WHY IS TRUMP NOT IN A JUMP SUIT?

The fear of armageddon becomes more and more evident as Trump, bolstered by his near total control of one of the two USA political parties, trashes every law and value that could stand in his way of him being the President once again in 2024. The former President has made it quite clear that with his Republican cult’s voter suppression techniques, control of the election process and his popularity he will win. If he doesn’t he will seize power as he will claim the election will have been rigged. Such is the influence of the ousted President that the Republican Primaries for 2022 are turning into a battle as to who can be the Trumpiest.

The American conflict has simply become a battle between  democracy and autocracy. As Steve Schmidt, the former Republican operative who was John McCain’s campaign manager, has succinctly explained his reason for joining the Democratic Party - he had become a one issue voter. For him the issue was democracy. 

The assumption that 2024 Presidential election will be between Trump and whoever is for the most part unchallenged. Jay H. Ell believes it won’t happen as the legal challenges Trump faces this time around will eliminate him from being a candidate. Trump has to be aware of this and his bizarre behavior is indicative of the trouble he perceives he is in. In fact he has recognized the futility of hanging around till 2024 as reflected in his statement that if the Republicans don’t expose the 2020 election fraud to install him as President he will instruct them not to vote in the 2022 and 2024 elections. His delusion jives with the frenetic pressure to “audit” the 2020 election results in the swing states that he lost. The “pillow man” among others run around projecting a date, prior to 2024, that Trump will be reinstalled in the WhiteHouse and they are deadly serious. 

IS TRUMP ABOVE THE LAW?

To an objective observer the fact Donald Trump has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing is an indictment of the American Justice System. Somehow every legal challenge that he has been involved in, and there have been well over four thousand, are somehow "civil" law cases. The fact that before the world he merely resolved with a twenty - five million dollar “settlement” for setting up a dummy university and defrauding  students is mind boggling. Then only a two million dollar fine for using his Charitable Foundation to pay his debts with money others had donated is as earth shattering. Not to mention his flagrant obstruction of justice in the Mueller investigation and more recently the Congressional January 6 congressional investigation. Somehow or another what would be criminal behavior elsewhere is "civil" law in the USA or it is ignored. 

The crime of the century that is hanging out there for all to gawk at and just continues daily is a seditious ongoing coup where Trump plots, conspires, incites and at every mass meeting makes it quite clear that he has not yet conceded the election to Biden as the latter stole it. He is openly defying democracy and in his efforts he is being supported by the Republican Party which he has openly commandeered to be the Donald J Trump cult. He is on a path that by hook or by crook he wlll be the President even before 2024. In fact he told CNN that there is no need to campaign for the 2024 election as he has already won it in spite of the fraud and corruption committed against him. Why is this being allowed to happen? Trump grows bolder and bolder as apparently there are no legal challenges to his outrages. 

One of the central features of a stable democracy is that all are equal before the law. If Trump and his co conspirators can openly defy the rule of law and suffer no consequences than that is yet another step on his hither too unhindered path to forming a dictatorship.

WHY HASN’T  TRUMP BEEN CHARGED YET BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE?

 President Trump get out of jail status was guaranteed by Attorney General Barr who not only never investigated his crimes he covered them up. As a private citizen he no longer has this protecsia. Even Barr baulked at supporting his Big Lie that the election was stolen from him. 

The culture running through the Biden administration is that in no way America must be made to resemble a banana republic where the opposition is locked up. This attitude has infuriated the Judges presiding over the January 6 insurrectionist trials who again and again have registered dismay at the low level of charges that Biden’s Department of Justice have instituted against those who were basically perpetrating a revolution. All the while Trump and his cult which now extends to all but a few of the Republican legislators are claiming that the violent insurrectionists were peaceful protesters. Trump has even participated in a video conferring martyr status to one of “protestors” who was shot dead by one of the capitol police as she burst through a broken window. This attitude gives us a window through the sentiment running through the Department of Justice’s, (DOJ), thought processes.

