by Gerald A. Honigman
Daniel Davis is a senior fellow at the isolationist Defense Priorities think tank and frequent one-sided critic of Israel.
When one holds the beleaguered, sole, resurrected nation of the Jewish People to standards not equally demanded of any other nation, especially the assortment of tyrannical regimes which surround it, you’re an antisemite. Period.
Davis, Trump’s new appointee as Deputy Director of National Intelligence, is so obviously brainwashed, bought by Arab buddies, ignorant, and/or easily debunked in his claims that his appointment is just another example of President Trump using something other than his own substantial gray matter in making some of his latest appointments.
Davis has opposed any military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, but on this issue, VP Vance warned Israel not to do this as well. Easy to demand when you live in a nation 3,000 miles wide with two vast oceans separating you from most of your enemies.
Israel, by its ‘49 Auschwitz/Armistice lines, is a mere zipper of a state, 9-15 miles wide with most of its population and infrastructure located in that ultra vulnerable waistline.
Davis has opposed Israel’s defensive actions in Gaza and elsewhere to put an end to the non-stop barbarism directed against its people from both the Hamas bad cops and the alleged good cops of Fatah’s Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment as his boss was controversial enough, given, among other things, her whitewashing of the Assad butcher family in Syria.
The fact that the fall of the Arab Alawi Shi’a Assad dynasty has been replaced by Ahmed al-Sharaa and his rival Arab Islamist Sunni jihadis is just an unexpected example of what life is typically like when iron-fisted autocrats lose control. With the exception of Israel and some Kurdish areas, there’s no such thing as tolerance or real democracy in the region.
Returning to Trump’s appointment of Davis, there’s absolutely NO excuse for this whatsoever…NONE.
Except, perhaps, that Trump rewards millionaires and billionaires on the basis of contributions to his campaign, regardless of any baggage they bring with them.
This is what keeps me an NPA Independent. While his key appointments at State, Defense, the UN, and so forth are good, that doesn’t excuse these additional very troublesome other choices.
Davis is an example of the kind of official folks like myself would chew up and spit out in documented debate on the issues he raises to viciously attack Israel.
His unabashed defense of Hamas and like-minded disembowelers and beheaders of Jewish infants, gang rapists and mutilators, etc. is actually not the problem. I expect folks of his ilk to spout such ingrained venom and garbage.
It’s President Trump’s rewarding people like him with important positions—when so many other brighter choices are available—that’s the issue.
I accidentally got the chance to confront peas of Davis’s same pod with Clinton’s point man on the Middle
East, Ambassador Denis Ross, and his good buddy, the NYTimes self-anointed font of all Middle East knowledge, Thomas Friedman, on Yom Kippur 2024. It happened in a chance (bashert) encounter, with me trying to find a synagogue to attend on the High Holy Days after making a move to the general Washington, D.C. area in Rockville, Maryland. See below:
“I followed the columns of NYTimes columnist Thomas Friedman, usually with disgust, for decades and used to dream of a chance to confront him in person…”
Source: New English Review
https://search.app/aKHJMnofn4mSexYv9
The problem involves Trump’s lack of knowledge, and/or attempt to reward Arab communities like Dearborn, Michigan for not turning out en mass for Biden with Arab American political appointees, and their huge numbers of other non-Arab supporters whose latent ingrained venom and animus towards Jews and the Jew of the Nations once again burst out into the open after October 7, 2023.
Trump’s recent assignment of Massad Boulos to a key Middle Eastern advisory position is just one of other problematic appointees:
“Boulos told Newsweek he is “not affiliated with any party in Lebanon,” despite previous reporting that he was…”
Source: Newsweek
https://search.app/sCSZjyvSA92SaWqw6
Boulos has very close ties to a branch of Lebanon’s Christian community which has been aligned with the Assad butchers in Syria and the terrorists of Hizbullah as well.
He’s a member of the Greek Orthodox Church in Lebanon which has a very nasty history regarding Jews, let alone Israel:
“Arafat’s Jesus”- @MidEastTruth
https://search.app/cWsuF8tkd9qNJubz8
There are other worthy Arab Americans who don’t have such blood soaked connections. People affiliated with the late Lebanese Maronite Catholic American, Danny Thomas and Marlo Thomas of St. Jude’s Medical Center, come to mind. Trump could have also asked Lebanese and Egyptian American patriots and best selling NYTimes best selling authors to accept that position, and other friendly, non-anti-Israel folks like them.
Fox News’s Judge Jeanine Pirro’s Family are Maronite Catholic Lebanese who came to America, are loyal Americans, and Maronites have largely had good relations with Jews and Israel. One of their main leaders, Bachir Gemayel, was assassinated in the Lebanese civil war because he opposed the PLO and Syrian Muslim takeover of his country and his friendship with Israel and pro-American views.
Many Lebanese take pride in their pre-Arab conquest Semitic, but non-Arab, identity…the Phoenicians, for example, from whom King Solomon got his timber to build the first Temple in Jerusalem…the famed cedars of Lebanon.
President Trump would be hard pressed trying to find a more intelligent, loyal personal supporter than Judge Jeanine.
So, once again, wrapping this up, why select the antisemitic likes of folks like Daniel Davis for important positions dealing with national security when so many other better choices are available?
Excellent, extremely informative article. Honigman not only informs us about Trump’s deplorable choices for Mideast diplomatic positions. But also reveals the Lebanese Maronite origins of some prominent Americans who have contributed a great deal to America, and are also true friends of Israel, For example, I never knew that Judge Jeannine was a Maronite.
In the 1930’s the Maronite patriarch in Lebanon wrote toChaim Weizman and conratulated him on his leadership of the Zionist movement, and requested a meeting. When the two met, the patriarch assured Weizman that the Maronites supported the Jews desire for a Jewsh state, and asked in return that the Zionists would keep his people in mind if they were ever in deep trouble because of the hatred that other communities in Lebanon and the Syrians bore the Maronites. Weizmen promised the patriarch that the Zionists would do everything they could to rescue the Maronites if such a tragic situation ever happened.
More later about the Isral-Maronite connection.
Maybe that “substantial gray matter” will turn out to be on the right path. The prognosis is not so good at the moment but let’s give Donald the chance to prove he hasn’t lost his touch yet. On the other hand, maybe he thinks that Israel needs a slight damper to get back on track with him. Damage control should be on the alert!