By Larry Gordon

By Larry Gordon

President Trump is being picked apart more for his inability to express himself than on matters of policy. At the same time, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic candidate for Congress from Queens, was asked by a reporter about her position on “occupied Palestine,” and almost received a free pass until the Trump hubbub subsided.

Ms. Cortez backed out of a tight and obviously uncomfortable situation by saying, “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue. I just look at things through a human rights lens, and I may not use the right words.” Ms. Cortez was an international relations major at Boston University during her college years. The Middle East conflict was probably touched upon at some point during those studies.

And now, after the press conference heard around the world, the President is being ridiculed and excoriated for what essentially boils down to a poor choice of words and some rather bold and even savvy policy that indeed can improve life for millions of people. The choice seems to be between those people enjoying a better life or Democrats winning the House of Representatives in November. From the reaction to Mr. Trump’s words, it seems many would prefer political victory above all else.

Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer believes he hit a grand-slam — with no one even on base — as he held his own news conference announcing that our president is whatever it is that is short of a traitor or perhaps an employee of the Russian federation and Mr. Putin.

The suggestion is, of course, nonsense and will shortly be bounced off the front pages and supplanted on the network news by the next big story, either real or imagined, once its shelf life expires. More importantly, there was other news made at the Helsinki press conference that has not received much attention, at least not in the usual news forums.

That news is the president saying great progress has been made in Syria on the issue of  Iranian troops. Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday night that Mr. Putin is a “big fan” and supporter of Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu met with Putin in Russia to discuss these precise matters on which Mr. Trump was able to follow up effectively.

It was those words that jumped out as Trump and Putin shared the podium in a post-summit news conference on Monday. For most it was about meddling or collusion or some mysterious combination or variation of the two. The real news is that Trump took the time to express his concern about Israel’s security in view of the fact that Iran is currently having its way with Syria.

While the world is troubled by the combination of military firepower and gone-off-the-rails Islamic radicalism that needs to be contained, it makes sense that Israel’s border with Syria, as well as with Gaza, is the epicenter of these types of concerns. Still, I have a feeling that had it been Barack Obama or any other president in Helsinki with Putin the other day, the subject of Israel’s security may not have made it onto the agenda.

Instead, while it may not have been the top item in their discussion, it looked like it was important to both leaders. Iran is a threat and a problem for the world. Vladimir Putin might be one of the only people on the globe who can exercise some control over the ayatollahs that run that despotic entity. Why the Democrats in our country insist on calling Putin a thug and would like President Trump to call the Russian leader that to his face defies comprehension. It is not a wise thing and it is probably one of those things that Mr. Trump would be comfortable referring to as just plain stupid.

This brings us to the great Democratic phenom, Ms. Cortez, who upset veteran Congressman Joe Crowley, a man once described as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi, in a recent primary election. Cortez is a self-described socialist Democrat whom the head of the DNC, Tom Perez, referred to as “the future of the Democratic Party.”

Ms. Cortez, as mentioned above, referred to the sovereign state of Israel as a force that is occupying Palestine. Most who heard those words last weekend and again on Monday were astounded and stunned by Ms. Cortez’s extreme lack of even minimal knowledge about the maneuverings that make that part of the world work.

Cortez, who has been politically created in the image of her mentor and maker, Senator Bernie Sanders, apparently feels that Israel is little more than an illegitimate and rogue-state entity. One commentator said that the interview portrayed Cortez as “deeply and profoundly ignorant.” So the future Bronx/Queens congresswoman, Cortez, believes that Israel massacred Palestinians who were seeking to breach the Israel–Gaza border and commit terrorist acts. The real leading and most outspoken Democrats like Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Pelosi — known as great supporters of Israel — did not bother to condemn or even criticize Ms. Cortez’s remarks on Israel.

Of course those two — and just about every Democrat out there — have been busy this week trying to extricate Donald Trump from the Oval Office for either treasonous acts or a variety of crimes and misdemeanors that according to many of them would constitute impeachable offenses.

The fascinating crime here, by the way, was President Trump seeming to indicate that he was uncertain about the government intelligence agencies finding that Russia sought to undermine or at least meddle in the 2016 elections in this country. The premise here is that  U.S. intelligence agencies cannot make a mistake, and if you believe or say that they might have done just that then you might be committing a crime.

These are the same U.S. intelligence agencies that carefully investigated and found that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction that led to war in Iraq. They were mistaken and there were no WMDs in Iraq. It was the same intelligence agencies that said decades ago the Shah of Iran was strong and that his leadership was secure. Well, we all know what happened there.

The true Democratic Party objective here is to say and do anything that can lead American voters to not vote Republican in the upcoming midterm elections. This is the primary Schumer–Pelosi objective. What really happened and why it’s imperative that the U.S. have good relations with Russia, China, and North Korea is not that important. The main objective here is that Trump has got to go. Whatever dimwitted mechanism needs to be employed to inch closer to that objective is warranted. The Democrats are desperate to take back the House of Representatives. A prospective Democratic candidate for Congress saying unabashedly that Palestine is under occupation is something they can deal with later. 

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