Each day brings fresh proof that America is hopelessly headed down the wrong track and needs to
A third proof comes from the Mideast. Predictably, this one involves an Arab terrorist shedding Israeli blood.
Soon after Palestinian and Jordanian leaders railed against Trump’s plan to move our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a Palestinian truck driver mowed down a group of Israeli soldiers, killing four and injuring 16. Witnesses said the driver plowed into the soldiers, then put his truck in reverse to run over them again.
Israeli press reports say the driver attended an East Jerusalem mosque that featured a fiery sermon against Trump’s plan. “He was very angry, and said transferring the embassy would lead to war,” a cousin of the driver was quoted as saying.
The driver was shot and killed, but his excuse lives on. The terror attack will be cited even by well-meaning people as a reason not to move the embassy.
There’s a word for such thinking — appeasement. In one form or another, appeasing Palestinians has been the policy of the United States and Europe for decades. It has failed miserably and ought to be ditched.
Palestinian appeasement means we don’t do anything to stand up for ourselves or Israel that will upset the infamous Arab street. Give the bully your money and a veto over your actions and maybe he will spare your life.
The Obama administration took the policy to a whole new level. It gave the Palestinians boatloads of taxpayer cash, abandoned Israel and demanded it make suicidal agreements.
All it got in exchange was more Arab violence, which it invariably responded to by pushing Israel to cede more of its sovereignty. The White House even supported opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the last election.
Then along comes Trump and, with the prospects of lasting peace fading into the realm of illusion, he decides a change is in order. True to form, he pledges a big one.
Israel supports moving our embassy because Jerusalem is its capital and embassies are almost always located in host nations’ capitals. Yet while it has long been American policy to move the embassy, it never happened out of fear of stoking violence because Palestinians also claim Jerusalem as their capital.
So presidents accepted a stalemate and let fear stop them from doing what they should. Trump, thankfully, is not a fan of appeasement.
He hasn’t taken office yet, but already his plan has come under fire from Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority. He reportedly wrote to Trump to warn that the embassy move would have a “disastrous impact on the peace process.”
That, literally, would be impossible, since there is no peace process because Abbas refuses to negotiate with Israel. Instead, he wants the United Nations to impose borders and create a Palestinian state so he doesn’t have to make any concessions to Israel, including its right to exist. Again, Obama encouraged that scam by failing to veto a UN resolution that called all Israeli settlements illegal, thus emboldening its enemies.
Arab media say Abbas also sent similar letters to the European Union, China and Russia urging them to prevent Trump from keeping his embassy promise.
Good luck with that. My guess is that Trump will not yield and that threats of Arab violence will only fortify his determination to chart a different course.
Here at home, economic, military and immigration changes of the magnitude that voters want and that Trump promises are also stoking the rage of reactionaries who like the status quo. That’s the way to understand the tiresome lectures and nasty protests of the establishment elite.
Amidst the storm, the rest of us must stay calm and remember this: If everything really is fine the way it is, Trump would have lost. His victory is a mandate for change, so bring it on.
Giant loser all glitz no glory
Following the Giants’ season-ending drubbing in Green Bay, Odell Beckham Jr.’s star is falling fast. His me-me-me antics mixed with a poor performance has sportswriters hunting for comparisons.
The best comes from Post columnist George Willis, who writes of Beckham: “He’s the Giants’ first social media star; a Kim Kardashian in cleats.”
Ouch.
Times keep on sliming
In its relentless effort to demonize everything Trump, The New York Times finds a sinister way to link Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos to the left’s Antichrists.
In a so-called news article, the paper writes that the largely unknown DeVos “represents the combination of wealth, free-market ideology and political hardball associated with a better known family of billionaires: Charles and David Koch.”
It is pointless to ask whether the Times has any shame.
The answer is obviously no.
Eatery ‘to go’ thanks to NYC
The popular Manhattan restaurant China Fun closed its doors last week, leaving behind legions of unhappy customers and valuable insights into the maddening difficulties of doing business in New York. City Hall should learn from the sad ending, but that’s akin to expecting a miracle.
The owners of the Upper East Side restaurant, in business for 25 years, cited the mushrooming costs of rules and regulations.
“The climate for small businesses like ours in New York have become such that it’s difficult to justify taking risks and running — never mind starting — a legitimate mom-and-pop business,” they said in a letter posted on the front door. “The state and municipal governments, with their punishing rules and regulations, seems to believe that we should be their cash machine to pay for all that ails us in society.”
They cited rising minimum wages, health-insurance costs, endless paperwork and singled out a requirement to have a dedicated “break room” for employees, which is virtually impossible in small restaurants.
The response from Mayor de Blasio’s office was enlightening — and infuriating. An aide told a reporter the city has something called the “Small Business First” program that helps owners navigate paperwork and “free compliance advisors” to show them how to meet regulations.
In plain English, that means the city realizes its web of regulations is impossible to understand. But instead of streamlining, the city expanded its bureaucracy by hiring other bureaucrats to show taxpayers how to understand government rules.
China Fun’s owners offer a better idea in their letter, writing: “Our only wish . . . is for our career lawmakers and politicians, local and national alike, to take a mandatory ‘Undercover Boss’ challenge and live in the shoes of a small business owner for a week. Maybe then they will better understand the economically stifling environment they have created.”
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