If not being a banana republic is what is dictating the DOJ’s decision making they can stop worrying. Trump has already brought the USA half way there. In fact not prosecuting him is exactly what happens in these tin pot dictatorships. Democracies hold their criminal leaders accountable. In France former President Sarkosy was sentenced to a three year prison term two of which were suspended. In Italy former Prime Minister Berlusconi was sentenced to one year’s community service while in South Africa former President Zuma was sentenced to three months and still has to face ongoing prosecutions. In Israel, Former premier Bibi Netanyahu, Trump’s big mate, is on trial as well for a number of charges. In none of these countries have their democratic status been challenged. In fact they have been enhanced. It is also interesting to note that the charges against them all make them appear like choir boys compared to Trump’s charges. 

There also has to be fear that the the mob Trump whipped up on January 6 will look like a picnic party compared to what might happen if he is charged. In fact Trump has already threatened this when he stated that more violence might erupt “posing a tremendous danger to our country". Also there is the fear that his congressional allies might incite violence and prevent the “healing of our country”. The Republican legislators have again and again more than hinted that immunity from accountability is the price for national stability. However the violence dye is already cast and will have to be faced sooner or later. The longer this goes on the bolder Trump will get as will his home grown militia. It will help if the arrested January 6 militia leaders are put away for a long period of time making rioters aware that there are serious consequences to their attempts at a coup.

However the good news is that the Biden Department of Justice need not lead the way against Trump as there is enough going on in the State Judicial system that can see to it that justice is done. The least the DOJ can do is charge those who are referred to them for criminal prosecution for failing to respond to subpoenas to give evidence before the Congressional Committee investigating January 6. 

WHAT IS TRUMP  CURRENTLY BEING CHARGED WITH BOTH CRIMINALLY AND CIVILLY?

Trump is no longer protected by the Presidency and the William Barr Department of Justice which acted as his personal counsel. Trump faces a slew of civil litigation in addition to criminal investigations. 

The civil litigation includes an allegation of defaming a former journalist he allegedly raped as well as a charge of sexual contact by a former contestant of The Apprentice where it is alleged that he had sexual inappropriate conduct with several women. Trump’s deposition has already been ordered in the latter case. He and his children are being sued in a class action suit by number of individuals who alleged they were defrauded into paying for worthless business opportunities. His inaugural committee is being litigated against civilly by the District of Columbia, (DC), for financial irregularities. 

There are four civil cases related to January 6 for instigating the the riot, two by members of Congress and two by the groups of Capitol Police. Then there is the ugly case being brought by his niece Mary Trump who claims that she was defrauded out of her share of her grandfather’s estate. Finally, he is being deposed next week in a case where six protestors claim to have been beaten up by his security as well as his former bodyguard.

It is the criminal stuff that must be striking terror into the former President and spurring him in his manic ongoing determination to become an untouchable autocratic President and maintain that in fact he still is one, While there is no sign that Merrick Garland of the Department of Justice has an ongoing inquiry into Trump there are two states and the District of Columbia, (DC),that are going at it gangbusters. Ironically the probe announced by DC on the instigation of a riot only carries a maximum six month sentence. Where the trouble lies is in New York and Georgia where both the processes are well under way. 

The State of New York has two separate AG offices who have criminal probes where even indictments have already been instituted. The two offices, the Manhattan and the New York State Attorney General’s Office have taken the unusual step of combining resources in this endeavor. Cyrus Vance of Manhattan has being at it forever, the Supreme Court finally granting him access to Trump’s tax records. He has laid criminal charges against Allan Weisselberg, Trump’s long time financial administrator, as well as the Trump Organization. While Trump’s name is all over the show he has not been indicted. As the pressure and risk piles onto Weisselberg pundits believe that it just has to be a matter of time before he makes a deal with the prosecution rather than risk spending a life in prison for a thankless Trump. Vance is also examining the forgiveness of a one hundred and seventy million loan Trump was “gifted” in the building of his Chicago Trump Hotel. 

