Slouching Towards Bethlehem

"When we take away from a man his traditional way of life, his customs, his religion, we had better make certain to replace them with something of value."

Robert Ruark - "Something of Value"

With apologies to Ruark and W.B. Yeats, let's take stock of what the world is like today. And, honestly, I didn't think I'd miss the Cold War so much. At least that bi-polar world was easier to understand. And these days, the phrase "bipolar world" takes on new meaning.

Surprisingly for some readers, I'm not starting with the Alaska fiasco, which is only rivalled by Munich and Appomattox in my mind. It reminded me of the Jimmy Breslin best seller, "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight."

No, let's start in Israel, which I have visited 4 times on reporting trips, and holds a special place in my heart. I met wonderful people on all of my visits, and that includes both Jews and Arabs who were incredibly gracious, for the most part. I say for the most part because there were some on both sides who couldn't get past their shared recent history.

Now, to be sure, my last visit was some years ago and a lot has happened since then, but sadly, nothing really has changed. Well, except one thing. The Israeli government is now firmly in the hands of former settlers who, whenever Prime Minister Netanyahu threatens to move toward any rapprochement with the Palestinian Authority, threaten to shatter his coalition government, and mandate new elections.

And, of course, the Palestinians have done themselves no favors with the October 17th attacks, whose brutality, along with the taking of innocent hostages, turned the world against their cause. At least until Bibi overplayed his hand and continues to make the rubble bounce in Gaza. And so the deadly tit for tat continues as always.

And now the Israeli Finance Minister,  Bezalel Smotrich has announced the ultimate West Bank settlement that will divide the occupied territory and prevent once and for all any future Palestinian state. And that move, frankly, will, along with Netanyahu's promise to occupy all of Gaza, get the few living Israeli hostages killed. Because, of course, no insult can be swallowed by HAMAS without more killing.

The Guardian writes...

Smotrich is a messianic settler who was born in the occupied Golan Heights in 1980, now lives in the occupied West Bank and has repeatedly called for Israeli settlers to return to Gaza.

He believes Jews have a divine right to all land that made up biblical Israel. A commitment to expanding the area controlled by Jewish Israelis – both in de facto terms and through legal annexation – runs through his personal and political life.

In 2005, he was arrested by the Shin Bet security services and questioned for weeks about his role in protests over Israel’s plans to withdraw from Gaza, allegedly on suspicion of planning to block roads and damage infrastructure to try to block the withdrawal.

He was released without charges being brought, set up an influential rightwing NGO focused on control of occupied land and won his first parliamentary seat in 2015.

On one of my trips, I visited a settlement, not to be confused with an Israeli Kibbutz, and interviewed an American ex-patriot from Chicago named Artie Gellman.

Artie lives in a settlement called Efrat just outside of Bethlehem. In our conversation, he described settlers as the modern-day equivalent of Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett. I told him, Efrat didn't look much like Boonesboro...

It's essentially a Bethlehem suburb. You could drop these townhouses into Dallas and they'd fit right in. He spoke incessantly about the dangers in the West Bank, the need for barbed wire and always being armed. I asked him how much wire he wants to string and how many ammo magazines he wants to buy. His answer, "As many as I have to."

We should point out here, that the West Bank, which refers to it being on the west bank of the Jordan River, was part of Jordan until the 1967 Middle East War when it was captured by Israel. It has an estimated population of 2,747,943 Palestinians and over 670,000 Israeli settlers. Under international law, it is considered occupied territory, And according to the 4th Geneva Protocol...

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. 

In case you are wondering, Israel is indeed a signatory to the Geneva Convention. So, for now, Palestinians in the area have no state of their own, and this new planned settlement has drawn the ire of virtually the entire international community, except, notably, the United States.

During my first trip there during the first Gulf War, I called an Israeli journalist I had first met in Germany when we covered the moves toward German reunification. I have mentioned him before, Nitzan Horowitz. He worked for the newspaper Haaretz, and later moved to TV and, still later, politics as a member of Parliament.

We toured the city of Tel Aviv and the damage done by Iraqi Scud missiles.

