Israel and the Republican Party: In the Midst of Civil and World Wars
I’m publishing this series of articles to share and discuss my ruminations on coping with a troubled and messy world. You can “follow” me to never miss an article.
As is so frequently the case, two different Op-Eds in The New York Times highlight the severe dysfunctions that increasingly characterize our World[i]. Thus, both the State of Israel and the Republican Party are subject to much deserved criticism for their policies, or lack thereof. While the Op-Eds pertain to two very different countries and situations, they nonetheless share more than a bit in common.
In the case of Nikki Haley and the G.O.P., Bret Stephens sums it up all-too-well:
“…Haley embodies a strand of pragmatic, internationalist and pro-growth conservatism that once dominated the G.O.P. but has been pushed aside in favor of xenophobic, isolationist, zero-sum populism. Whatever liberals may think of Haley’s brand of conservatism, they surely prefer it to Trump’s. Every politically healthy democracy requires a morally healthy conservative movement, and right now the United States doesn’t have one.”
Given this, in terms of her running for President, Haley is running for the preservation of our Democracy. Since I believe that in her gut she knows this, she can’t drop out of the race no matter what.
As I’ve said many times, our Democracy is in peril.
With regard to Israel, Thomas L. Friedman also says it all too well:
“It (Israel) is losing the global narrative that it is fighting a just war. It has no plan to ever get out of Gaza, so it will eventually sink into the sands there with a permanent occupation that will surely complicate relations with its Arab allies and friends across the globe. And it is losing regionally to Iran and its anti-Israel proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, who are pressuring Israel’s northern, southern, and eastern borders.”
I accept as a result that many readers will feel that I’ve gone too far in arguing that for all practical purposes the U.S. is embroiled in a Civil War. Likewise, many will also feel that I’ve gone too far in arguing that we’re in the midst of various Wars that taken together constitute a World War.
I’m not convinced of the contrary in each case.
[i] Thomas L. Friedman, “Israel Is Losing Its Greatest Asset: Acceptance,” The New York Times, February 28, 2024, P A22: Bret Stephens, “Nikki Haley’s Last Ditch,” The New York Times, February 28, 2024, P A23.
Ian I. Mitroff is credited as being one of the principal founders of the modern field of Crisis Management. He has a BS, MS, and a PhD in Engineering and the Philosophy of Social Systems Science from UC Berkeley. He Is Professor Emeritus from the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School of Communication at USC. Currently, he is a Senior Research Affiliate in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, UC Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Management. He has published 41 books. His latest is: The Socially Responsible Organization: Lessons from Covid, Springer, New York, 2022.
Photo by Louis Maniquet on Unsplash
