Theodore Herzl reported on the Dreyfus Court Martial in 1894 and that trial impacted on him as he witnessed in France the reactions of the French against one Jew and against all Jews at the very same time. I wonder just how many Americans have heard of Herzl and Dreyfus. I learned about Herzl in my youth, but the name Dreyfus dominated because of the Academy Award winning motion picture with Paul Muni as Emile Zolá. I wish a cartoonist today would draw Zolá roaring with great power, fighting for social justice, and with Colin Kaepernick coming out of Zolá’s mouth. Kaepernick is the N.F.L. football player that Donald Trump has attacked and since that demonstration Trump has demanded that people get fired from that professional league for dishonoring the flag and the military. Emile Zolá chose the logical form of media of his day, the newspaper L’Aurore. Kaepernick chose television where his protest could be seen by tens of millions. But this image of a man with bronzed skin and wooly hair, kneeling in the great outdoors with the Holy Scriptures tattooed on his body has been missed even by African-Americans in this so called great Christian nation with a Judeo-Christian tradition. It’s biblical! Colin Kaepernick, by the way, supports Black Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter supports BDS. Jews have been victimized throughout history and for African-Americans the same holds true to them. There is “original sin” in the long fight for social justice and Jews and African-Americans must always keep their eyes on that. Long before the Civil Rights Act was implemented in the United States, Jews were instrumental in bringing about the Civil Rights Act of New York State in 1944.
When Richard Spencer, who is anathema to Jews for his racist views, was threatening to bring in Hamas to address the people of the town of Whitefish, Montana, that provoked me to make calls to Montana. I spoke with a rabbi who assured me that the F.B.I. was doing its job. But where was Donald Trump? Why didn’t he speak out to demand the firing of people who would dare dishonor the Jewish people of Whitefish? At the very least? Come to think of it, Linda Sarsour did not mention Jews when she helped unite a huge women’s demonstration in Washington, D.C. It should be obvious that it was intentional for them to act in concert on this issue. Speaking out would go against the grain of their base of support, a specific base of support that must be watched. Even before that, I spoke to Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center about the influence of Linda Sarsour and I make people aware of Donald Trump. Did America’s “most famous” rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, make those call to Whitefish, as well to make sure Jews were safe? I even thought that we might need some Jewish Defense Forces to protect our people, thinking about the historic Raid on Entebbe in Idi Amin’s Uganda.
Okay nothing happened, but there was a death in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was reported that the young man who drove the car into the crowd told his mother that he was attending a Trump rally in Charlottesville. It was not a Jewish life that was taken, but every life matters. Donald Trump, naturally, said that there were bad people on both sides, giving credibility to the alt-right and neo-Nazis. He is not Neville Chamberlain, but he is more than potentially dangerous. The words he speaks have consequences. In Israel earlier in 2017, four soldiers were killed in the Jerusalem and the driver was shot to death and Israelis issued a statement that one of the causes of violence against Israelis was incitement of Palestinian leaders.
And Donald Trump has had his fair share of criticism over his own incitement to commit violence. His record is not clean. His silence, too, has been attacked. And his failure to repeatedly confront and answer the anti-Semitism questions posed to him from various news sources is problematic and then Benjamin Netanyahu is supportive of Trump calling him a great supporter of Jews and Israel. This picture is not a picture of a man who is a great supporter of Jews and not close to the humanity that is needed in the free world. I know that Trump wished the Jewish community a happy new year and talked about the safety for Jews, but he failed to mention Kwanzaa recently and he claims to be the leader of all Americans. Kwanzaa is a fifty- year old African-American tradition.
