So what do you think of Trump now?
Donald Trump is a despicable human being.
In the private sector, he made a fortune cheating and defrauding honest working people while driving his companies into bankruptcy.
As president, he has inundated us with a non-stop barrage of lies and braggadocio punctuated by Twitter blasts evincing the emotional maturity of a 12 year old.
Brutal and unsparing assaults on every last vestige of environmental protection policy: clean air, clean water, national parks, endangered species – all finished.
Big tax cuts for – guess who? – commercial real estate developers.
He weaseled out of Vietnam with bone spurs and then mocked John McCain for being captured and tortured.
“Grab ’em by the pussy.” No, I won’t even go there.
Remember the Boy Scout Jamboree?
So many reasons to hate this guy.
And now he has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
So what do you think of Trump now?
But of course Jerusalem really is the capital of Israel.
In fact, Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel since the time of King David, and it has been the capital of Israel reborn since 1949.
The Israeli Parliament is located in Jerusalem, as is the Supreme Court Building and the President’s Residence and the Israel Museum.
All of them, by the way, in the western portion of the city, an area as incontrovertibly Israel as is any neighborhood in Tel Aviv.
Yeah, it’s the capital all right.
So what do you think of Trump now?
I think Trump did the right thing regarding Jerusalem.
There. I said it.
So what do you think of Trump now?
When someone you love does a bad thing,
A healing process is called for.
It requires an honest and thorough examination of yourself and the one you love and of every aspect of your relationship including its blind spots.
It is not easy. It is often painful.
But it can be done.
But when someone you hate does a good thing,
Nothing can be done.
What happens in a situation like that
Is that the cerebral neurons short circuit,
Causing your brain to catch fire and burn until nothing is left
But the ashes of what had once been a viable political philosophy
Smoldering inside an otherwise empty cranium.
That is what happened to me
When Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Sad.
READ MORE
President Trump Gives a Statement on Jerusalem [The White House]
Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital and Orders Embassy to Move [The New York Times]
Palestinian Envoy Warns: Trump Move on Jerusalum a ‘Declaration of War’ [Haaertz]
Trump, Jerusalem, and Middle East Fragility [US News and World Report]
Pesach Rotem was born and raised in New York and now lives in the village of Yodfat in northern Israel. He received his B.A. from Princeton University and his J.D. from St. John’s University. His poems have been published in more than a dozen literary journals including Chiron Review, Natural Bridge, and Voices Israel.