The New York State Attorney General, Letitia James ,has been at it her investigation for a long time as her probe arose following Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen conviction nearly three years ago. There Trump was named an unindicted conspirator.

The trail of tax fraud is long and apparently there are millions of pages of discovery. The New York scrutiny obviously represents a serious threat to Trump and it is no secret that a Grand Jury is considering the evidence as to whether to indict him or not. 

However the real existential threat is the ongoings in Fulton County Georgia.

CRIMINAL EXPLORATION IN FULTON COUNTY GEORGIA - THE REAL REAL DEAL

The investigation by the Attorney General of Fulton County Georgia is the one that must make Trump shudder every time he realizes that he is no longer President and faces serious jail time. 

There are two grand juries investigating Trump and his associates in the latter’s attempt to overturn the election result in Georgia. Let alone what is going on in private every day, more and more is flushed out on the ongoing effort of Trump and his associates to overturn the election. With the report from the Senate Judicial Committee, the bipartisan Brookings Institute’s one hundred and seven page report on Trump’s criminal exposure and the bipartisan House Committee broadening probe, most of which is not in the public eye, it becomes more and more evident that there was and is a major conspiracy to reverse the result of the 2020 Presidential election.

While the recorded phone call to Georgia Secretary of State by Trump is the centerpiece of the investigation, there was Lindsay Graham's efforts, Mark Meadows visit to the Georgia election center, Giuliani’s attempt to persuade the Georgia legislators, the pressure on Pence, nine attempts to persuade the Department of Justice to assist him in reversing the Georgia election, a three hour meeting in the Oval Office where Trump wanted to replace Acting Attorney General Rosen with a nonentity in the department who was prepared to do his bidding and of course January 6, are all in the public space as to the effort to criminally reverse an election result,

The potential Georgia charges include criminal solicitation, intentional interference with election duties and conspiracy to commit election fraud - all pretty serious crimes. But what

 Trump has to fear most is being charged under the RICO, (Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization) ACT which carries a jail sentence of between five and twenty years and or a fine of up to twenty five million dollars. The ACT Also allows the judge to enforce a prohibition on the defendant(s) from engaging in the same type of industry as the business they were convicted for. 

The RICO ACT was originally brought in to get the mob bosses as it was always difficult to prove intent on the basis of one infraction. The ACT looks at a pattern of behavior by the perpetrator and or his associates to establish guilt. It needs not much imagination to argue that there is a pattern of behavior to Trump’s corrupt purpose, In fact, Jay H. Ell believes, when the House Select Committee is done it will be found to be conspiracy which extends far beyond what is currently known.

Now it just so happens that the Fulton Attorney General Fran Willis has experience in successfully prosecuting under the RICO ACT. She has also hired John Floyd who is the foremost Atlanta litigator on the Georgia RICO ACT which is broader than the original Federal law. Willis has discussed the possibility of charging Trump under this umbrella act which was successful at putting many mob bosses behind bars. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Wouldn’t it be poetic justice if legislation to pin down mob bosses is what ultimately brings down Trump?

According to CNN the top Conservative constitutional lawyers have refused to represent Trump in his ongoing criminal fantasy. One of the reasons is that he often doesn’t pay his bills. Trump denied this maintaining that he always pays them if they have done a good job! 

ISRAEL NEW REGIME'S FIRST HUNDRED STRESS FREE DAYS

An object lesson in statesmanship midwifed by circumstances and born with good of country in mind, not party, has passed the hundred  and ten day mark in Israel. A disparate group of political parties ranging from both sides of the political spectrum and including a tiny Islamist group formed a tenuous coalition to rescue Israel from the hate and division, orchestrated by an autocrat and criminal defendant Bibi Netanyahu. The basis of this rebirth allowed Israel to move forward on the many health, economic, racial and social challenges it faced. Individual ambition and party power was cast aside in favor of the citizens they served. 

