Netanyahu must not be Donald Trump’s yes-man
Op-ed: The PM says he'll be leading Israel and the Jews for years to come. That requires doing more than basking in the unfamiliar pleasure of a presidency that doesn't like the Iran deal and calls Islamic terrorism by its name
Barack Obama did not take kindly to being lectured by Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office. A decade earlier, by all accounts, Bill Clinton didn’t much like dealing with the prime minister either. Netanyahu might find a more receptive audience with Donald Trump. I sincerely hope so. And I sincerely hope Netanyahu rises to the challenge.
When they meet in a few days’ time, I hope Netanyahu will tell the new president that much as the Jewish people appreciated his Holocaust Remembrance Day commitment “to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never again defeat the powers of good,” the absence of specific mention of the Jews in that statement was unacceptable, and doubling down on the omission indefensible.
Friday’s presidential statement featured generalized references to “victims” and “innocent people.” It failed to specify that the Nazis’ genocidal obsession was with Jews; that they sought to wipe out the entire Jewish people, and managed to obliterate six million — an unfathomable loss from which we have never recovered. Even the overwhelmingly pro-Trump Zionist Organization of America, which five days earlier had been crowing bizarrely about scoring “the first Jewish meeting with Trump officials,” felt the need to express its “chagrin and deep pain” at the omission. From the office of the prime minister of Israel, by disturbing contrast, there was silence.
I hope Netanyahu will tell Trump that while calling radical Islamic terrorism by its name marks a welcome shift from the previous administration, and that the US and Israel stand side by side in the war against terror, this need not, and should not, extend to imposing blanket bans on entire peoples.
Netanyahu sees himself as the leader of the Jewish people, and the Jews know all too well the consequences of the cold-hearted closure of entry gates to fleeing peoples. A reassessment of US entry policies may well be long overdue, and there are emphatically parts of the world from where arrivals necessitate particular attention; Israel has for decades carried out passenger profiling at its entry points, placing the saving of lives above concerns about political correctness. But firmness, wisdom and humanity are not mutually exclusive here.
Donald Trump is not going to be a patient or a subtle president. That was clear on the campaign trail. Now we’re getting what he promised, including: Close the doors right now to refugees. Close the doors to the people of Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Sudan and Somalia. We’ll figure out the details later.
But what about those fleeing radicalism in such countries? What about Jews and Christians originally from or still escaping them? Conversely, what about the threats from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon, from where the 9/11 hijackers hailed? Determination to get life-saving policies quickly in place is to be applauded, provided those policies are thought through.
Netanyahu’s embrace of Trump’s Mexican wall did not make for a good start — speaking out when he had no need to. His failure to highlight the Jewish problem with Trump’s Holocaust day statement was still more discouraging — staying silent when he should have spoken out. He needed to find the words to convey concern at the too-sweeping entry bans; still does
I don’t imagine Netanyahu and Trump will disagree much on the various Middle East failings of the previous administration: For all his calm and calculation, Barack Obama chose the wrong side when students clashed with the regime in Iran, hesitated as all was being lost in Syria, and unnecessarily alienated parts of the Israeli electorate while indulging Palestinian intransigence in failing to advance a two-state solution.
But Netanyahu is fully aware of the dangers of perpetual entanglement with millions of hostile Palestinians; he does not want Israel to lose its Jewish character and/or its democracy in a bi-national state from river to sea. It would be easy for Netanyahu to simply accept full support from Trump, if offered, for additional housing in any and all settlements. But paradoxically, having championed settlement expansion in the face of Obama’s non-nuanced criticism of all building beyond the pre-1967 lines, I hope Netanyahu will tell Trump that untrammeled Jewish building all over the West Bank is not actually a Zionist interest.
And I hope they’ll carefully discuss the incendiary issue of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. It is our historic capital. All countries should have their embassies here. But that process should be carried out in a way that best guarantees the long-term safety and well-being of all of us, in Jerusalem and beyond.
Obama was unsuccessful in the Middle East in good part because of a refusal to heed advice and input that conflicted with his own worldview. Netanyahu may believe he and Trump have a great deal more in common. He certainly shares some of Trump’s impatience with global hypocrisies, and belief in the effectiveness of accumulating and demonstrating strength and power. But as these very first days of the Trump presidency have unsurprisingly underlined, it is not all going to be plain sailing.
This region is a perpetual potential powder keg, and President Trump is a potentially very short fuse. Where Israel and the Jews are concerned, that leaves Netanyahu, however improbably, uniquely placed and obligated to fill a role akin to that of fire prevention officer.
His embrace of Trump’s Mexican wall did not make for a good start — speaking out when he had no need to. His failure to highlight the Jewish problem with Trump’s Holocaust day statement was still more discouraging — staying silent when he should have spoken out. He needed to find the words to convey concern at the too-sweeping entry bans; still does.
Netanyahu’s tactic to date has been to either provide public approval for the new administration’s actions, or to say nothing. His preoccupation right now seems to be with his own domestic battle against corruption allegations, which on Monday saw him castigating the “leftist,” “Bolshevik,” “brainwashing” and “character-assassinating” Israeli media purportedly manufacturing false corruption allegations against him as part of an ostensible witch hunt and coup attempt.
He says his opponents will fail and that he intends to lead Israel and the Jewish people for many years to come. In which case, he needs to step up and assert that leadership role. For now, he’s looking like Donald Trump’s yes-man.