Like Jerusalem, Washington needs a Dung Gate

Joe Biden’s Zoom gaffe (if a gaffe is what it was), calling Trump supporters garbage, has reverberated throughout America, despite the White House’s dishonest transcript of the president’s words and the valiant efforts of a hyper-biased mainstream media in panic mode.

Trump’s off-the-cuff response upon being informed onstage by Marco Rubio of Biden’s ill-timed (or, perfectly timed?) words, was epic. More epic still was Trump’s arrival in Green Bay for a Wisconsin rally riding shotgun in a sleek red, white and blue Trump/Vance garbage truck.

Thursday’s New York Post cover – Halloween Day – was a beaming Trump in a Halloween-appropriate orange vest over white shirt with the headline, “Trump Takes Out Trash.” It was the second service window in a week’s time (the other being a McDonald’s drive-thru) through which Trump connected with Americans in a uniquely powerful way, providing a spooky Halloween jolt to the Harris campaign.

The symbolism of Trump’s genius trolling accomplished a reversal of roles. Now, he’s the one taking out the garbage. Voters on Tuesday are poised to make Trump our presidential garbage collector, assigning him the job of identifying and removing the garbage policies of the Biden/Harris administration

After deliciously feasting on the Post’s cover, it was my turn to take out the trash, Thursday being pick-up day in my neighborhood. As I rolled our garbage bin to the curb, I thought of the most uniquely named of the seven gates in Jerusalem’s Old City walls, the Dung Gate (Hebrew = Sha’ar Ha’ashpot).

As a frequent tour leader in Israel, my guests always enjoy hearing, as we exit the Dung Gate following our visit to the Western Wall, the ancient story of Jerusalem’s earliest waste management system. Its name describes its function, in ancient times used to eliminate the city’s rubbish into the Hinnom Valley below, where the fires burned and the prevailing west to east winds carried the foul odors away from the city.

The Dung Gate is first mentioned by Nehemiah as he surveyed the fallen walls of the city after the Babylonian destruction: “I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire” (Nehemiah 2:13, NRSV).

I find it fascinating, as I relish this week’s top story, that the Dung Gate’s first appearance in the Hebrew Bible has to do with rebuilding walls and gates, just as the first issue voters wish for a newly elected Trump to address is precisely that, to repair the broken-down walls and wide-open gates that have made illegal immigration a top-tier issue for frustrated Americans.

It’s time to take out the trash, and once back in the White House, President Trump will be able to open Washington, D.C.’s version of Jerusalem’s Dung Gate.

Today’s Dung Gate was originally built in 1540-1541 by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman. Until 1952, the gate was a small pedestrian passage in the wall, as seen in this photo from 1940. The Jordanians (in control of the Old City from 1948-1967) enlarged the opening to allow vehicular traffic.

After Israel regained control of the Old City in 1967, the Dung Gate was renovated again. Today, cars and busses travel through this closest entrance to the Kotel (Western Wall).

Essential to any city is waste management, which is why the Dung Gate is perhaps the most practical and commonsensical of all the gates.

Obviously, modern methods of waste disposal have long released the Dung Gate from needing to fulfill its original design. How wonderful though, that its ancient name survives, reminding every community and nation that taking out the trash, while an unpleasant task, is necessary.

I expect Tuesday’s vote to be America’s hiring of President Trump with the instruction that it’s time to take out the trash.

As in Nehemiah’s day, community safety must come first. The walls and gates must be repaired, the long-festering problem of open borders and illegal immigration addressed, returning the country to a common-sense immigration policy.

Just as removing refuse from a home is common sense, so Trump’s return to the White House must be a return to common sense. The first-term Trump administration’s impact on the Supreme Court provided a head start last week with the ruling that allowed Virginia to remove suspected non-citizens from the voter rolls, negating a lower court’s refusal to allow the state to do so.

Trump’s second term will continue to impact the courts, taking out the trash of Democrat flirtation with ending the Electoral College and packing the Supreme Court.

Since this article’s primary image is Jerusalem’s Dung Gate, a Trump administration must realize it’s time to take out the trash of the Biden-Harris policy on Israel. What was true on Oct. 7, 2023, is still true today, that Hamas is responsible for every casualty of the then-coming and now-lingering war. The Gaza war would end in minutes if Hamas would surrender, disarm and release the hostages. Lacking that, Trump should give Netanyahu permission and full support to end the threat, including Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

The Biden-Harris pressure for ceasefire prior to Israel having ended the enemies’ ability to rearm, must be bagged up and tossed, along with hopes for a viable two-state solution, an impossibility when Israel has no partner for peace. Let such vain hopes be taken out at the Dung Gate, and commence the search for another solution, such as the Abraham Accords had begun during Trump’s first administration.

One stench will certainly remain, though, as much as conservatives might hope otherwise. The tilt in mainstream media bias has resulted in a nasty spillage, the stench of which has caused public trust in the media to plummet. This stink, unfortunately, can only be removed over time and through free-market forces, as alternative means of news and opinion gathering become more and more prosperous for advertisers, combined with the lack of viewership/readership of mainstream venues.

Here’s hoping that President Trump’s venture into the garbage truck will lead to America opening a much-needed Dung Gate.