Jay H Ell has already written on the formation of the thirty sixth Israeli administration in seventy - five years, “A Miracle Just Happened in Israel” so this blog is more about the circumstances that allowed for it’s creation besides the political will of the party leaders.  Jay H. Ell will postulate how three figures, Naftali Bennett, Micah Goodman and the late Rabbi  Sacks, from three different worlds, influenced the unprecedented policies of national government as well the internal and external political situation that allowed these to be put in place.  Central to the success was putting on ice the major controversy in Israel as to whether to incorporate the Palestinian West Bank into Israel or not.

Not many gave this rag bag of diverse constituencies, a chance of survival after forming a government thereby avoiding a fifth election where Netanyahu would once again attempt to form a clear cut governing mandate. But there they are alive and well putting personal agendas  and party aside.

ISRAEL’S POPULATION DIVERSITY

The population of Israel is ten million people. Like America it is made up of wildly diversified cultures, skin colors, innumerable Jewish sects, and other religious groups. While the official language is Hebrew all the sign posts are in Arabic as well. There are a large number of French and Russian immigrants and these two languages are commonly heard in the streets and commercial establishments. And of course everyone speaks English. Israel has twenty four political parties represented in the Knesset, (parliament) eight of whom are involved in the current coalition. All in all there are thirty four political parties. Jews are of all sects, ethnic and racial groups. Roughly twenty percent of the ten million population are Arab Muslims and a remaining five percent Christians, Bedouin, Druze and other minorities. 

So to look at Israel as being constituted by a monolithic group of likeminded Jews is not only a myth it is a myth stake. Yet another myth to dispel is that the Haredim or ultra orthodox are a large segment of the population. This is an understandable misconception as they have dominated Israeli policy as a result of secularist cynical Netanyahu pandering to them in return for their support. In fact that they are only represent ten percent. Also forty percent of Israelis claim to be secular which is a spectrum ranging from total indifference to religion to it not playing any significant role in their lives. 

ISRAEL’S INTERNATIONAL SITUATION JUNE 2021

There are a host of factors in the international arena that allowed the new government the freedom to make bold internal moves and not focus solely on the interminable Palestinian - Israeli conflict. For the first time in seventy five years they had real regional allies.besides their long time peace partners Egypt and Jordan and their under the table co operation with the Saudis. In one week Foreign Minister Lapid opened an Embassy in Bahrain, Defense Minister Gantz visited Morocco while Dubai invited Israel to have an exhibit at their Expo. The confident Israelis are producing a history of the Zionist movement from Herzl onwards as their display.  In addition they have also established diplomatic relations with Sudan. Premier Bennett gave a passable performance at the United Nations. But that’s what everyone wants at the moment in politics - boredom. The world in general is sick and tired of simple solutions to complex problems and a record thirty eight nations boycotted the Durban Conference where Zionism is ritually condemned as racism. Also while no one is neglecting the plight of the Palestinians caught in the middle of Iran backed Hamas’s predictable periodic aggression. West Bank’s Abbas’s indecision and ambivalence is getting old adding to the frustration of cobbling a solution.

So it was a big help not to have the world breathing down their necks thereby allowing Bibi Netanyahu to shout the odds that he was the strongman who could guarantee Israel’s security.. It is a masterpiece of understatement to note that he was not missed at the United Nations this year! Biden is only too happy that he hasn’t got Bibi to deal with and is adapting a wait and see policy with regard to the new government initiatives. Bennett has reassured him that he won’t publicly attack him on any Iranian moves whether he agrees with him or not. The American bipartisan agreement on Israel has all but returned with only a few votes against giving Israel what they were promised - money to repair the dome after Hamas attacks. There appears to be little doubt that no moves will be made unilaterally by Israel or America on Iran 

There was now one overriding factor that there was international agreement on and that was that the Palestinian West Bank’s nationhood or incorporation was not a hot issue. For starters Abbas was old and weak and hadn’t held an election since January 2006. As for Gaza, Israel’s Sharon had handed the territory over to the Palestinians in 2005 and Hamas had ruled since 2006 and there was no way that the latter were remotely interested in stabilizing the region. So from an international point of view pressure to create a two nation state in the region was negligible. It was this as a background the thirty - sixth Israeli government was formed.

