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March 10th, 2016 
Awake Goy Sanders impresses as very clever politically, especially in light of courting the Arab-American vote in Dearborn, and his pointed efforts to pull that off. Capable of thinking outside the box, acting on it, to pull off a important upset. He’s been very careful in the issues he chooses to address, and in timing and nuance. A Socialist with a very practical manner of succeeding in politics.
So he’s being careful on the Israel relationship. You think it is emotional: “a generational attachment to Israel as the deliverance story for his parents.” I expect that emotional attachment is there in the background, but I also assume his parents have passed on, and I doubt Netanyahu, Likud, and the entire right-wing Israeli government inspires any positive emotions in him today – just the opposite. I expect he seethes inside toward Netanyahu and the Neocon playbook with similar feelings he expressed about Kissinger. But he is holding that back, for now, reading the political winds as best he can.
The holding back occurs on his side and on the MSM side. There’s still a taboo about who can say what where, but we’re in a season where taboo-smashing is becoming the new phenomenon.
Trump is showing that he can flaunt such taboos, violate them for positive political effect among a large and passionate part of the Republican electorate, in WrestleMania style, all the while treating every interaction as part of future deals to be negotiated. “Megan, I called you unfair, said I didn’t like you, attributed your behavior to your menstrual cycle, and walked out on a debate claiming you were unfit to ‘moderate.’ Now, what is our relationship going to be going forward [now that you and I – two high profile celebrities – have such a fascinating feud going on?]:”
“Mr. Trump. Hi. How are you?” “I’m well, thank you, and you’re looking very well.” One of the attention-grabbing high-points of last Republican debates, of celebrity value to both of them.
There is a level where politics are like Wrestlemania, as others including David Brooks have pointed out: dramatized conflict that on some level everyone knows is fake, but that doesn’t prevent the fascination. Kabuki Theater is another example from a very different culture. He’s insulted the Mexicans, the global Muslim population, the Chinese, the Japanese, the RJC, which has set an awkward table for when he will sit down with them next, but isn’t that just what he wanted to do? He has shown that he will punish each and every critic with double quid pro quo. But it is all set up for the main event, the future deals to be made, where terms are malleable, you prioritize and make trade-offs, which cannot be missed!
Somehow I’d love to see Trump debate Sanders. I think Sanders can and is rallying support among Dem activitists by not fawning over Saban and Netanyahu, and Hillary could slip on that front, on the email indictment front, on some other messy secret front, of which we can only assume there are more. Somehow Hillary drives via looking through the rear-view mirror, striving for perfection based on how it was, but is blind to bumps in the road ahead. Her speech to AIPAC could be such a bump, if Sanders plays it right. If they’ve invited all the candidates, and they all show up, it could be beyond fascinating to compare Trump and Sanders and Clinton, and how they play to that audience. It could frankly be Clinton’s opportunity to go too far. Blind loyalty and no daylight vs friends don’t let friends drive drunk vs straight level table, someone, a Jew, who is prepared to campaign for the Muslim American vote vs a talking points reciter, vs one who might not get invited at all and who doesn’t take slights lying down. A real three ring circus.
Somehow I think the Israel-America relationship will get to front and center, and I don’t think AIPAC-Likud-Neocon-Netanyahu will survive the glare in the main event. Can Hillary and her pledge of loyalty stand the take-down from both the nuanced Socialist on the Left and the Wrestlemania rabble-rousing deal-maker on the Right?
Not by looking in the rear-view mirror.
Source Article from http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/clintons-date-to-pander-at-aipac-leaves-an-opening-for-sanders-youd-think/
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