There are solutions that can be taken up by people, all people. Richard Spencer’s mother could have disavowed her son. Ivanka and Jared Kushner as human beings and Jews could have disavowed candidate Trump and president Trump. The same advice applies to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. There is a marvelous film, in my opinion, called The Music Box where a lawyer defends her father in a trial that grew out of the Holocaust. In the end, realizing her father’s guilt, she basically divorces her father. The screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas, who severed ties with his father for the rest of his life after learning about his father’s role in spreading virulent anti-Semitic propaganda in Hungary in the Fascist and Arrow Cross parties. Watching this motion picture to its conclusion also shows us that there is a logical process to follow the entire discussion carefully and keep us from accepting those propped up ideas that deflect the truth, which Donald Trump often does. He cannot use his family as a human shield to protect him from criticism of policies that contribute to anti-Semitism. And Benjamin Netanyahu should never be his co-dependent and co-conspirator. It is dangerous for Jews. Elie Wiesel saw the film and found it very moving.
One of my major complaints about Linda Sarsour is her success with Black Lives Matter where she obviously did not tell African-Americans more of the history that is critical to understanding the present- day situation. African-American history matters and the history of the Jewish people also matters and they have so many parallels. So why leave out that the Grand Mufti wanted to annihilate the Jews and advocated the same before Adolf Hitler as part of the Final Solution. And my screenplay “The Sacred Oath: Ali Lakhdar’s Revenge” shows how dozens of Talmudic students were massacred by Arabs in Hebron in 1929. Also the book My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, tells us how the granddaughter of Amon Goethe who was commander of the concentration camp in Schindler’s List probably would have killed his own granddaughter who was part German, but also part African. People should just take the time to learn the truth and stick to the truth.
Then there was the debate about BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) in December between Cornelius West and Alan Dershowitz where West did not bring up these critical facts in his argument (of course he did not) and Dershowitz did bring some of these things up, but he concentrated on the post 1948 period. Prior years matter as well. Don’t you think so? Dershowitz also mentioned Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who deserved mention for always being by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s side fighting for justice. Both Dershowitz and various media outlets think that Dershowitz won the debate or won it “big.” He certainly persuaded a lot of people, but for me it was not about persuading a sizable group of undecides whose level of being undecided was not known (I would assume that we could rate the level of being undecided from 1 to 5, one being the most undecided and five being the least undecided) . For me my comment is about persuading the group that was vocal about its support of BDS. I did write to Dersh to tell him exactly that. It’s like persuading the most anti-Semitic elements to get rid of the problem and not just concentrate on winning a debate. I would imagine also that some or many of those people might quickly drift back toward being undecided based on other factors.
African-Americans, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren mentions in his book Ally, need to be reached as the power in the United States’ moves toward minorities in order to maintain continued support for Israel. He used to attend dreidel parties in the capital which I see little use for. African-American voters have learned a lesson from the Election of 2016 as Donald Trump squeaked out a victory in a few states. The recent defeat of Roy Moore for US Senator in Alabama may go on and on into other elections as African-Americans are reminded about how to defeat Republicans. But for now and barring the removal of Donald Trump, Republicans are in the driver’s seat. But the Israeli right must learn more. I sensed trouble in the 1980s before the right came to power. The people who voted in the right were speaking out and showing their intolerance to their fellow man.
And I consider my work a continuation of the book and screenplay “Exodus.” That was 1960, but in 1984 I learned that there were guns everywhere so “children could run free.” Vigilance is critical as it is ‘today more and more in New York and Paris. The Charlie Hebdo cartoon had consequences. Zolá’s J’Accuse had consequences. He quickly fled to London from Paris to save his own life. It was dangerous to speak out and there are always death threats today.
Zolá’s truth was that the military conspired to convict a Jew in the racial profiling of its time. Donald Trump supports the military and police, right or wrong. Trump’s truth is not our truth. Police and prosecuting attorneys have conspired against African-Americans forever and that should remind all of us what has happened to the Jewish people over and over.