ISRAELI INTERNAL SITUATION MAY/JUNE 2021 

Israel had just held its fourth inconclusive national poll in four years. The only support Netanyahu was guaranteed was from the extreme Orthodox, (Haredi), religious parties to whom he had made concession after concession. However, there was no way he was able to form a government. He had antagonized and belittled enough political parties on the right to make it impossible. The best he could hope for and actively sort was a fifth election where he hoped the electorate would finally come around to his greatness and allow him a clearcut victory.

Internally a number of factors and events came together to make the Bennett/Lapid coalition possible. While every vote of the sixty - one members was crucial - who can forget the pragmatism of the Islamic List, and the tireless work and orchestration of Yair Lapid, who by all rights should have been the governmental head. In addition each cabinet member would have autonomy over their portfolios giving them a free hand in decision making and each party an influence.

 However there were three names that in their own way contributed to the policies of this government of national unity and they are linked to one another. They are Naftali Bennett, Micah Goodman, a historian turned political scientist and the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. 

BENNETT, GOODMAN AND SACKS AND HOW IT ALL HANGS TOGETHER

Naftali Bennett is ideologically to the right of Netanyahu but who like so many had had an irreconcilable  fall out with the former premier. Bennett had been his chief of staff. Any hope of rejoining a Netanyahu coalition had to be blown when Bibi publicly mocked Bennett as the idea  began being floated at Bennett becoming. Prime Minister. Besides being articulate Bennett has great credibility with the highly influential minority very orthodox  Haredi Jews, being orthodox himself. He further has been a settler on the West Bank as well as being a highly successful businessman and a Major in the Israeli army. He is an avid advocate of incorporating the West Bank into Israel. Much like Netanyahu he has spent periods in the United States where almost half of world Jewry live. He has been Minister of Diaspora Relations and is more than aware of the tensions that have arisen between the predominantly non orthodox American Jewish Community and the Netanyahu Haredi influenced regime. He was also ad idem with improving the lot of the minorities in Israel.

The Bennett/Lapid coalition have immediately put into effect decreasing the welfare to the Haredi as well as enforcing that they should not be exempted from compulsory army training. 

His attitude to the formation of this unlikely coalition can be summed up by a statement he made on the anniversary of the fall of both the first and second temples, “The Jewish people twice had a Jewish State on the Land of Israel, and both times we did not succeed to complete the eighth decades as an independent state, because of internal wars and baseless hatred……we mourn the awful destruction which a people with a little more love, restraint and listening could have saved us…”

Bennett’s political soul mate and guru is Micah Goodman, a well respected right wing historian known really only in academic and intellectual circles in Israel. To understand the nuts and bolts as to what Bennett either bought into or was part of creating one has to know the political philosophy of Goodman.

MICAH GOODMAN

Professor Micah Goodman is a Research Fellow who like  Naftali Bennett is orthodox and a settler on the West Bank himself. Till very recently his works were only published in Hebrew and were extensive arcane analyses of topics such as “Moses’s Last Speech” and “The Secrets of the Guide to the Perplexed”. He is a pluralist and a supporter of inter faith co operation. The relevant publication which he announced his revolutionary approach to the Israeli/Palestinian land conflict is entitled, “Catch 67, The Left, The Right and The Legacy of The Six Day War” Although it has been translated into English it is little read outside of Israel. 

Catch 67 contains an extensive analysis of the left and right wing positions in Israel and why they exist. Jay H. Ell disagreed with much of this forerunner to his solutions but Goodman has been criticized for its assumptions by far more knowledgeable authorities than him. Ehud Barak a former Israeli Prime Minister pulled his arguments apart particularly in relation to the current security position in a devastating twenty four page indictment. Barak claims that Goodman’s right wing bias is shining through. Happily this argument doesn’t really impact on the central thesis of his solutions and therefore the current Israeli’s administration position on the West Bank. 

