Quick take on Trump-Schumer-Cardin-Bibi and Jerusalem

So, declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel? Even if President Trump is not (yet?) planning on moving our embassy?

First, President 2 Corinthians has shown willingness to pander to the Religious Right — except when he palmed the Saudis' Palantir earlier this year. So, in one sense this isn't surprising. (Note: Per another piece of mine, most of the Religious Right is actually OK with his racism.)

It's also not surprising because he loves the narcissistic attention of controversy.

It's also also not surprising because anything that makes a "splash," especially if it's reaching across the political aisle at times just to confound the old guard GOP establishment.

It's also also also not surprising because he thinks this is actually going to do something diplomatically, when, short of causing a war, it won't.

But why now?

One guess.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas had been working on rapprochement for one unified government over both Gaza and the main Palestinian lands of the so-called West Bank. And it looked like something was going to happen. Some things, like the PA running Gaza border crossings, have already been done. On the other hand, within the last week, key parts of the agreement weren't agreed upon, forcing a delay in the big schmeer.

Now, Donald Duck himself is too dumb for this. But, his aides? Not at all. And certainly, Bibi Netanyahu would like to do anything he could to get American attention focused his way.

Chuck Schumer and Ben Cardin? (Where's Sen. Betty Crocker, aka Dianne Feinstein?)

Other than truly being Zionists, I'm not sure what their angle is on backing Trump right now, or even encouraging him from the get-go. With Schumer, though, I'm sure he's working some angle. He may be circling back to the DACA issue, though the House GOP has already told one of its own, Jeff Flake, that's a dead letter. There may be some bankster-related issues vis-a-vis the #TrumpTaxScam. Or it may really be existential angst over Iran, which is bogus.

At times like this, the atheist portion of me takes over.

I think, why can't Kim Jong Un lob one of his warheads at Jerusalem? Obliterate the Wailing Wall, the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre all three?

Or, if that's too bloody?

Where's Brother Maynard and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?



Maybe it could wipe out those three religious sanctuaries and from there, we declare it a religious neutral site.

More seriously yet, where is Riyadh? Where are the Saudis? Trump played grabby with King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman's Palantir. And, the Saudis have had off-the-record business and quasi-diplomatic dealings with Israel for years, even with Bibi in power. But, surely this is way too far. MBS surely has to be saying something somewhere in private now. If he's not, his Wahhabi clerics surely are going to go ballistic soon and ruin his image of modernization. (The Old Gray Lady claims MBS has, outside of the Jerusalem issue, signed off on a Palestine peace plan that kneecaps Palestinians.)

Meanwhile, here's the history, on the US side, behind Trump's proclamation, and promises that such a proclamation would be made as soon as Congress stopped semiannual waivers.

It might also be appropriate here to link to my review of Shimon Peres' biography, just to remind people that Israel is the only state in the Middle East with nukes.