I actually thought there might be some good news coming out of the Donald Trump White House but it turns out that I was likely mistaken. Trump treated the American public and a worldwide audience to an extended harangue targeting Nigeria for its alleged mistreatment and even killing of Christians. He threatened something like a military intervention similar to his aggressive posturing in Latin America and the Middle East complete with US soldiers “boots on the ground” to address the situation.
Listening to the hardly coherent bombast coming out of Trump’s mouth my immediate reaction was to assume that nothing would happen beyond the threats and some sanctioning as Nigeria is a long distance way away from US bases and it would be a tough nut to crack for many reasons. Trump prefers to pick on countries that represent easier targets for his warlike demeanor. So I figured it was all a bit of theater, likely inspired by some administration clown whispering in Trump’s ear shortly before our president decided to say something to show how tough he is.
Where I saw the good news was the suggestion that the United States government might actually be interested in doing something to protect Christian minorities, though even that thought was largely dispelled when Ahmed al–Sharaa the de facto head of state of Syria, who currently goes by that birth name after operating under an alias, showed up at the White House to be greeted by a grinning Trump and his usual coterie of sycophants. Visitors to this site no doubt have a pretty good idea what Ahmed al–Sharaa represents as a former Emir of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) after involvement with the Al Nusra Front al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist groups. He was notoriously a head chopper who until recently had a $10 million US government bounty linked to his apprehension and punishment. He has killed plenty of Christians as well as Shia Muslims and all of those sects in between and his new regime has continued the practice pretty much with Christians and Druze “heretics” being killed by militants vaguely attached to the new government.
Joe Biden had already lifted the bounty on Ahmed al-Sharaa and now Donald Trump has greeted him like an old friend. He even went so far as to spray his neck with a new cologne that he is marketing at $249 a bottle called ‘Victory 45-47’ the significance of which is clear. Trump explained that “It’s the best fragrance,” before presenting two gold statuette-shaped bottles in his image and engraved with his jagged signature that the cologne comes in. “Just take that, the other one is for your wife,” Trump said before asking “How many wives?” Al-Sharaa laughed: “One!” and Trump joked, “With you guys, I never know. Right?” During the encounter, Trump praised al-Sharaa as a “very strong leader” and “tough guy,” adding: “He comes from a very tough place… we’ve all had a rough past.” The exchange was one more indication of the maladroit instincts of Donald Trump every time he opens his mouth and Trump’s rough past that he regularly alludes to must include his draft dodging of the Vietnam conflict back in 1968.
To no one’s surprise, the key to the shift in alignments from terrorist designated enemy to good friend was certainly the declaration by the Syrian government that it would have normal diplomatic and other relations with Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been expanding into Lebanon as well as into Syria and also appears to be heavily involved with Pentagon plans to create new nominally US military bases near Gaza and Damascus. Here I was expecting some relief for the beleaguered Christians in the Middle East and instead I got more of the same sectarian repression all due to Israeli interests. Thank you Mr Trump! I won’t ask who owns you!
And it appears, of course, that there is inevitably Israel involved when one is asking about religious conflicts. The Zionist state has been persecuting Christians in Palestine as well as in Lebanon and Syria since 1948. When Israel was “founded” the Christian percentage of the population among Palestinians was approaching 8%. Now it is closer to 2% and the shift has largely been due to theft of properties and other pressure on the Arabs to force them to leave and surrender their remaining rights. Most recently, this has included harassing of and spitting on Christian worshippers while also creating difficulties for Christians to gather to celebrate their holidays including Christmas and Easter. This pressure has been consistent and has come from successive Israeli governments, not from Muslims, though it has been worse and epitomized by the cruelty of the current monster Benjamin Netanyahu, who is supported by a coalition headed by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, who has made very clear his view that ALL Palestinians should be on the receiving end of a police state and ought to be eliminated. There is no exemption in his thinking for Palestinian Christians, are you paying attention President Trump?
Israel’s record of sticking it to Palestinian and other Christians was also very clear even before Gaza erupted and since that time Israel has destroyed churches, hospitals and orphanages in the Strip that were founded by Christian groups. The toll included what has sometimes been described as possibly the oldest Christian church in the Middle East, the Greek Orthodox church of Saint Porphyrius, which was founded in the fifth century, and which was bombed by Israel in October 2023. A reported eighteen of its congregants and other Christians and local Muslims who were sheltering in the church and surrounding buildings were killed in the attack which had no military significance and was little more that a signal to the Gazans that none of them were safe.
So Donald Trump is prepared to punish Nigerians for alleged crimes against Christians but when it is Israel committing the crimes they get a pass. Should anyone be surprised at that as Trump is hardly a practicing Christian as he describes himself as “nondenominational” and does not appear to be affiliated with any actual church. There are also some rumors that he converted to the Chabad sect of Judaism in 2017. In any event, Trump is clearly owned by the state of Israel in the person of Benjamin Netanyahu and by the Israel Lobby in the United States. Whether this is due to the fact that he is being blackmailed via Jeffrey Epstein disclosures or driven by his own personal beliefs and inclinations is debatable.
In any event, it is clear that Trump takes direction from Netanyahu and the Jewish lobby, evident most recently in the letter he sent to the president of Israel Isaac Herzog calling for a pardon for the prime minister and his wife, who are facing corruption charges in Israel. The letter was more-or-less a repeat performance of a verbal plea that Trump made when he was addressing the Knesset in Israel in October. It includes a bizarre largely self-promotional questionable claim: “I believe that the ‘case’ against Bibi, who has fought alongside me for a long time, including against the very tough adversary of Israel, Iran, is a political, unjustified prosecution,” a sign, one of many, that Trump mentally speaking is not tightly wrapped as the old expression goes as Iran can hardly be described as a threat to the United States.
The Trump White House sellout to Israel and its interests is as complete as can be. Paul Craig Roberts, musing over the letter to Herzog, asks “Is there to be no end of Trump’s tow-kowing to Israel? Trump was the first to break the rule and acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Trump committed an act of war against Iran for Israel. Trump supports Israel’s genocide of Palestine, supplying the money, weapons, and diplomatic support. Trump claims a ceasefire despite Israel’s continuing bombings, shootings, and destruction of Palestine. Trump has turned against US Reps Thomas Massie [and Marjorie Taylor Green, two] of his earliest supporters, for refusing to follow the Israeli line. Trump has demanded that universities prevent students and faculty from criticizing and protesting Israel’s massacre of Palestinians and theft of their country.” Israel controls “…the United States by occupying the financial sector, entertainment, education, Congress, and US foreign policy. Israel has succeeded in identifying any criticism of Israel as anti-semitism and is succeeding in having Congress and states pass laws that criminalize anti-semitism.”
One might add that Israel is now seeking from Trump a twenty year military aid commitment that will presumably add more to the current $3.8 billion in military assistance guaranteed each year by Washington. Over the past two years, since October 7th, that sum has in practice been greatly exceeded, coming to $21.7 billion coming from both Trump and Genocide Joe Biden. Will they get the 20 years guarantee from Trump and the other Israel-first corrupted traitors in Congress? You betcha!
Reprinted with permission from Unz Review.