Goodman believed in the Talmudic tradition where always two sides were presented and respectfully listened to each other giving opposing interpretations  of Jewish Law. Often no conclusions were derived at. That is what he suggests for the Palestinian question for the moment.

Goodman wrote that the situation in the West Bank should be improved by Israel, Currently the West Bank is a patchwork of non contiguous chunks of land. These should all be joined together with roads and bridges and become a continuous whole. Already a suggestion that Israel grant tens of thousands more work permits for Palestinians has been put into effect. There has been a five hundred million dollar loan floated for the Palestinian Government and Joined Economic Committees are to be formed. Also the building of two thousand Palestinian homes on the West Bank while alotting land for further Arab development just outside of East Jerusalem is part of the proposal.  Another policy which could only emanate from a Bennett was to limit Israeli settlement on the West Bank to where they currently are settlements. Goodman advocates that the security of the region should still solely be the prerogative of Israel.

While there are critics both on the left and the right eighty percent of the Israelis are in agreement with the three pronged approach of the Administration, “Kicking the Palestinian solution down the road”, seeing to internal priorities and doing far more for the non Jewish minorities within Israel. 

Micah Goodman’s guru is the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks whose work he believes he has carried on to the extent that he has extended his philosophy and paradigms. 

JONATHAN SACKS.

Rabbi Sacks was a giant intellectually both in the Jewish world and the world generally. In a memorial service Prince Charles referred to him as a “Light Unto The Nations”. This Charles did in the company of four previous British Prime Ministers who had used Sacks as an advisor. Sacks’s paradigm changing work included “Not in God’s Name”, where he reinterpreted Genesis to show the brotherhood of three monotheistic religions. As Goodman has pointed out Sacks sought paradigm change which could be interpreted through his thirty books, his monumental Ted talks and his acceptance speech for The Templeton Prize which is awarded annually to a recipient, “… who harnesses the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.” 

 Sacks, to the chagrin of many of his followers, avoided taking political positions. He did however have two cardinal viewpoints on Israel. There was no way he would comment on their politics per se. He believed Israel’s existence was crucial especially following the holocaust and particularly now in the light of the growth of anti semitism. With regard to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict he was committed to a two nations solution. The closest he came to approaching his political position vis a vis Israel was the limited extent that he broached the subject in an address to the Bar -Lian University “ on “The Contemporary Task of Judaism”

There are many pieces of Sacks’s philosophy that the new government reflects. Sacks stated at Bar - Lian till Israel included its minorities it could not really have a national mission. He re - emphasized that the Jewish Torah over thirty times enjoined the jews to “Love the Stranger” while only a few times stated “Love thy neighbor”. Empathy and respecting difference while all should join in the common cause of humanity was outlined in his book “Dignity of Difference”. In Bar Lian, as he developed more fully in his final book on “Morality”, he reflected on the current failure of society both in the loss of communities and the growing inequities between citizens. He argued that unfettered individuality in liberal democracy and free trade had left society without a soul. 

The gist of Sack’s address in Bar - Lian was that Israeli universities and religious colleges were in a position to create a new political paradigm for society which combined the best features of liberal democracy, free trade, an ethical code of behavior and narrowing the gap radically between the have’s and the have nots.  Sack’s fantasized that Israel might be a model for the world. While Goodman has certainly followed several of Sack’s precepts in his “out of the box” solution to the Palestinian crisis, this is a temporary solution. In addition no new political order has been established to ensure the paradigm Sacks called for. Whichever way the experiment is viewed the interplay between, Bennett, Goodman and Sacks makes for rare history.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The new Israeli government is off to a great start and obviously all the participants are sticking to their objectives. There has to be a tremendous reserve of trust embodied in the whole exercise and the true test will be how it plays out. In addition the outcome is predicated on the belief that the Palestinians will agree to the unilateral decision of the Israelis, that the internal situation will improve between all groups in Israel and that the Iranian threat will simmer down.

Ultimately there has to be a resolution to the land issue, Hopefully the progress made by the new initiatives will help in this regard.