A friend complained that I had stopped posting to my blog.  I explained that I had reestablished my substantive posts on Facebook now that they permit substantive posting again.  He explained that he did not do Facebook.  Accordingly, I am going to try to post in both places - at least for a while.

Here is today's observation:

According to an article in NPR, Secretary of State Rubio said, in Saudi Arabia, yesterday, that “while Trump's plan for taking over Gaza surprised many, it is what's on the table for now.  What cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again, and wind up in the exact same place,  Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force."  That is about as clear as diplomatic speak ever gets.  Trump’s Gaza redevelopment proposal is designed to assist Riyadh in developing a plan for Gaza that is acceptable to Jerusalem and the Palestinian people.  The muscle that is being applied to Amman and Cairo is designed to support Riyadh’s formula, not the Trump plan..

The more interesting part of all of this for me is the motivation of American politicians and political activists in their statements regarding Gaza.  I can not believe that none of them can see what is behind Trump’s superficially unacceptable proposal.  I accept that they are stupid, but I do not believe that they are blind.  I conclude that their domestic political aspirations are more important than speaking the truth and that disturbs me even more than the war in Gaza because it illuminates the cancer that is destroying this country.  I excuse the political rank and file that have never been outside of their own very comfortable lives for not being able to see through diplomatic double-speak, but I can not extend that excuse to those that are paid to govern us, nor can I excuse the journalists that are supposed to explain these kinds of things to the American public in a truthful manner.

Please note that I am not here addressing the negotiations themselves.  I am instead using Gaza to illustrate the internal cancer that is at the root of our societal decline.  A decline that we refuse to accept our own part in bringing about.  Look around you and tell me if you see any two Americans discussing the situation in Gaza in other than partisan terms - including you.  The closest that comes to happening is one of us saying to another that Trump is out of his mind, while the rejoinder is “NO HE IS NOT!  Neither one of us even begin to try to think about why a Jew and an Arab might decide to live next to one another peacefully, nor what we might do to help them decide to do that.  Trump, on the other hand, has the Abraham Accords in his list of real accomplishments.  An accomplishment that no one before him has been able to bring about since the state of Israel was established at the close of the most recent world war.

I am not here saying that I think this ploy of his is going to work, but I give The Donald full credit for trying, and I am openly rooting for him to be successful.  I should also say that I continue to be pleasantly surprised by Rubio in his new role as Secretary of State and I wish him well in his pending discussions in Riyadh about Gaza and the war in Ukraine.  Before I conclude, I would also like to note the difference between Biden’s abortive attempt to brand the Saudi Crown Prince as a pariah and Trump’s effort to make him a central part of our foreign policy.  In this regard I would highlight the decision to make Riyadh the place where we start the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.  None of this is accidental folks.

PS:  I will not blame Rubio if he is unable to bring Lavrov along with us on Gaza.  I do not see that having any real possibility of happening until Trump and Putin decide the Ukraine issue, or at least announce to the rest of us what they have already decided.  Everybody agrees that things are moving very fast, but they may well may be moving even faster than we think.