Monday, May 22, 2017

Trumping in Israel

President Trump landed at Ben Gurion airport in Israel and I'm watching him on television. He went to the Western Wall, the first American president to do so, thus, he has set a record.

After speaking with an orthodox rabbi and Hasidic rabbi, Mr. Trump approached the western wall, put his hand upon it, placed his request memo to G_d and prayed, it appeared. (He may have been analyzing the wall for a different use.)

Ivanka, a convert to Judaism, and her husband, Jared Kushner were also with Trump. She wore an appropriate head covering and Jared wore a Yarmulka, but Melania did not have her head covered, which is appropriate as she also didn't wear a hijab while in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to accompany President Trump to the Western Wall, but the president wanted to go solo.

So far, the president's Twitter account has been silent, but he hasn't been in the Middle East very long and it would amazing if he doesn't let his immediate thoughts be known in 140 characters.

Even leftist Bob Scheiffer, said on CNN, that Trump actually looked "presidential." (Thus far, over 80 percent of Trump coverage across the networks of Trump's first 100 days has been negative.) 

Compared to "lead from behind" Obama, President Trump had a much stronger, even-toned message to the Saudis that they must be involved in the fight against the terrorists. But today, he will be meeting with Bibi Netanyahu and it's going to be interesting as to what is discussed.

President Trump set a new record--he is the first U.S. president to have visited the Western Wall.

Trump had vowed to put the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, against the wishes of the Palestinians, who would rather the U.S. wait until after Hamas destroys Israel altogether and eliminates "the Jewish problem."

Earlier, the First Lady and President Trump visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

As I write this, First Lady Melania Trump is visiting a hospital in Jerusalem, accompanied by Israeli First Lady Sara Netanyahu. They are meeting and greeting hospital staff. In the hospital garden, a bench has been dedicated to Sara and Melania.

One thing I've noticed is how the mainstream media looked for things President Trump didn't say in Saudi Arabia, such as his failure to speak about human rights concerns. 

That's laughable when you consider how weak Obama was with the Saudis and with Islamic countries in general. He literally bowed to the Saudi king, unless he was actually checking the label on the king's socks. 

As a visitor to Saudi Arabia, it was more important that Trump dealt with the most pressing issues--Iran and ISIS terrorism, and that the Saudis and other Middle East countries need to do their part in countering them.

There's no reason to believe that if Mr. Trump mentioned how poorly women are treated in Islamic countries that it would change anything, and it undoubtedly would have made the meeting of the two leaders uncomfortable and nonproductive.

It's 8:00 p.m. in Israel, 1:00 p.m. in New York. President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu will be meeting for a presser. The leaders met along with their wives and Bibi's son spoke to Melania telling her that he understands what her son, Baron, must be going through as the son of a country's leader because he was the same age when his father became Prime Minister.

8:17 p.m. local time: 

Bibi welcomes Donald (even refers to him and Melania by first name). He reviews what Mr. Trump has already seen and how Israel protects the sites of all religions in Israel. 

He spoke about Iran and their ambition to become a nuclear weapons state and how Israel and the U.S. can work together to thwart this.

President Trump thanked the Netanyahus and said he was honored to be in Jerusalem. 

The body language between the two leaders was obviously comfortable--not like it was when Obama went to Israel in 2013 for the first time in his presidency. Of course, Obama had already forked over a ton of money to Iran to help them out with weapons and their nuclear ambitions, but Democrats don't like to bring that up.

Trump hopes to restart peace talks with Israel and the Palestinians, but first, the Palestinians have to stop their monetary compensation program for families of Muslim martyrs after their loved one blows themselves up. 

More to follow on President Trump's visit later.



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