Discussion: Trump Admin Will Shutter Palestine Liberation Office In D.C

[tindalos]

The policies Trump says he wants to pursue are very bad but his administration does not appear competent enough to fully implement any of them.

What is likely to endure longer than the policies themselves is the sting of insult and the memory of betrayal.

Memories in the Middle East tend to be long; very long.

[rucleare]

Peace. It’s what’s for geopolitical amateurs to destroy…

[theghostofeustacetilley]

The office will move to the Swiss embassy I assume.

[paulw]

First, we have to rely on the FBI and the CIA to protect our civil liberties, now the PLO is the good guys. You could never have shopped such a ridiculous book.

[c_stedman]

Jered and Bibi.

[c_stedman]

Special note that they bombed the USS Liberty, can’t forget that.

[stradivarius50t3]

That is still a very little-known bit of US-Israel relations.

[c_stedman]

Another cover up.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ussliberty.html

[stradivarius50t3]

By mutual agreement.

[canadachris]

@kumquat16

@mattinpa

You have to question how much we’re likely to be seen as an honest broker.

I don’t think that’s a question anymore, at least not under a Republican administration. I could easily rewrite the key sentence from the article as:

The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Israelis refuse to take steps to start direct and meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians.

It would be just as accurate, if not more so. Nothing can be done on this until Netanyahu is no longer in power.

Yeah there’s no doubt the US has given up any pretense of being an honest broker with respect to Israel and the Palestinians. My only question is whether it’s driven by:

• ideology… by which I mean “pandering to the evangelical base” or “outsourcing to people who do care, like Bolton, albeit for nasty reasons”, because we all know Trump has no ideology on matters such as this
  -or-
  -straight-up corruption. There’s a lot of circumstantial evidence that Trump has been bought in several areas, and any incoming administration needs to take a very close look at U.S. policy that involves any of Russia, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., or Israel… and that’s just for starters. We practically need to assume corrupted policy by default until proven otherwise, which is a very sorry state of affairs.

I guess those reasons aren’t mutually exclusive, either. It’s so disappointing.

[canadachris]

@lastroth

Why hasn’t Kushner had to show his work progress on the Middle East Peace Plan, hell what is their plan?

Ha, great question. It should be pretty easy to say “okay, as a precondition for peace, we expect both Israel and the Palestinians to do the following”… followed by easy-to-meet starting points like “if someone kills or injures anyone on the other side, take all necessary measures to bring them to justice”. It has worked before, and pretty quickly separates whichever party is serious at that instant in time. When both parties are serious, those baby steps quickly establish themselves as confidence-building measures, and then you move on to something more advanced. The PLO have had plenty of bad moments in history, but at this current moment, it’s the current Israeli coalition government that isn’t serious. In fact, the last time they were really serious, hard-right-wingers assassinated their own Prime Minister for being a traitor.

That the US never called-out some recent atrocities, like the deaths of dozens of Palestinian protestors by IDF snipers on their side of the border, really crystallized things for the rest of the world, unfortunately. Not even a milquetoast statement like “The US calls on all sides to show restraint” in response to straight-up murder. Deeply nuts.

[the_loan_arranger]

@lastroth

hell what is their plan?

It’s not so much a plan as a solution.

[lastroth]

Are you implying a final solution to these problem?

[sniffit]

Genocide incoming.

[maxaroo]

This isn’t supporting Israel. It’s supporting Israel’s current racist and demagoguing regime. Those are two quite different things. At least, I fervently hope so.

[loss_mentality]

“The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to take steps to start direct and meaningful negotiations with freely give every last bit of everything they own, including their lives and first-born children, to Israel.”

There we go. That’s what it would take to make bolton - and those that share his views on Israel/Palestine - happy.

[tribalogical]

“The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel, regardless of their behavior.”

FIFY.

Bolton is a ‘war arson’. He clearly gets off on starting conflict fires.

It seems like this administration’s policy is simple. Disappear the Palestinians. Push them into a corner of irrelevance, and hey presto! Conflict solved.

None of this is surprising. Horrifying, but not surprising. Since we’ve got a Pro-Israeli hawk (Bolton), and a borderline Zionist (Kuschner) running the “peace process” there now.

One of Bibi’s longtime tactics has been to fan the flames of anger among the Palestinians, to cause “incidents” which then justify further land grabs and oppression. This smacks of the same. I’ve admired the Palestinian’s level of self control.

We may return briefly to the days of suicide bombers and rockets. That may be what they’re trying to encourage here. Just what Bibi needs to finish the complete takeover of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and to tighten the noose around the ‘Gaza Ghetto’ further.

[c_stedman]

I find it disappointing and shocking that after 24 hours this thread has only garnered 38 responses. Seems like apartheid is still acceptable in civil circles.