Let
me pull a cruel joke on you, my friend. I'll do it by telling you a science
fiction story that is truly fictional. It starts like this: A young journalist
on a planet, out there in the Milky Way, wrote a story about Earth and
submitted it to the publication whose editor is also mentor to the young
journalist.
The
young man wrote about a country on Planet Earth called America, that moved its
embassy to a city called Jerusalem, causing an explosion of joy throughout the
Planet. Almost immediately, most of the 200 other embassies tried to move to
Jerusalem but because there was not enough space to accommodate them all, the
authorities built a skyscraper that went up 200 floors, and gave a floor to every
embassy that moved in.
That's
a nice story, said the editor, but added that he needs to know where the young
man got the information, and wants to see proof that the story was true before
publishing it. Upon this, the young journalist ran to his office and came back
with a dispatch that was intercepted from an Earth communication. It was a
column written by Michael Goodwin under the title: “A year after Trump's
Jerusalem declaration, it's clear he means business,” published on December 8,
2018 in the New York Post.
The
editor started reading the column, but the deeper he went into it, the more he
frowned at what he was seeing. In fact, what he was seeing boiled down to the
following compilation of supposed facts and personal opinions that Michael
Goodwin chose to put into the piece:
“It's
instructive to look at events and compare the predictions to what happened.
Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital offers major
lessons. It's a year later and Israel established a working security alliance
with Saudi Arabia, and normal relations with China. The Arab street turned out
to be a fictional force. Strength creates its own advantages. Obama blinked,
thus invited trouble. In office for nearly a year, Trump demonstrated that
riots don't move him. On the day of the announcement, the Israelis were
jubilant. Trump was hailed as a hero for the ages. But all the chips did not
fall into place and everyone did not live happily ever after. Israeli troops
shot and killed 59 Palestinians. Hamas rockets were fired at Israel, and kites
started fires, burning thousands of acres of farmlands. Finally, an American
president called the Palestinian bluff”.
Unfortunately
for the young journalist, the editor saw nothing in that compilation about 200
embassies rushing to move to Jerusalem, so he asked the novice to find out
which embassies made the move. After a thorough investigation, the young man
discovered that a full year had passed, and only two South American embassies
had moved to Jerusalem. But then, three months later, one of the two pulled
out. And so, beside America, this left only one other embassy in Jerusalem; a
small country that depends on America economically. Sad and disgusted for being
so badly deceived, the young man apologized to the editor, withdrew his story
and resolved never again to take at face value any information he receives from
a Terran mob calling itself Jewish.
Being
a good teacher, the mentor asked the young journalist to go over the Michael
Goodwin column, identify the tricks that contributed to his deception, and
analyze them. He advised that, when finished, the work will be used to teach
students of journalism a valuable lesson. Upon this, the young man went to his
office and started to work on his new assignment. A few hours later, he had come
up with the following analysis:
In
saying that, “it's a year later, and Israel established an alliance with Saudi
Arabia and relations with China,” Michael Goodwin fools the audience into
believing there was a cause and effect relationship between the American move
on the one hand, and the Saudi and Chinese initiatives on the other. But the
truth turned out to be that Saudi Arabia had remained indifferent toward Israel
for more than a decade, having tabled a peace plan for the region, and waiting
for an Israeli response that never came. And nothing has changed as a result of
the American move.
As
to the Chinese initiative, the relationship between China and Israel has not
changed one iota since the Jews agreed to turn themselves into the conduits
that would channel to China––legally or otherwise––the advanced American
technologies and other intellectual properties that China needs for its rapid
development. What was true all along, remains true today. Nothing has changed there
either.
As
to the saying that, “on the day of the announcement, the Israelis were
jubilant,” and that “Trump was hailed as a hero for the ages,” this gave the
impression that moving the embassy was something all of humanity wanted to see.
This is a grotesque falsehood.