.
In fact, on the same day that Trump was shouting down auto workers, biographer Walter Isaacson interviewed former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, his nemesis, at the New Orleans Book Festival.
Cheney told Isaacson that during her testimony before the House investigative committee on January 6, she learned that the president, who had been watching the riot unfold on television, did nothing to stop it even after being informed that someone had been shot while trying to break the siege. To the House of Representatives chamber. (That was, of course, Ashli Babbitt, whom Trump tried to turn into a martyr, along with the “hostages” and “incredible patriots” now imprisoned for the storming of the Capitol.)
“We know that when he delivered that letter, he placed it on the table in front of him and continued to watch the attack on television,” Cheney said. “Now, I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican or independent, this is corruption.”
No doubt about it.
In his new book, The Return of the Superpowers, CNN chief national security analyst Jim Sciuto quotes Trump's second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, as saying that Trump spoke favorably of Adolf Hitler.
“Okay, but Hitler did some good things,” Kelly said Trump told him when Kelly urged the president to stop praising Nazi warmongers who committed genocide.
“It is very difficult to believe that he missed the Holocaust, and very difficult to understand how he missed the 400,000 American soldiers killed in the European theater,” Kelly told Sciuto.
It's hard to believe this is the man Republicans are trying to put back in the White House.
@robinkapkarian