I know that you are aware that the Clintons, Trumps have Jews in the family? Did you know about the Obama’s having Jews in the family? Yes you know well that the Trumps have Jared and Ivanka who has converted, and the Clintons have Chelsea’s husband. I found out by reading Michael Oren’s book that the Obamas have a rabbi who is Michelle’s cousin and he is not only a rabbi, but also he is a chief rabbi of the United States. Why were people not told? There must a good reason why? Barack Obama has Irish roots, but there is someone that was more famous in his time that had Irish roots, coming from the Grady family of Ennis, Ireland. And perhaps that pugilist’s life may have been much more different and perhaps Muhammad Ali would have kept the name Cassius Clay if he known his roots. Oh there are all kinds of power affecting us, but knowledge is power and that is not an “alternative” fact from the White House. And I believe that the police in the United States must build a bridge to Colin Kaepernick to make things better for community and police. Donald Trump has undermined the work of police as his projected budget cuts would hurt police. This has been in the news, but he will keep praising the police and his war on crime. So the Clintons and Obamas were weak on crime and new equipment in the hands of Chicago’s police is making Chicago safer. Over a thousand police more have been hired in Chicago without Trump doing his part as president of the United States. Community policing is an integral part of that success instead of the abdominal methods used before.
If we look at Trump and his persistent demand for the wall across the Mexican border and apply the billions of dollars to fighting crime in our cities and suburbs that are seeing a rise in crime, even areas of Chicago that were unaffected over the decades are being affected right now I have been told. The people on the other side of the wall do not fit the description of the wall that separates Israelis from Palestinians. There are no rockets being fired, no persistent attacks on police there, and even the MS-13 killings are not taking place there (they occur only a few traffic lights from where I live). There is little need to spend the money on the wall. It would take a Solomon “The Wise” to straighten out the thinking of Donald Trump in this important matter. I wrote to Senator John Mc Cain last year who wrote back thanking me. My plan of action is to cut down on the million people who are in gangs across the United States and thereby have extra funds necessary to fight home grown terrorism (funds that are more and more needed). As you know Senator Mc Cain has intense brain cancer and we all care for him in different ways. But what is going on with the plan of action that I sent to him? Newsmax reports today that even Bernard Kerik, former NYPD commissioner says that keeping America safe “requires building stronger communities at home.”
In thinking of the Pogroms in eastern Europe, the Dreyfus Affair, the Holocaust, the war for Israeli independence and other wars, the Intifada, or even walking down the street in Jerusalem in 1984 where my progress was stopped by action taken when a suspicious box on the street was outside a store, can we not make the world much better much faster? Terrorism is plaguing us even as we enjoy life to its fullest. It’s not just about the heroic deeds of a Moshe Dayan who was a great hero to us in New York. It’s about knowing when a president is really fit to lead and where is he really taking us. There should never have been even one pogrom, not one Captain Dreyfus discriminated against because he was a Jew and a German, my family should never have been touched in Przemysl ever by people, and the state of Israel should have peace all the time.
Here are some bullet points
Jewish, Israeli, American, Afro-American, Puerto Rican, Honduran, Guatemalan, French, etc. = All Lives Matter. They have to all add up to be All Lives Matter. Einstein told me so. It’s about that equation!
Make Southern Christians great again…Make African-Americans Great again, Make Puerto Ricans Great Again…Make KKK members great again, etc.= Make America Great Again. Make African-Americans Great Again. When were they great? Even Hillary Clinton said we have always been great. Make the KKK great again? Huh?
The defeat of Roy Moore by Doug Jones for Senator of Alabama was certainly caused by the Trump-Sessions team that will surely impact on foreign policy because foreign policy is the domain of the United States Senate. Keep in mind that Trump has repeatedly expressed the hope that African-Americans would vote for him (and we assume for people like Roy Moore) as he created jobs. And having seen so many months of “huge” job growth in the United States while he was president, he still lost. Losers lose. I called Bernard Simelton, president of the N.A.A.C.P. several months ago, to tell him that I had something to do with his arrest which happened in a visit to the office of Senator Jeff Beauregard Sessions. Simelton laughed and thanked me for helping him get arrested. The Trump Administration shot itself in the foot on that day using a playbook that was based on racist policies of the past. Also keep in mind that we really have to know just how many jobs during those months of great growth actually went to African-Americans in Alabama? Donald Trump has not even figured these things out and he lost a red state election. African-Americans all over the United States will delight in reading this information knowing that the N.A.A.C.P. is a vital institution all over the United States that can swing important elections so this is a wake-up call for action everywhere.
