Interview: I Expect Trump to Be Mildly Hostile to Israel
by Daniel Pipes
Question: President Trump's very first stop abroad - before Israel and the Vatican – will be in Saudi Arabia. What do you make of this surprising decision?
Answer:
Everything about Donald Trump surprises, from the day he announced for
the presidency two years ago until now, so this trip fits into part of a
much larger pattern. It's unprecedented
for a president not to visit first a Central American, North American,
or Western European country. Why does Trump bestow this honor on Saudi
Arabia? I suppose he wants both to redeem his anti-Muslim reputation and
galvanize governments against Tehran.
Round
One of Trump's diplomacy with the Saudi monarchy began on Mar. 14 in
Washington with Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
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Q: Why do Americans see Riyadh as less dangerous than Tehran, given that the Saudi government has invested enormous funds to spread its Wahhabi version of Islam, thereby increasing Islamism and jihadism?
A:
Easy: Tehran is simply antagonistic whereas Riyadh plays a complex game
of cooperating with Washington on the political-military level while
portraying Christian and Jews as the enemy on the educational-religious
level.
Q: Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has exported extremism and terrorism targeting in particular Americans and Jews. It is currently fighting in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Do you see Iran's power continuing to grow?
A:
I do not. Iran benefits right now from almost two decades of stable
leadership, the JCPOA, and unrest in the Arabic-speaking countries. But
all this could soon change, leaving the Islamic Republic of Iran much
weakened.
Q: The Syrian crisis gave the Russians a chance to return to the Middle East, yet President Trump has stated that Vladimir Putin is a potential partner. Do you agree?
A:
I do not. Putin's main foreign policy goal is to gain power and
prestige at the expense of the United States, so he cannot be a partner.
It's all smiles when Russia's President Putin (R) meets Iran's President Rouhani.
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Q: Reactionary and would-be totalitarian forces, such as the governments of China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Venezuela, seem to be gaining at the expense of the liberal democratic order. Do you agree?
A:
Yes, the liberal democratic order reached its high-water mark with the
Soviet collapse in 1991 and has been in decline ever since. Poor Western
leadership partially accounts for this, as does the perennial allure of
bad political choices outside the West.
Q: During his campaign, Donald Trump called for "America First," a seeming Jacksonian pull back from the troubles of the world. As president, however, he has abandoned many of those positions. Will the U.S. government continue with its traditional post-1945 positions?
A;
Trump has reversed himself on innumerable campaign pledges. This is
easily explained, for he had only simplistic opinions before becoming
president, after which he has been learning about the complexities and
realities of the world. Fortunately, he has not insisted on sticking
with his earlier ignorance but has been willing to absorb new materials.
So, yes, I think he will stick with something along the standard
post-1945 policies.
Q: You wrote in January, in "A New Strategy for Israeli Victory," that "When enough Palestinians abandon the dream of eliminating Israel, they will make the concessions needed to end the conflict. To end the conflict, Israel must convince 50 percent and more of the Palestinians that they have lost." But Daniel Polisar of Jerusalem's Shalem College found, in a recent examination of hundreds of Palestinian surveys, that the majority of Palestinians reject an Israel alongside Palestine by as much as 3 to 1. How do you respond to this data?
A:
Polisar finds variously that 25, 30, and 32 percent of Palestinians are
willing to live alongside a Jewish state; these numbers slightly exceed
my estimate of 20 percent
of Palestinians accepting Israel's existence. So, (1) his estimate is
more optimistic than my own and (2) there's a lot of work ahead to turn
these low proportions into a majority.
Q: Most observers see Trump as far more favorable to Israel than Obama. Do you agree?
A:
Trump is learning on the job and we have no idea where his education
will take him. One can envisage scenarios from his being very friendly
to very hostile toward Israel, and everything in between. If I must
predict, I expect mild hostility – because egomaniacs tend to be more
gratified visiting Riyadh and Dubai than Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Dubai, a real estate developer's dream.
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Q: The amended Hamas charter states that all of Palestine belongs to the Muslim umma, reminding us of the Islamist refusal to Israel and the longstanding Arab and Islamic rejectionism of the Jewish state. If the Israeli-Arab conflict was from its inception a religious war, this makes it particularly difficult to resolve. Do you agree?
A:
I do. Although mostly hidden, the religious basis of the Arab-Israeli
conflict has always been key. The fact that Jews historically lacked
power makes the creation of Israel the more bitter and unpalatable. That
Zionists purchased Israel rather than stole Palestine makes matters even more humiliating.
Q: Islam is at its core both a theological and political system. How can we reasonably expect such a system to accommodate Western values without destroying its intrinsic logic? In other words, isn't jihadism inevitable?
A:
No, it's not. All religions – indeed, all human creations – change over
time. Christianity and Judaism a few centuries ago differed profoundly
from their current manifestations. Islam has changed in many ways over
the past half-century. This being the case, there is every reason to
think that Islam will continue to change; let's hope it modernizes and
jihadism disappears.
1 comment:
Washingtonian Magazine imitates UOJ!
https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/02/13/how-kosher-are-ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner/
It didn’t take long after Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrived in Washington for the couple to start hitting the town. She’s been spotted spoon-feeding her son oatmeal at Open City in Woodley Park and making the power breakfast rounds at the Four Seasons. He’s been spied enjoying deviled eggs and a beer at the bar of Founding Farmers and stopping by Dupont’s pizza. Together, they’ve dined out at at least two Italian restaurants: Tosca and RPM Italian.
But given that Trump and Kushner are orthodox Jews, their dining choices have some murmuring: Wait, don’t they keep kosher??
Based on their dining destinations, it’s safe to say that the couple isn’t strictly observant.
“If you are very strict kosher, you’re not going to eat in any restaurant that’s not certified kosher,” says Lise Stern, author of How to Keep Kosher. For starters, non-kosher restaurants don’t use separate dishes and cookware for meat and dairy. They’re also likely not serving meat that was butchered in a kosher way. And of course there’s all the pork and shellfish.
However, many Jews who keep kosher at home will dine “kosher-style” in restaurants. What that means can vary by individual, but Stern says they’re likely not eating meat at all in restaurants. (Chefs at Tosca and RPM Italian declined to comment on what Kushner and Trump ate.)
That would seem to fit with how Trump described her diet to Vanity Fair in 2015, as she dined at Koi in the Trump SoHo hotel: “We don’t eat meat. . . . Or, well, we keep kosher.” She also said she avoids raw fish. (Kosher my foot! As she has been seen eating non-kosher shellfish - "cooked")
Sadly, the couple’s options are extremely limited if they wanted eat at kosher restaurants in DC. Maryland suburbs have a few options like Ben Yehuda Cafe and Pizzeria in Silver Spring and Cafe Shawreen in Rockville, while DC has Soupergirl and Char Bar. The District also has a kosher food truck: Brooklyn Sandwich Co.
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