RUTHFULLY YOURS

Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis (“The Worm”) Rodman has yet again elicited the gasps and guffaws of the press and the public. The now-retired Rodman normally relishes raised eyebrows at his outrageous appearance and behavior, both on and off the court, which he dominated throughout his illustrious career as a legendary rebounder. But no amount of practice could have prepared him for the barrage of ridicule he received when he returned from a trip to North Korea last week.

The trip was organized by VICE, an ironically appropriate name for the media company that sent Rodman and three Harlem Globetrotters to Pyongyang to film an episode of a soon-to-be-aired weekly HBO documentary series.

The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team, famous for their clever, clown-like antics. “We’re proud to continue our storied heritage of entertaining families and breaking down social barriers,” Globetrotters Chief Executive Officer Kurt Schneider said in a serious statement released on the eve of the excursion. “Our aim is to entertain and inspire children everywhere. Every child deserves that opportunity.”

Apparently, Schneider was as unaware as Rodman that the children of North Korea, like their parents, suffer from starvation and torture at the hands of the evil regime of Kim Jong Un, a sworn enemy of the United States and a nuclear ally of Iran.

Never mind. Kim loves basketball. So he and Rodman chuckled together in the bleachers as the Globetrotters strutted their stuff against Korean players, and later got really chummy over sushi at the Supreme Leader’s palace. “You have a friend for life,” Rodman assured Kim.

Upon his return to the U.S., Rodman referred to the Korean dictator as “a great guy; awesome and honest.” He then conveyed a message from Kim to President Barack Obama to “call him. [He doesn’t] want to do war.”

Kim may be pleased with himself right now, thinking of Rodman as a perfect “useful idiot.” But that would be giving the “worm” way too much credit. Rodman is simply an idiot, period. No news flash there.

What should really be making headlines is the willful ignorance on the part of the people tasked with actual defense, diplomacy, and the upholding of democracy. You know, so that the kids of the world might be free to enjoy sports, instead of spending their lives cowering from parental, religious, and state-sponsored abuse.

Take Obama, for instance. With his new administration of appeasers in place, the U.S. president can continue on the path of “peace-seeking” that he began four years ago. Doing so not only involves adhering to the false assumption that this cannot be achieved before a Palestinian state is established. It also enables feats of “rebounding” from America’s (and Israel’s) enemies that even Rodman couldn’t match.

Indeed, each time Obama aims for a basket, his policies bounce off the rim, right into the hands of Iran and its proxies, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, and Hamas — or jihadists like al-Qaida.

As a matter of fact, while Rodman was professing his love to Kim Jong Un, Obama was on the phone with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, giving him a little pep talk.

His Islamist takeover of Egypt from predecessor Hosni Mubarak — whose ouster Obama supported — hasn’t been working out so well. Egyptians are rioting in the streets again.

Neither this, nor Morsi’s open enmity to America and Israel, have prevented Obama from praising him for “Egypt’s continued role in advancing regional peace.”

But why would it? Morsi’s conduct hasn’t even cost him an American gift of four F-16 fighter jets — a small portion of the state-of-the-art military equipment that will be delivered to Egypt by the end of the year.

Simultaneously, the U.S. president is planning to arrive in Israel on March 20. According to a report in the World Tribune, Obama wants a detailed timetable from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Anonymous Israeli sources quoted in the report understand this to be a precursor to the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2014.

That the Palestinians have proven in word and deed that this is not their real goal hasn’t registered with Obama, or alternately, he just doesn’t care. What the leaderships in Gaza and in Ramallah want is for the Jewish state to cease to exist. Nor are they too fond of the United States. But Obama, like Secretary of State John Kerry, is optimistic that there will be “peace” by the end of the year — even though Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded, among other things, the release of mass murderers held in Israeli jails. This he reiterated in a meeting with Kerry on Monday in Saudi Arabia.

Abbas arrived at the meeting fully cognizant of Kerry’s position, as it was spelled out during the latter’s confirmation hearings: “So much of what we aspire to achieve and what we need to do globally, what we need to do in the Maghreb and South Asia, South Central Asia, throughout the Gulf, all of this is tied to what can or doesn’t happen with respect to Israel-Palestine.”

With globetrotters like Kerry and team captains like Obama — whose playbook includes providing opponents slam dunks to victory — why waste breath on buffoons like Dennis Rodman?

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”