Trump takes Obama’s position on Israel

One of the big appeals of Donald Trump is his perceived toughness against America’s enemies.  He’ll destroy the Islamic terrorists, make America respected again, and not get us sucked into these endless nation-building escapades in the Middle East.  Or so he is perceived as a presidential candidate.

Last night, Trump reiterated his exceedingly weak stance on Israel, a stance that reveals he is indeed weak in the face of America’s enemies and will get us sucked into the ultimate nation-building endeavor—the creation of a second Palestinian State (the first being Jordan) and a 23^rd Arab state.

When asked at a town hall about his views on the “Israel-Palestinian conflict,” Trump said he’d be neutral and “give it a shot.”  Presumably, by “it” he means pushing the two-state solution nonsense.  He spoke at length about how hard it is to forge a deal, as if this is just another negotiation between two companies that want to merge.  When asked directly by Mika Brzezinski who he thought was at fault for a lack of peace, he said he didn’t want to tip his hand so that it doesn’t undermine his ability to be an honest broker.

If you talk to Obama about this issue, that is exactly the response you will hear.  There is no moral clarity about standing with our allies and not the “Palestinians” who hate America.  What is even more disturbing is that Trump is willing to get us sucked into the foreign policy cause célèbre of the very political establishment he claims to detest.   On the one hand, he tells us our political leaders have been stupid to try to create democracy in the Middle East among existing Arab nations.  Yet, at the same time he is willing to expend American capital creating a new Arab state that hates America, exports terrorism, and will become a client-state of Iran?

Trump’s latest comments echo earlier sentiments that in order to forge peace Israel will have to “sacrifice certain things.”  Who needs Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders when we have the GOP frontrunner parroting their moral relativist comments?

More broadly, these statements embody the core problem with Trump.  He has no guiding principles, no moral clarity.  Everything is about deal making.  At a time when we need a president who will destroy the liberal administrative state and browbeat congressional leaders into submission, Trump wants to sit around a table and make deals.  At a time when we need to stand with our allies and destroy our enemies, Trump wants to make a deal, as if the forging of a deal is an end in itself.

Have we come full circle with our anger towards the political establishment...that we will nominate a man who will mimic the priorities of that same political establishment?