The morning after I wrote this, the jobs report was available for our nation and I later located Alabama’s statistics. Yes African-Americans benefit from job growth and Alabama’s unemployment rate for African-Americans has been falling in recent months from 8 percent to 6.8 percent, but in recent years the unemployment rate in Alabama for African-Americans has been double that for Whites. Alabama announced that its rate dropped below 3.5 as Trump touted a national drop to 4.1 percent. And 98 percent of Black women voted for Doug Jones. It does seem that the “very stable genius” still does not get the point. It surely is that double the state level of unemployment that affects almost all African-Americans. The statistic for White people has to be much lower than 3.5.
See the Sam Nunberg interview on MSNBC which is about the book Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff which is called Former Trump advisor who called Trump an idiot defends self.
Jewish-Americans First, African-Americans First, Alabamans First, Puerto Ricans First, etc.= Americans First. Wait a minute. Make Puerto Ricans Great Again was not discussed. About half of their people or more have always been unemployed. Also keep in mind the poor rating that Donald Trump has received for the relief effort in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Sure there are people who support him, because of their own personal interests. Trump has not put these great Americans, the Puerto Ricans, first at all. Americans First is fake news here. And the White House is going to say don’t question the president.
There are people who are on HB-1 visas who are deeply concerned about Trump and his way of doing things. Those who work for him will be protected for sure. He will find a way to protect them.
There are farms that find it hard to harvest crops and those farms will fail, because they cannot use immigrant labor.
The New York Times is showing right now had badly Donald Trump wanted to stack the deck and keep Attorney General Sessions from recusing himself.
The White House announced that Trump’s playing golf allows him to be a better president, but the Kerik article in Newmax was not written a year ago. It was written today. What kind of plan did Trump really have to protect us a year ago? The translation is that he has failed us.
It has been announced that Donald Trump wants $33 billon for the wall across the Mexican border and funds to protect the border. The money for the wall itself or $18 billion should go the cities in most need to save lives and that would replace his mediocre idea with something outstanding. In addition the Trump-Haley team and their cohorts could have announced more help for Israel with a billion dollars from that $18 billion after the killings of protestors in Iran as the other $17 billion would go to make communities stronger across the United States instead of building a wall. The remaining $15 billion would be negotiable as we find out better ways to protect the border. The destabilization of Iran does trouble us and what will actually happen there when the current government is severely or extremely desperate? And DACA or protecting the undocumented people that Trump is threatening should be passed in this new plan instead of the building a wall and not making Americans secure in their own neighborhoods all over the United States. The plan for the wall compared to this plan is undemocratic and focus of a man who has been labeled unstable and an idiot.
When I wrote the title for my article Donald Trump Belongs in Hebron, Not in America, I had two things in mind. One was a famous Broadway show where a rabbi is asked if there is a prayer for the Czar and the rabbi responded “Yes. May God bless and keep the Czar far away from us (amazing how the US fits). And the second point is that there are so many conservative talk show hosts who talk about critical foreign policy issues and our need to fight against this country or that country and just sit there barking out opinions and placing blame, sometimes, in my opinion, way off target advice. This does stir up their listeners and increases their ratings. I know that the son of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach serves in the Israeli military and that is totally different. Donald Trump has not served in the military and he has always lived an extremely protected life, just as those radio talk show hosts have. They use someone else to challenge the despots and their armies. Just once I would love to see one of them confront the person they are talking about by going into that country to protest. That is why I put Donald Trump in the middle of Hebron playing golf, unprotected by anyone.
Instead of MAGA we have much more of MTFT or More Trouble For Trump
Martin N. Danenberg has been the teacher of the Consulate of El Salvador where word of his work reached the cabinet level in El Salvador. He has actively promoted education among the people of Guatemala and Honduras, two nations that support the idea of the United States embassy in Jerusalem.
