Well, here we are: a fortnight into freefall, and still no government in sight. In a manner of speaking, that is. Just try walking out of a bank with a bundle of somebody else’s Franklins.
The truth is that—and this has always been the case—the rules are the rules, until they aren’t, and the rules apply to us all, until the time they don’t. If there’s any difference between today and a month ago, it’s this: things are more like they are now than they have ever been.*
Israel suspended its genocide against Palestinians earlier this week. Not officially, of course, because according to Israel, no genocide has been taking place. And, without a dramatic surge in food supply and medical care, it might be optimistic to call a halt to bombing and shooting helpless people a “suspension of hostilities.”
The public at large has been informed through the usual channels that Palestinians had released Israeli “hostages,” and Israel had released Palestinian “prisoners.” What’s the reason for the different designations? Beats us.
These quibbles aside, the turn of events was dramatic, and naturally the cause of great fanfare. The world must be in a hell of a state, if all it takes for millions to rejoice is the cessation of an ongoing crime. But, there again, ’twas ever thus.
According to the homogenized drone emanating from the Mighty Wurlitzer—the nation’s profit-driven news media—all credit for this abrupt turn of events goes to President Donald J. Trump.
Like so many things these days, this is both true, and not true. Trump played a big role, but that role was sidekick, according to a party close to the negotiations.
Gershon Baskin, who was “involved in back-channel discussions over this deal,” according to NPR, told Leila Fadel last Friday that “[Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu had no interest in ending the war whatsoever. He was willing to continue it forever because it keeps him in power.” One likely reason: out of power, Netanyahu’s trial on charges of breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud could resume.
Baskin told Fadel, “Let’s face it, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ron Dermer, his main ally in the Israeli government, are Republicans. They support the American Republican Party, not the Democratic Party.”
So, this is the hat trick: the third time a leading Republican statesman has prolonged a war or quasi-war for his own benefit. Nixon with Vietnam, Reagan with our hostages in Iran, and Benjamin Netanyahu and his sidekick, the Gilded Calf, in the Holy Land.
According to Baskin, what shook things loose was Netanyahu’s failed assassination attempt on Hamas negotiators in Doha. That blatant outrage put at risk the glittering plans Trump and his envoy and fellow real estate tycoon Steve Witkoff—not to mention Jared Kushner and the rest of the clan—have for all that prime beachfront property.
Meanwhile, back here on the home front, tensions have been ratcheting up ever since our tattooed, he-man, Christian Nationalist Secretary of War Pete Hegseth assembled his 800 top commanders to hear him yell, “No Fat Generals!” Never mind that their Commander-in-Chief needs a mirror to check the shine on his elevator shoes.†
Last Friday Hegseth announced that the U.S. was “signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatar Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho.” This did not bring cheer to the MAGA base. Laura Loomer—who, six months ago, was in the Oval Office giving the President a list of people to fire; three of whom got pink slips—posted, “Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on U.S. soil so they can murder Americans.” Clearly she has not fully absorbed the lessons of Dear Leader, as expressed in the Art of the Deal. Did she expect its author to cough up for his Presidential Library’s luxury jet?
Just as Netanyahu went too far trying to whack Hamas negotiators, so Hegseth seems to have overstepped when he demanded that media outlets accept new rules for reporting on his precious Department of War. Even Fox “News,” his former employer, refused. Only the odious and obsequious One America News Network, aka OANN, has acquiesced.
It’s not a good time for a news blackout on our national war machine. The President may be dreaming of Trumpifying the eastern Mediterranean shore, but his little bald minion, Stephen Miller, is on the tube every day screaming “Insurrection!”
The New Republic’s Greg Sargent recently made the case that Miller is stirring up conflict to provide an excuse for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and impose an authoritarian dictatorship.
If that’s the case, and we suspect it is, then there’s only one way to keep it from happening.
See you on the streets.
* Many people believe that President Dwight D. Eisenhower said that. He didn’t, but what difference does that make?
† Since there will be room to spare at the Smithsonian once all the real history has been purged, perhaps that historic moment could be immortalized in a diorama: all those brass hats, seated in that Quantico auditorium—an all-American version of China’s terra cotta army.