A new era filled with danger and opportunity

Donald Trump wins again. It’s a new dawn for Israel and for my region of the world (Central and Eastern Europe). Israel is now emboldened to strike the enemies effectively, quickly and painfully.

I believe most of us know, deep down, that America just isn’t ready for a female president. While we’ve made a lot of progress, the invisible glass ceiling of prejudice, misogyny and ”makeupization,” as I call it, is very much present. Corporations, in particular, love it when you sign papers about equality, diversity and all the rest of it. Except, signing fifty pages won’t change reality. It doesn’t make sexism, mobbing and so on, go away.

It’s lying to ourselves and to others. Creating a bubble.

Sometimes, we aren’t even aware of our own biases. Sometimes, we hide our biases, pretend to be progressive, and only reveal our real selves when we vote. When it’s just us and that piece of paper. That’s alright, we all play roles in society and, dare I say, there’s hardly anyone fully authentic, in spite of all the authenticity-hype these days (yeah, right, don’t fall for it!). I mean, sure, pretend you’re authentic if your boss wants you to be authentic but don’t be actually authentic. Tricky, huh? It’s a trap in 99% of cases. Don’t do it. If you’re being fully authentic, it’s a gold mine of information about you for others to use against you. Don’t educate a potential enemy and, sorry, it’s rare to have friends at work. I know, I know. Some of you are screaming at the screen right now. Sure, you can find friends, even love, at work, but I prefer not mixing business with pleasure. Not a good idea. Some people just don’t get it and then they cry, because they lose their job, lose money and are left with nothing. Life doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

So, Donald Trump is the next President. These are geopolitical realities and we must adjust accordingly. Storming the barricades just won’t work and crying on social media is counterproductive. No one cares. Just because you want to wish Trump away won’t make it so. Only God can do that. And, as you know, Donald Trump is convinced the Lord has spared him for a reason.

I’d like to quote a portion of my recent Kyiv Post article below. What I wrote about Ukraine very much applies to Israel as well – but from what I can see, Israelis are pragmatic and know how to strategize.

Instead of engaging in counterproductive contrarianism and name-calling that has lost its power a long time ago, we ought to be asking: “What are the best ways to influence Trump, so he can make decisions in line with Ukraine’s interests?” Donald Trump says that he loves Poland. If so, then he surely understands Poland isn’t secure without a sovereign Ukraine.

We need to stop mindlessly comparing Trump to Hitler and throwing words such as Nazi around. Even J.D. Vance compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, but that was eight years ago in a dramatically different world.

While Donald Trump is many things, he isn’t responsible for waging genocidal wars and cracking down on the domestic opposition. That’s Vladimir Putin’s domain. We are yet to see what Donald Trump is capable of – but for now, comparing him to Adolf Hitler is extreme.

Russian propagandists keep callously calling Ukrainians Nazis. We are not only in the post-truth world. We are also increasingly in the post-meaning world where words get thrown around without understanding and appreciating the gravitas behind them. Like “Nazi,” “genocide” used to be a word that carried a lot of weight.

Today, all too many people use words such as genocide as just another debate prompt, without giving it much, if any thought. The consequences are profound.

The word that caused international alarm and condemnation isn’t as powerful as it once was. It has been propagandized. Relativized. Co-opted by Russian propaganda that twists its meaning to gaslight the naive, the deluded, or just plain dumb, who truly think Ukraine is full of bloodthirsty Nazis and Russia is the victim of Ukrainian crimes and terrorism.

A dangerous trend, indeed. Words like Auschwitz, genocide, and many more, are no longer nearly as powerful as they used to be. And when words lose their power because they are used in dramatically different contexts, often by people who have no idea what they are talking about, or by people who know exactly what they are doing and relativizing genocide is what they want, it’s so much easier to repeat the horrors of the past.