views commentary Trump’s Shifting Positions On Israel P needs to display some sympathy erhaps President Trump for the Palestinians as well as recognized that he may “fairness,” seems to have tried to have shifted the balance in level the political playing field in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict too the Mideast conflict. far in favor of Israel or maybe he First, in the interview, he did was just shooting from the hip — not defend Netanyahu who is given the president’s record, it is potentially facing bribery and difficult to judge his motivations fraud charges, and the White — but he aimed some criticism at Berl Falbaum House added that the investiga- Israel that surely will confuse and tion of the prime minister will confound his supporters. have no impact on the adminis- Trump, in a recent interview tration’s development of a peace with Israel Hayom, a conservative plan. paper, questioned whether Israel is inter- Second, he told the paper that he was ested in peace. This is the same paper in worried about “the settlements,” stating: which Sheldon Adelson, the casino mag- “Settlements are something that very nate who is one of Trump’s major donors, much complicate and always have com- is an investor. plicated making peace.” It has been only a little more than two That is not necessarily a new view for months since Trump declared Jerusalem Trump. When Netanyahu visited the the capital of Israel although, prudently, White House only a month after Trump he did not discuss its borders. This pro- took office, the president blindsided nouncement endeared him to segments Netanyahu by asking him, publicly at a of the Jewish community while critics, press conference, to “hold off on settle- including Jewish ones, chastised him ments for a bit.” for his favoritism, lack of objectivity and Surprised, Netanyahu was liter- making a peace deal more difficult to ally speechless, and after recovering, he achieve. The Trump administration has responded, “We’ll see.” since announced it plans to move the U.S. Third, the president repeated his com- embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem in plaint that he is not confident that the May, to coincide with Israel’s 70th anni- Palestinians want to negotiate a peace. versary. But then he added, “I am not necessarily This played out in a scenario that sure that Israel is looking to make peace.” described Trump and Israeli Prime Finally, perhaps the most serious Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as bosom implied criticism came after Netanyahu buddies. reportedly told associates he had dis- But now, Trump, perhaps advised he cussed with the U.S. a plan that would permit Israel to annex territory in the West Bank. That prompted, if not an outright rebuke from the White House, the follow- ing statement: “The United States and Israel have never discussed such a pro- posal and the president’s focus remains squarely on his Palestinian peace initia- tive.” That initiative is reportedly being developed by Jared Kushner, the presi- dent’s son-in-law, and Jason D. Greenblatt, Trump’s special representative for inter- national negotiations. In the interview, Trump gave no indication when that plan might be unveiled. Despite his negative comments, Trump described the relationship between the U.S. and Israel as good. Specifically, he said: “… I think Bibi is a terrific person, a terrific leader. I think the relationships are good, but I think they will be a lot better if they ever get to making a peace deal.” Trump also stunned all sides when, last May, while on a five-country trip, which included Israel, a U.S. consulate member warned Israeli officials that Trump did not want Netanyahu to join him at the Western Wall. The consulate explained: “What are you talking about? It’s none of your business. It’s not even part of your responsibility. It’s not your territory. It’s part of the West Bank.” While the White House tried to amelio- rate the embarrassing outburst, the state- ment did little to clarify where Trump stands, and even U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, stated, “I don’t know what the policy of the administration is …” It is difficult to gauge how much to read into the president’s comments given his record on foreign policies. He came into office stating that NATO was obsolete, but after meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, announced, without any explanation, that it was “no longer obsolete.” While charging in his campaign that China was a “currency manipulator,” he reversed that position, stating that China stopped its manipulation when he took office. He also has changed his positions on several domestic issues. As to Jerusalem, in the interview, Trump said that he will accept whatever the two sides decide. He said the same thing about a two-state solution at his first meeting with Netanyahu. That, of course, is hardly a policy since every medi- ator will acquiesce to decisions made by competing factions. No mediator would refuse to accept an agreement reached by adversaries whether the clashes involve labor/management or parties in interna- tional politics. Let us hope when Trump’s Palestinian/ Israeli peace plan is completed, it will pro- vide more clarity. • elevated above all else and that it creates a moral equivalence; hurt my feelings and I can hurt you. It is unlikely that it is purely about guns and Republicans and Democrats and Obama and Trump and the lobby and the hypocrisy. What is certain is that whilst we continue to have the same conversa- tions about all the same things, there is a kid somewhere who feels that it is acceptable and indeed justified to mur- der other children. And is planning to do just that whilst we debate whether Obama or Trump is to blame. My incidents resulted in no one’s death. And yet it has taken years to mend. To some extent, because the events happened within a short period of each other, the “complex” nature of the trauma might never fully leave me. It is hard to imagine how the survivors in Florida will recover. And even harder to imagine the families of those who did not. But the one thing that is certain is that if we don’t begin to have real con- versations about why this is happening instead of with what it is happening, we can count on it happening again. • Berl Falbaum of West Bloomfield is a veteran journal- ist and author. commentary continued from page 5 And the place where I experienced two gun-related incidents. We are told that Israel doesn’t experi- ence this. Nor Japan. And whereas parts of Africa have been decimated by the violence of Boko Haram and others, and where children are often recruited to fight adult wars, fellow students don’t seem to walk into a school and kill each other just because. What is it about the environment in the USA that causes children to believe that killing other children (and teachers) is a viable option? Forget the guns for just a moment — they are the means of death. They are the result. The debate as to whether removing access 8 March 1 • 2018 jn to guns would reduce the instance of these events is important but far from the essence of what I believe should be the discussion. Rather, I believe that we should be seeking to determine what lies beneath the surface that allows chil- dren to see killing others as an option. We need to understand what causes children to experience the degree of loneliness and alienation and pain that is so massive they plan and execute the horror that has become so common. The answer has to be complex. It is unlikely that it is simply violent games, or the lack of God in schools or bully- ing or mental health. It is unlikely that it is simply that emotional hurt has been Howard Feldman is a lawyer, a physical commodity trader by industry and a writer by obsession. This essay was originally published in Times of Israel.