Israel today, America tomorrow

In my home office is a globe. Two globes, actually — it’s a big office — but the one I’m looking at is an old 16-inch library globe, quite regal with its three carved wooden lion’s feet. Manufactured, it informs us, by Replogle Globe of Chicago, Illinois — still in business here, I should add, having moved to Indiana, tested the waters in the Mississippi of the Midwest, found them bitter, then returned home, howling.

There’s no date on the globe, but it seems very mid-20th century — there’s a French West Africa; the future Vietnam is “INDO-CHINA.”

As a tool, the globe still works. When I needed to confirm that yes, contrary to expectation, in Chicago you turn Northeast to pray facing Mecca, a globe is the best way to see that. Republicans would love my old globe, as it shows Ukraine being part of a vast orange “UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS” spanning 11 time zones.

And with the globe I can see that the United States is right there, on the surface of the earth, and not, as many Americans seem to believe, floating above it, some kind of special star twinkling in its own separate empyrean, a realm apart that the rest of the world looks up at and envies.

We’re earthbound, in the midst. What happens elsewhere can find its way here. COVID should have taught us that. A virus dripping off some dead bat or sick turtle or whatever in Wuhan in December showed up in Chicago one month later.

Nor is influence limited to physical contaminants. Bad ideas spread too. In June 2016, I knew for certain, in my gut, that Donald Trump was going to be elected president after the British bailed out of the European Union because they were afraid membership might mean that a Turk could move next door. Brexit was a disastrous blunder, akin to throwing yourself off a cliff to feel the breeze.

Nationalism was in the air. Still is, around the globe. From Vladimir Putin lobbing missiles at Ukraine to Lopez Obrador fomenting violence against journalists in Mexico — at least 16 were killed there last year. Would-be tyrants are busy seeing just how much they can get away with. Short answer: a lot.

Consider the latest nation in turmoil in Israel. Watching Israel tear itself apart — if you’ve been distracted by March Madness and the new baseball rules, six-time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power last November after assembling a paper-thin majority of zealots, haters and fellow crooks. He then promptly began trying to kneecap the judiciary — calling it “reform” — to keep himself and his cronies from going to prison.

Abir Sultan/Pool photo, distributed by the Associated Press

Israel, a democracy-loving country, at least when it comes to Jewish people — non-Jews, not so much — has been convulsed with unprecedented protests, and unprecedented shocks like military reservists vowing they won’t serve a dictator.

A stable democracy sliding toward civil war over the return of a judiciary-wrecking would-be autocrat. Hmm, as with Brexit, there seems a subtle warning here to those of us in the United States.

Here, the flames haven’t taken hold, despite Donald Trump and his lackeys spreading gasoline and flicking matches toward the puddle. They’ll burn their nation down if it means they can rule over the ashes. (That isn’t Sun Tzu, despite what the internet says.)

Yes, the pending presidential election in 2024 is different than 2016. (What? You’re thinking about the Chicago mayoral election? I should cough in my fist and move on. Let’s just say, there’s a Warren Zevon song called “You’re a Whole Different Person When You’re Scared.” That holds for cities too. Enough said.)

Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But as with any good horror movie, the monster you thought was buried in the yard is actually moving around the house somewhere. Republicans who hope Ron DeSantis shows up and saves them forget: a) DeSantis is a stiff and b) should it happen, they’ll be stuck with Ron DeSantis. Queen Elizabeth II dying did not mean the end of monarchy. Putin is in every sense a one-man ruler. Netanyahu is trying.

And in the palm-sized array of pink, green, yellow and purple states on my office globe? The battle we thought ended in 2021 has begun anew. The embers ignite into flame, fanned by winds wafting in from overseas. Looking at the convulsions in Israel might be peering into our own near future.