I'll repeat something he said that stuck with me. "We didn't endure the diaspora, the Russian pogroms, the holocaust and the fight for statehood so that now we can be the jailers."

I refer you to the Robert Ruark quote at the beginning of this screed.

And now, to Alaska. Well, there's not much to tell. I'm sure you have read many disappointing reports on the "summit" where we had another taco moment.

A cease-fire in the Ukraine-Russia war was the minimum the President said he'd demand or he'd get right back on Air Force One and fly home. Well, he didn't get even that, and the Russian demands remain the same as when Paul Manafort, Trump's first campaign manager, met with the Russians in 2016. From the Mueller Report as quoted in the Milwaukee Sentinel...

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election explained that Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager and then conduit to Russian operatives, in summer 2016 “discussed a plan to resolve the ongoing political problems in Ukraine by creating an autonomous republic in its more industrialized eastern region of Donbas, and having [Viktor] Yanukovych, the Ukrainian President ousted in 2014, elected to head that republic.”

Manafort had helped to get the pro-Russian oligarch Yanukovych into office, and when Yanukovych fled to Russia after the Ukrainian people threw him out, Manafort was left unemployed and in debt to other oligarchs. When he went to work for Trump, for free, he promptly wrote to his partner Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee identified in 2020 as a Russian operative, asking how “we” could use the appointment “to get whole,” and made sure that the Russian oligarch to whom he owed the most money knew about his close connection with the Trump campaign (p. 135).

The Mueller Report continued: “That plan, Manafort later acknowledged, constituted a ‘backdoor’ means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine” (p. 140). The region that Putin wanted was the country’s industrial heartland. He was offering a “peace” plan that carved off much of Ukraine and made it subservient to him.

According to the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee, Manafort’s partner and Russian operative Kilimnick wrote that “[a]ll that is required to start the process is a very minor ‘wink’ (or slight push) from D[onald] T[rump] saying ‘he wants peace in Ukraine and Donbass back in Ukraine’ and a decision to be a ‘special representative’ and manage this process.”

Following that, Kilimnik suggested that Manafort ‘could start the process and within 10 days visit Russia ([Yanukovych] guarantees your reception at the very top level, cutting through all the bullsh*t and getting down to business), Ukraine, and key EU capitals.’ The email also suggested that once then–Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko understood this ‘message’ from the United States, the process ‘will go very fast and DT could have peace in Ukraine basically within a few months after inauguration’” (p. 99).

According to the Senate Intelligence Committee, the men continued to work on what they called the “Mariupol Plan” at least until 2018. That is, of course, the year Manafort went to prison.

So, essentially, what Putin wants is what he wanted back in 2016. The demands are the same, and I have to wonder, did no one on our side prepare for this? Did no one role-play the summit like preparing for a TV debate? "What do we say if he just plain refuses?"

And, the President keeps talking about the necessity of a "land swap" between Russia and Ukraine. What exactly is being swapped? Is Putin giving anything in return or is it just a matter of "give me 20% of your country and I'll stop killing you?" At the very least, NATO and EU membership should be in the cards.

And the thing that most reminded me of the aforementioned Breslin novel? A batch of State Department documents prepared for the summit was found left on a copier at the Anchorage hotel.

One of the odder details from the eight pages is a list of Russian delegation members and phonetic pronouncers for all of their names.

For Putin, the documents instruct: “Mr. President POO-tihn.”

The documents also stated that a luncheon was being held “in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin.”

And let's also remember in light of the red carpet and attendant folderol, "His Excellency" is a convicted war criminal. Maybe no flyover, eh, guys?

The bad news about the diplomatic faceplant was then phoned to Ukrainian President Zelensky and various unnamed European leaders, and they will all come to the White House this week to plan for the next steps, since there were no apparent first steps.

The Washington Post reported that...

"A triumphant Putin told top Russian officials Saturday that the meeting was “very useful” and “in my opinion, it brings us closer to the right decisions.”

That "awkward smile" reported on Putin's face as he met with Trump on the tarmac has another name. It's called a smirk.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.