Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Convicted felon Donald Trump is now trying to intimidate the Israeli Judiciary into cancelling the three criminal trials of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. To that end, Trump and Netanyahu have become global running mates, campaigning with and for one another in their re-elections. The two men have become Siamese criminals, sharing a body of criminal behavior, defending one another’s abuses of office and of humanity. Both men have exuded disdain and disrespect for their nation’s judicial systems. Trump is abetted by a compliant US Supreme Court (SCOTUS), and the crooked nomination-selection process manipulated by Senator Mitch McConnell, while Netanyahu has cowed his judicial panel with extra-legal manipulations to postpone his Judgment Day indefinitely.
At home, Trump has blackmailed American universities with threatened lawsuits, and many law firms to cede to his fascist demands. Now, Trump has threatened to withhold US military assistance if the trial is not cancelled. Trump asks dismissively, “How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure,” thus illuminating his own naked, malignant narcissism. He tries to position Bibi the war criminal, as a martyred hero in need of liberation saying, “We just had a Great Victory with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu at the helm — And this greatly tarnishes our Victory,” Trump concluded. “LET BIBI GO, HE’S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!” Now for a gag alert: In response, Netanyahu responded, “Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump. Together, we will make the Middle East Great Again!”
In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, in separate criminal cases. And just as Trump has benefitted from a compliant Supreme Court, and judicial appointees either enthrall to or intimidated by him, Netanyahu enjoys an unduly friendly panel, which has been overly generous with delays and extensions. Now the best case timetable for resuming it is after the Jewish holidays in September.
Trump calls it a “witch hunt,” and argues “Bibi and I just went through HELL together, fighting a very tough and brilliant longtime enemy of Israel, Iran, and Bibi could not have been better, sharper, or stronger in his LOVE for the incredible Holy Land.” The two men have a bad habit of interfering in one another’s nation’s electoral and now judicial affairs, on behalf of one another. Bibi gave a blasphemous speech to Congress at the invitation of Trump sycophants, and they campaigned for one another in their elections. They are now global running mates, taking us along as they go through hell.
After re-empowering Netanyahu by surrendering to his long-term demand that the US bomb Iran, Trump wants the Israeli Justice system to become as compliant as the US system has become under Trump’s thumb. Leading up to this, both men have inverted the norms of decency to the point where, “militarism, laissez-faire capitalism, indifference to human sufferings of the poor are upheld as positive virtues.” Those words were used to describe the impact of Ronald Reagan in 1984, by author Stanley Booth in noting how, “The atmosphere in the United States was radically different from what it had been at the end of the sixties.” Booth’s characterization of Reagan’s impact reminds us of the direct line between Reagan and Trump, running through Presidents George Bush and George W. Bush. Booth’s book, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, is considered a seminal music history book, with a sage nod to political dynamics.
As an extension of that inversion, Trump is criminalizing institutional efforts to uphold Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the public and private sector; thus turning long-held public virtues into a criminal threat to his New World Order. By meddling now in the Israeli Judicial system on behalf of Netanyahu, Trump is brazenly expanding his reach outside the US to make it a global effort, and eliciting objections. Ha’aretz aptly characterized this saying as representing, “. . . a remarkable intervention by a U.S. president in a foreign ally’s criminal justice system, with several obvious parallels to Trump’s own anger toward the criminal proceedings and eventual conviction against him last year.” Even MK Simcha Rothman, one of Bibi’s far-right allies in parliament, agreed that though he appreciates Trump bombing Iran, “the U.S. president should not interfere in Israeli legal proceedings,” and emphasized the importance of preserving judicial independence.
Trump’s extra-legal advocacy for Bibi is a stark turnaround from the previous week, when he got salty about Israel bombing Iran, right after Trump declared cease-fire with a social media proclamation. He said, “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs … I’m not happy with Israel . . . They’ve been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Now he wants Bibi pardoned, just as he was let off by his Republican sycophants in Congress. Itamar Ben-Gvir honored Trump by echoing his manufactured paranoia about a “deep state” conspiracy against Bibi. Thankfully, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has said that pardon is “not currently on the table,” though he has the power to make it happen.
Trump tries to argue that any criminal charges against both are “politically motivated.” But the fact is those men’s trials are simply the legal process playing out in response to deeply unlawful behavior, and an unprecedented level of self-dealing, grift and greed. Trump’s claim of imperial, global standing was illuminated when he said, “The United States of America spends billions of dollars a year … protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this.”
“Bonhomie,” Digital, Dream / Dreamland v3 / ChatGPT, 2025
Donald Trump isn’t satisfied with being anointed King of the United States, in recent Supreme Court decisions. He will always want more. Hopefully he, Netanyahu and McConnell will end up with mud on their faces, just like Yertle the Turtle, who claimed to be King of All He Could See.
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