By Larry Gordon
So, you don’t like Donald Trump’s brash and direct approach to putting America back on the course it was intended to be from the start.
It’s definitely true that the U.S. does not need to annex or purchase Canada or Greenland. Frankly, it does not seem that Trump is truly or completely serious about these so-called land cessions, if you will.
But what about Gaza? On some days that idea seems wilder than Greenland or Canada. As some radical anti-Trump Democrats like to insinuate, Trump is planning a military takeover of all three of the afore-mentioned territories.
From our perspective, the Gaza plan, while probably unworkable, seems to be the most prudent and sane way forward if there is ever going to be a stabilizing force in that region. Granted, it is a giant and bold step, but like so many other issues in the Arab world, it’s probably being quietly discussed and supported while publicly condemned.
I can recall years ago when an Israeli diplomat spoke about his very hushed and clandestine meetings with the Saudis on the matter of establishing at least an off-the-books type of relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel. At the time, Israel was having a particularly difficult time with Palestinians in their midst. To that end, it was alleged that the Saudi representative told the Israeli that Israel is not cracking down hard enough on the Palestinians and he should communicate the message to the higher ups that they have to do more.
“We are going to condemn you for doing it,” the Saudi reportedly said. “But it must be done.”
That’s how things work in that duplicitous area of the world. My sense is that while the president’s Gaza dream is not realistic, it may have more support in the Arab world than what we are led to believe.
And as you can see, no one is really in a rush in that region of the world. That’s why murdering 1,200 Israelis and holding two hundred as hostages for a year or more does not seem like a lot of time in the Arab world.
Here in the U.S. and in Israel, we are accustomed to quick results. Many of us might have been terribly spoiled by the Six-Day War in 1967 or even the Yom Kippur War, which took several weeks. But no conflagration or war the likes of which Israel has experienced these past 18 months has ever schlepped on like this.
In the aftermath of the Purim celebration, we know that miracles are always nice and welcome, but our Sages tell us we should not rely upon them. Many believe there were miracles hidden inside many painful events that so many suffered over the past eighteen months, but these are topics that have always eluded us and that is not about to change.
Certainly, after what Donald Trump endured with the awful weaponization of the Department of Justice in their effort to prevent his re-election and his ultimate victory was indeed a miracle of sorts.
The president acknowledges that the fact he is alive today is a clear miracle from G-d. That near-assassination that he sometimes refers to took place on the 13th of July in Butler, Pennsylvania at one of his well-known and carefully planned rallies.
As you know, a would-be assassin planted himself on a roof about 150 yards away from where the president was speaking. Mr. Trump turned his head slightly to the right because he wanted to point something out on the jumbotron his campaign had constructed with figures and statistics about immigration between the Biden years and the Trump years. It was at this point that shots were heard, and by a miracle, because the president’s head was slightly turned, the bullet nicked his earlobe instead of entering his head, which would have killed him instantly. A man in the audience was killed that day and two more were injured.
By listening to Trump’s speeches, like the one he delivered at the DOJ the other day, it became clear without the need for articulation, that we are witnessing a miracle of sorts unfolding before us.
And in the context and theme of the reversals associated with Purim, there was a mini-miracle of sorts in the way the highest-ranking Jew in the government—Senator Chuck Schumer—was forced last week to do a complete turnaround and vote with Trump and the Republicans on the matter of preventing a shutdown of the government.
Just a few days prior, Schumer, in a pathetic TV broadcast, announced that the Republicans do not have the votes to keep the government functioning and there would be a shutdown.
It became instantly clear what a government shutdown means to government employees. By law, when there is no funding and the government must be shut down, all the so-called “non-essential” workers are furloughed without pay.
It was at that point that it occurred to Minority Leader Schumer that this was exactly what President Trump and DOGE Leader Elon Musk wanted all along, that is, to identify who the non-essential government workers were that the U.S. government could do without and still function in the same manner.
That’s when it hit Chuck and a few other Democrats that voting against Trump and the Republicans would be playing into the hands of the administration. That’s exactly what Trump and Musk wanted: to move the non-essential workers off the government payroll and keep moving in the direction of a balanced budget.
As we’ve recounted a few times over the past year, Chuck Schumer is the greatest disappointment the Jewish community of New York has ever produced. When Israel was down and out and suffering, it was Chuck Schumer who took to the Senate Floor to call for the resignation of Bibi Netanyahu. It was Chuck who did nothing to use his influence to work on a plan to get the Israeli hostages in Gaza released.
The only thing that bothered Schumer and most Democrats was how many calories the Gazans were ingesting on a daily basis. The well-being of the hostages was never a point of interest to the disgraceful New York Senator.
This week, the senator from Brooklyn is on a book tour promoting his new book entitled, Antisemitism in America. This from a high-level Jewish politician who advised the Columbia University administration to ignore the anti-Jewish riots and encampments on campus as well as the daily harassment of Jewish students at Columbia.
A book on antisemitism by Schumer is comparable to the book on Leadership During Covid by Andrew Cuomo. Worthless.
Now his fellow Democrats are after him for leading the way to a Trump victory in the Senate last week. In the aftermath of his personal debacle, the talk has accelerated about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez challenging Chuck in a Democratic primary leading up to the 2028 elections.
Chances are that in a primary like that, she would beat Schumer. That’s what you get for failing at your job and failing as the so-called “Shomer Yisrael.”
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
