(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Haaretz: Only Biden stands in the way of the 'lying dangerous trio' of Putin, Netanyahu and Trump [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-02-25 Some American political pundits just don’t get what’s at stake in the 2024 presidential election with their focus on President Joe Biden’s age and gaffes. Case in point: the New York Times columnist Ezra Klein who came up with a completely unrealistic scenario of having a brokered Democratic convention choose a nominee to replace the too-old-to-campaign President Joe Biden. Sometimes it falls to foreign observers to shed that horserace and bothsiderism mentality so common in political coverage in our mainstream media. In a must-read opinion piece recently published in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz, writer Alon Pinkas minces no words in describing what’s at stake in the 2024 U.S. presidential election in an analysis titled “Putin, Netanyahu and Trump: A Lying, Dangerous Trio.” x Putin, Netanyahu and Trump: A lying, dangerous trio https://t.co/a7YizNGWvM — Alon Pinkas (@AlonPinkas) February 22, 2024 Pinkas is a senior writer on Israeli and U.S. politics for Haaretz. His biography describes him as a former diplomat who has served as Israel’s consul general to New York and as a foreign policy adviser to multiple foreign and prime ministers. He has witnessed first-hand what’s happened in Israel since Benjamin Netanyahu, himself facing a long-delayed corruption trial, returned as prime minister in December 2022 at the head of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. In an August 2023 analysis, before Hama’s deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Pinkas wrote: “If you have been observing Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault on Israeli democracy over the past seven months, you can vividly imagine what a second Donald Trump term would look like in the United States.” And in his new piece. Pinkas describes how Putin. Trump and Netanyahu all “aspire to tire and depress their people into submission through an endless campaign of lies and alternative interpretations of reality.” He then asks the question as to what Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny, the 91 criminal counts against Trump, and a constitutional coup attempt in Israel and the war in Gaza have in common? He answers his rhetorical question as follows: They all involve three protagonists whose modi operandi bear an uncanny resemblance. Three people involved in a triangular bromance, gaslighting entire countries: Russian President Vladimir Putin, past and possibly future U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They are three different people operating in three markedly different political systems, in three profoundly different political cultures and three sets of different political circumstances. Yet they have repeatedly and clearly demonstrated striking common behavioral patterns; common denominators and features in their demeanor, rhetoric and style of government; and a very similar perception of the world and how they are viewed. Only one man stands in their way: U.S. President Joe Biden . He can stop all three. Pinkas then provides a litany of all the traits this dangerous trio share in common: nationalistic slogans, attempts to weaken the judiciary, intimidating political rivals, creating “a worshipping cult around them,” and surrounding themselves “with incoherent sycophants in their respective parliaments.” "Ur-Fascism." Eco listed 14 features or tenets of fascism, and Pinkas observes that “nine of them wholly apply to the `three amigos.’” And then Pinkas pulls no punches by saying that all three espouse a fascist ideology. To make his point, Pinkas refers to Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco's famous 1995 essay14 features or tenets of fascism, and Pinkas observes that “nine of them wholly apply to the `three amigos.’” Here are the nine features of fascism described by Eco that Pinkas says applies to Putin, Trump and Netanyahu. His analysis provides more details. -- The cult of tradition. — The rejection of modernism. — Disagreement is treason. -- Appeal to social frustration. -- The obsession with a plot. — The enemy is both strong and weak. -- Machismo and weaponry. — Selective populism. — Newspeak. Pinkas writes that Trump, is always “fawning over Putin” because he regards the Russian leader as “a model dictator-strongman,” but even though Trump would like to be like Vlad, he is “just a wannabe diet-dictator.” Pinkas says that Netanyahu fawned over Trump, but “didn’t really mean it.” An experienced politician, Netanyahu read Trump as “an idiotic, incurious and incoherent bully” who wouldn’t challenge him as President Barack Obama did, according to Pinkas. And as for Putin, Pinkas wrote that the Russian leader didn’t fawn over either Trump or Netanyahu, but instead viewedthem as useful “to his idea of instilling chaos and discord between the United States and Europe.” And Pinkas concluded his essay with this pithy, spot-on comment: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/25/2225568/-Haaretz-Only-Biden-stands-in-the-way-of-the-lying-dangerous-trio-of-Putin-Netanyahu-and-Trump?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/