Smoking, Drinking or Trumping?

We do not know what the American president Donald John Trump, a contender for re-elections in November, has been smoking or drinking recently. But his declared opinion that Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran are soon to follow in the steps of the United Arab Emirates vis-à-vis possible diplomatic relations with us must be a by-product of something he smokes or drinks.

Without sound evidence, Trump, like others, believes that an agreement with Saudi Arabia is not a dream, that with good intentions and a mutual exchange of cash and military equipment, it can be a reality. I don’t know about his but it won’t happen in my lifetime for sure.

But president Trump has over-dosed on his beverage of choice when fantasying that peace with Iran is a possibility. The Islamic Republic with its ancient ayatollahs and defiant Revolutionary Guards making peace with a country it threatens to demolish off the face of the earth are not the words of a sober man.

He would be more successful in establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea. But it takes much patience, which he lacks, to eating rice with chop-sticks, one grain of rice at time.

Prior to 1979 under Iran’s Persian monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi sitting on his Peacock throne, both of our countries had cordial diplomatic relations and citizens of both countries could visit in one another’s land.

But those were the years 1948-1979. And as the Chinese would like to say, “hayu zmanim” . Those were the days !

The Saudis could agree to peace talks if Israel would accept the terms which they proposed in 2002… an Israeli withdrawal to the pre- 1967 borders.
Didn’t happen. Never will.

I can’t see Netanyahu or his successor being invited to Riyadh or Tehran. The closest Israel can get now is by touching those two cities on a map of the Middle East with one finger.

But one can never truly know. Mother History is known for the multitude of tricks she has played.

Noah’s generation witnessed what they presumed to be the end of the world. Our generation witnessed the demolition of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and General Tojo and Emperor Hirohito assumed it was the end of their world.

Both the Noahites and the Nipponese lived to see their assumptions disappear.

We are now witnessing what many believe to be the end of our civilization brought on by the coronavirus which has claimed millions of human lives. Even Saudi Arabia and the Iranian Islamic Republic were not untouched by the kiss of death.

I have shared my opinion in a recently published article about the excitement of sharing visits… we to Abu Dhabi and they to holy Jerusalem. With goodwill, much can be accomplished.

The United Arab Emirites are known throughout the entire world as being the most tolerant nation in the world. They respect people of all religious faiths, in particular, but not alone, to the members of the Abrahamic/Ibrahimic family.

There is hope that their neighbors in Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar will soon join that tolerant family.

But the religion of the Saudi Muslims does not tolerate the beliefs or practices of other Islamic sects.

I neither smoke nor drink. I leave those “pleasures” to greater men…. men like Donald J. Trump.

I hold tightly and proudly to my faith and to my dreams.

And as a comforting last word to my Muslim readers who might one day consider conversion to Judaism… it’s a painless process.

Another circumcision is not required. Al-Hamdulillah. (Thank God).