In “The Case for Trump, “acclaimed historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over 16 well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become President of the United States—and an extremely successful successful president at that.
Hanson sets Trump in his broad political and social context to explain Trump’s ongoing political appeal to a broad swath of American voters. Growing anger at globalization, a stalled economy, immigration, costly and unfruitful overseas interventions, perceived poor traded deals, and political correctness meant by 2016 that there were few Trump outsider.
Trump and Trump alone saw a political opening in defending the forgotten working classes of the interior, who were alienated not only by Democrats but by elite Republican candidates. Despite the apocalyptic imaginings of both the Left and Never Trump Right, one year into his presidency (when the book was written),Trump boasts an impressive record of achievement of a kind rarely attained by an incoming president. He has realized economic and foreign policy results not seen in a generation, cutting through stasis and dismantling a corrupt old order
Hanson is not naive about Trump’s behavior, but ultimately sees him as a tragic political character from a Sophocles play or an American Western.
A 2nd book, “Trump and the Jews” by David Rubin identifies crucial points in a way that tells the entire story seamlessly. A timely , perhaps urgent assessment of where we stand politically between America and Israel in the age of Trump. Agree or disagree politically,“Trump and the Jews “ is a riveting read.
Chapter 9 on “Big and Little Satans” speaks volumes to today. From the mouth of President Donald Trump, speaking to the UN in September 2017:
‘We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program. The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the US and I don’t think you have heard the last of it—-.”
He also signed off on the re institution of harsh sanctions against the Iranian regime.—-But is this indeed the reality? Is the free world truly being led by a tempestuous moody adolescent? Exporting the Islamic Revolution: After overthrowing the Shah of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini made it clear that his goal was to spread his brand of Jihadist Islam around the world by supporting terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, while encouraging terrorist activities around the world. His successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continued and expanded the Shiite Muslim mission of ‘exporting the revolution’.
Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989, but during the next two decades, Iran slowly rebuilt itself as a regional power under the leadership of his successor Ayatollah Khamenei, who also ruled Iran with a iron fist. He exploited the conseqential regional power vacuum to greatly expand Iran’s clout as a regional player, using Iran’s vast oil and gas wealth to accomplish two primary nefarious goals:
-To develop a nuclear bomb and the weapons to go with it.
-To fulfill Ayatollah Khomeini’s mission to ‘export the Islamic revolution’ by supporting Islamic terrorist organizations and allies in the Middle East and elsewhere.
According to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations, as of 2010, Iran had succeeded way beyond belief in accomplishing those two goals. A former IDF pilot, Brig.-Gen. [res] Amir Nachumi who took part in the destruction of Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981, said Israel was fully capable of successfully striking Iran.
Victor Mordecai’s “Is Fanatic Islam A Global Threat?” sheds some light on Iran. He commences with “ a brief look at history shows the positive role of Persia in the history of the Jewish people. In 516 BCE, 70 years after the Babylonian destruction of the 1st Temple in Jerusalem and the exile of the Judeans, it was the Persian King Cyrus, described as ‘messiah’ in the Bible, who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, permitted, encouraged and even supported the building of the 2nd Temple.
It was the Persians in 614 CE who conquered the Holy Land from the Byzantines and delivered the Jews from Orthodox Christian persecution, at least until invading Moslem Arab armies arrived in Jerusalem in 638.
In fact, the Iranian people until 1979, were Israel’s allies and friends under Shah Reza Pahlev’s Peacock Throne. It is only the satanic system seeking the total destruction of the Jews and Christians which must be checked.
The Jews of Iran.
The Jewish community of Persia, modern-day Iran, is one of the oldest in the Diaspora, and its historical roots each back to the 6th century BCE, the time of 1st Temple. Their history in the pre-Islamic period is intertwined with that of the Jews of neighboring Babylon. Cyrus, the1st of the Archemid dynasty, conquered Babylon in 539 BCE and permitted the Jewish exiles to return to the Land of Israel, soon bringing the 1st Exile, which had begun in 586 BCE to an end.
The Jewish colonies were scattered from centers in Babylon to Persian provinces and cites such as Hamadan and Susa. The books of Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel give a favorable description of the relationship of the Jews to the court of Achaemids at Susa.
The invasion by Arab Muslims in 642 CE terminated the independence of Persia, installed Islam as the state religion, and made a deep impact on the Jews by changing their sociopolitical status. Throughout the 19th century, Jews were persecuted and discriminated against. Sometimes whole communities were forced to convert.
Under the Phalevi Dynasty, established in 1925, the country was secularized and oriented toward the West. This greatly benefited the Jews, who were emancipated and played an important role in the economy and in cultural life. On the eve of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, 80,000 Jews lived in Iran.
Despite the official distinction between’ Jews,’ Zionists’ and ‘Israel,’ the most common accusation the Jews encountered was that of maintaining contacts with Zionists. Iran’s official government controlled media often issues anti-Semitic propaganda. A prime example is the government’s publishing of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious Czarist forgery in 1994 and 1999.
The Islamization of the country has brought about strict control over Jewish educational institutions. In Teheran there are still 3 schools in which Jewish pupils constitute a majority, but since 1994, there has been no Rabbi in Iran, and the bet din does not function. Following the overthrow of the Shah and the Declaration of an Islamic state in1979, Iran severed relations with Israel.
The country has subsequently supported many of the Islamic terrorist organizations that target Jews and Israelis, particularly the Lebanon-based, Hezbollah. Nevertheless, Iran’s Jewish community is the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.
In September 2000, an Iranian appeals court upheld a decision to imprison 10 of the 13 Jews accused of spying for Israel. In the appeals court, 10 of the 13 accused were found guilty of cooderating with Israel and were given prison terms ranging from 2 to 9 years. Three of the accused were found innocent.
At least 13 Jews have been executed in Iran since the Islamic Revolution, most of them for either relgious reasons or their connection to Israel. Several are now being interrogated on suspicion of helping Israel in the recent war.
In Iran the Foreign Minster, Kamal Karrazi, told Arafat, “No Muslim can allow holy Jerusalem to remain under occupation, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference will never let any deal be made over Jerusalem.”
A communique from Iran that July proclaimed that its counter-attack on Iraq was the 1st stage in a campaign “to liberate Jerusalem from Zionist domination.” It has been downhill from there.