Imagine you're a book editor, and you receive a script that
tells the story of a sheriff who used to be loved by the town's people; by the
rest of the county and the counties beyond. New people come to settle in the
town, and one of those manages to get himself hired as adviser to the sheriff.
The adviser educates the sheriff as to the evil nature of
human beings, telling him to always keep his powder dry, and his finger on the
trigger in the itchy mode. He explains that maintaining this posture is vital
because he can never tell when the evil ones, who are unmistakably out there,
will come around and seek to annihilate the town. At the minimum, he goes on to
say, the evil ones will compel the town folks to change their way of life.
In time, the sheriff would have learned the lessons of the
adviser so well; he makes himself hated by two thirds of the town; by the rest
of the county and all the counties beyond. Finally, it dawns on him that he
must be doing something wrong, but does not have the presence of mind to
realize it was the advice of the new hire that got him in this situation. And
so, he ironically turns to the same adviser and asks: What next? And the
adviser says: Talk to the people that hate you. Haggle your way out of the mess
in which you put yourself. It is something you brought on yourself by not
following my advice as closely as you should have.
Upon reading this story, you the book editor, believe that
the writer must be a talented kid, but one that's too young to know enough
about life. You send the script back to him with a note that says you do not
publish children books and wish him good luck. Well, my friend, this is the
scene that will come to mind upon reading the latest Benny Avni column. It came
under the title: “Trouble for the anti-North Korea club,” and was published on
November 2, 2017 in the New York Post.
It is right there––in the title of the article, which speaks
of 'anti-someone club'––that you realize the story you're about to read is
Jewish through and through, fit only for juveniles. And then, the first
sentence in which the author asks: “Is South Korea going wobbly on us?” takes
you back to your high school days when you thought that the world was a
schoolyard, and the players were teenagers forming gangs that challenge each
other.
In fact, Avni goes on to tell the story of a South Korean
president that was a hardliner in the standoff with North Korea . His people voted him
out of office and replaced him with a moderate president because they wanted
the standoff to be resolved peacefully. The change of president must have had
the effect called for by the Korean electorate, says Avni, because the
relationships in the diplomatic love-triangle comprising South Korea , China
and the United States ,
seems to have shifted. Now, it's the United States that's left out in
the cold.
At a time when the so-called democracies were supposed to
stand together like a high school gang facing another gang called tyranny, it
was ironically the democratic choice of the South Korean people that upset the
applecart for the so-called democracies. What infamy! But this is what made
Avni believe that South Korea
is going wobbly on the United
States , and why he says he is worried.
– But what is there to do now, adviser Benny Avni?
The following is what the self-appointed adviser tells the
elected sheriff Trump: “Forget tariffs and trade wars. Instead, find ways to
show them why China 's
interests don't coincide with theirs –– and ours do”.
– But how to do that, adviser Benny Avni?
– “The task will be to convince our traditional Asian
partners –– mostly South Korea –– that America and not China is their most
reliable ally and best friend”.
– But that's considered Jewish style idle haggling, adviser
Benny Avni?
– You're damn right. And this should tell you that you must
follow my advice as closely as you should have but didn't the last time. You
must therefore suffer the consequences of your insolence by quacking
interminably like a haggling Jew.