Literary Corner: Somebody Else Came Up

Via Observer.

How I Realized That Peace Between Israel and Palestinians Is a Very Important Thing

by Donald J. Trump 

When we had in Saudi Arabia, we had
one of the great conferences in history.
Many of you were there, probably all of you
were there. It was one of the most beautiful
two days, that and China, two of the most
incredible events I have ever seen.
I have never seen anything like it.

And we had, I believe,
58 Muslim countries, the leaders, the kings,
the emirs, the absolute leaders from every —
there was nobody in second place. They
were the leaders of the whole thing.

And unbeknownst to anybody else, people
would come up to me individually —
it wasn’t a set-up — they would come up to me
and say, "Sir, you can’t have peace in the Middle East
without peace between Israelis and the Palestinians."

I said, "Why? What difference? Why does that matter
so much?" They said, "It just is impossible
to make peace in the Middle East unless
you have between the —" So I heard that
from one, the king of Saudi Arabia who
is a great guy, King Salman, and then
somebody else came up and he wasn’t told,
"Oh, go up and say it." I know where they’re
coming and then somebody else came up
and he wasn’t told, "Oh, go up and say it."

I know where they’re coming I must have had
12 leaders say it, and they just — and I
started to realize that peace between Israel
and the Palestinians for the Middle East
is a very important thing, and we’re
trying very hard to get it.

I'd say probably you can't have peace in the Middle East unless you have peace between Israel and Palestinians for geographical reasons, because Israel and Palestine are both in the Middle East. You could have peace in other parts of the Middle East, perhaps, but you clearly couldn't have peace in the Middle East as a whole.

You may be surprised to hear that he just found out about this 16 months ago, or you may not. The most interesting thing to me is the large narrative form, which is that of a shaggy dog story ("So 58 Muslim leaders have this conference with the president of the United States, and everybody's standing around, and one king goes over to the president, and he says..." and it's important to note that this "wasn't a setup", each of these sovereigns operating on his own) except that there isn't any punch line, just the 12 repetitions of the basic routine. Unless there is a punchline. Perhaps if there were contingents of Israelis and Palestinians in the audience and they heard him say he's "trying very hard to get it" they'd all burst out laughing, like the delegates in the General Assembly on Tuesday.