Disturbances and Juxtapositions

Embassy Politics:  The Jerusalem Embassy Act which recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital while calling for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city was overwhelmingly passed by the US Congress in 1995.  At the time that it was passed the Act was largely symbolic, it allowed the president to invoke a six-month waiver of the implementation of the law, and permitted the reissuance of the waiver every six months on "national security" grounds, and that’s what every US president did until last December when Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordered planning for the move of the embassy. Other presidents held off with the recognition and move in part because of hopes that the move, when and if it ever took place, would be the culmination of a peace process, one with concessions from both sides, and in part because they knew that it would be messy, really messy, it turns out that they were very right about the messy part and by messy think violent and seriously disturbing.  Yesterday, while the US held its formal opening ceremony, the Israel-Gaza border erupted as tens of thousands of not so peaceful protesters were greeted by an Israeli military that has now been accused of using “disproportionate force” in response to the violent eruptions.  The juxtaposition of events gained further attention, to the extent that was even possible, when Jared Kushner, the son-in-law who was tasked with solving the Israel-Palestinian problem proved that diplomacy isn’t really his strong point, to the extent that he has a strong point, by straying off of his planned remarks adding "As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today, those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution." A few conciliatory remarks wouldn’t have done much to help with Gazan frustration, frustration driven by many things including their isolation, economy, joblessness and Hamas run government, or any of the violence taking place just sixty miles away, but they would at least have looked and sounded better on the split screens dominating news reports across the world.  Instead, we got Kushner in another one of those let them eat cake moments on a one side of the TV screen with videos of dark plumes of smoke and dead and injured bodies on the other. As much as I wanted to be happy about the embassy move and the formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the scenes were too horrifying, my joy went out the window. As to Israel though they’ve gotten the much sought after US recognition, they’ve suffered a huge public relations loss. As to that peace process, according to the White House, Kushner, the guy whose security clearance has been bumped down to the same level as that of White House janitor, is still working on it, is in the “late phases” of finalizing an agreement, and plans to make an announcement soon. To the extent that the US ever had the ability to broker peace, those days are behind us, at least for now.  Today, the day that the Palestinians commemorate as the beginning of their exodus from the lands that became Israel, was going to be a violent day anyway, and now is expected to be even worse than yesterday.  So much for peace.  

Trumpian Trade Exceptions:  Just three days after the Chinese government agreed to put $500 million into an Indonesian project that will personally enrich the Trump family, Trump ordered a bailout for ZTE, a Chinese-government owned cell phone maker.  Yesterday morning Trump surprised everyone who thought that he was getting tough on China’s trade practices, particularly their habit of stealing US intellectual property, by tweeting “President Xi of China and I are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast.  Too many jobs in China lost.  Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done.”  When asked about the link to the Chinese investment in the Indonesian project, Assistant Press Secretary Raj Shah responded by saying “that’s not something I can speak too.”  Of course not, nor could he explain why ZTE, a company that was sanctioned for doing business with North Korea and Iran is suddenly benefiting from Trump’s largesse, something that will also be tough to explain to all those European companies about to be punished for violating the soon to be re-imposed US sanctions against Iran.  Later in the day, the administration explained that in exchange for ZTE’s improved status, the Chinese government would end the trade war against US agricultural products, a good thing but an assertion that sounded like an afterthought especially when you consider that in addition to having questionable trading partners, ZTE has been accused by US cybersecurity experts at the various intelligence agencies of manufacturing phones that provide an intelligence risk to users.  Florida’s Senator Rubio reminded Trump of that risk by tweeting “Problem with ZTE isn’t jobs & trade, it’s national security & espionage. Any telecom firm in #China can be forced to act as tool of Chinese espionage without any court order or any other review process. We are crazy to allow them to operate in U.S. without tighter restrictions.”  As to the jobs component of Trump’s early morning tweet, many others were baffled about why Trump was so concerned about jobs in China rather than jobs in the US.

The Infirmary: The White House still hasn’t apologized for dissing the ailing Senator John McCain, mostly because the word apology doesn’t exist in Trump’s dictionary.  Kellyanne Conway did report that heads will be rolling soon in the Communications department, but implied that those heads will belong to the leakers rather than anyone making inappropriate remarks.  On the medical front, it was also reported that former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had surgery for pancreatic cancer and that First Lady Melania underwent an embolization procedure to treat a benign kidney condition.  She will be spending the rest of the week at Walter Reade Medical Center so despite assurances that the procedure was just one of those minor things, it wasn’t just a nothing burger.  Well wishes to all!     

Other Disturbances:  According to Politico the EPA and the White House are doing their best to avoid publishing a federal health study on a nationwide water-contamination crisis, after one Trump administration aide warned it would cause a "public relations nightmare." The study would show that the chemicals known as PFOA and PFOS endanger human health at a far lower level than EPA has previously called safe.  Why would anyone wanted to know about that?  Really, it’s only our drinking water. Separately, the New York Times reports that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has appointed a number of former employees of for profit colleges to investigate financial improprieties and other bad behavior at for profit colleges such as DeVry, Bridgepoint Education, and Career Education Corporation.  Those investigations have now been curtailed. Why is that not surprising?