Donald Trump is a petulant child who will only play the game if he can make the rules up as he goes. As it stands, the president of the United States can bash Muslims, blacks, gays and the left side of the aisle; troll news anchors; call the media “fake news”; make up derogatory nicknames for Congress members; spread conspiracy theories; and target four freshman representatives, but if anyone says anything about bad about Miss Jenkins, then all hell breaks loose.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is fighting a bitter war to stay in office, banned Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) from an already planned trip to visit Israel, which was set to begin Sunday. And somewhere in the Oval Office, Trump is rubbing tanning lotion all over his tiny hands like Birdman.
Trump made sure that his orange-stained hands were all over this decision. Thursday morning, Trump hid in the bathroom and tweeted:
“It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds.”
Trump has had it in for these women since they took office. He’s consistently painted them as anti-Semites for their vocal criticisms of Israeli government and policy issues. Despite numerous attempts by both lawmakers to explain that they do not hate Jews or the people of Israel, Trump continues to bash them whenever he gets a chance because Trump needs enemies, and more importantly, it plays well with his base. Trump’s base consists of riled-up vats of mayonnaise and sun-warped boat shoes who love nothing more than to see their leader raging mad, so he creates fights to make himself look tough.
According to the Washington Post, “Omar and Tlaib’s trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank was planned by Miftah, a nonprofit organization headed by Palestinian lawmaker and longtime peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi.”
From the Post:
The move followed an unusual intervention by President Trump and immediately opened up a new battle between Netanyahu and Democrats, who had privately warned that such a decision would be unprecedented and inconsistent with Israel’s claims of tolerance and openness.
“The decision has been made; the decision is not to allow them to enter,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told Israel’s Reshet Radio.
Several pro-Israel groups in the United States criticized the decision, an about-face on the part of Netanyahu’s government.
“Any sitting member of Congress should be welcome to visit Israel as official representatives of Israel’s closest ally and most critical source of international support,” said the Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based Jewish organization. “We strongly urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to reconsider.”
The question about the representatives’ entry happened only after Israel passed a law denying visas to “foreign nationals who publicly back or call for any kind of boycott—economic, cultural or academic—against Israel or its West Bank settlements,” the Post notes.
Trump, who is buddies with Netanyahu (I mean, the two don’t go golfing, but he’s in Trump’s missed call log), made news for his insensitive and racist remarks when he told the American women to “go back” to their countries. Not that it should matter, but both women are American citizens as Tlaib was born in Michigan and Omar, who was born in Somalia, became a citizen when she was a teen.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), “who just returned from a trip to Israel sponsored by the powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization AIPAC,” and who has an amicable relationship with the Israeli government, reportedly took up the fight on the representatives’ behalf but to no avail.
The Post notes that it’s unclear what might have changed the Israeli position from last week, but something tells me it was Trump-related and that Netanyahu was reportedly losing favor with his right-wing cronies, so the move was seen as a way to gain favor, which sounds a lot like something the orange-stained hillbilly in the White House would’ve done.