Doing What Trump Does Best!

Russia is engaging in her first major set of naval exercises in the Mediterranean. An economically troubled Shiite Iran is still using her surrogate Hezbollah army to fight Sunni foes everywhere, also finding the value in financing her Shiite surrogates in Yemen – the Houthis – in their battle against the corrupt incumbent Sunni government, which in turn is backed by U.S.-supported Saudis (a Sunni royal family). Turkey and Russia are talking about working together. Russia and Iran are gloating on how their support gave Syria back to the Shiite minority (10%) Assad dictatorship, replete with multiple acts of genocide of Assad’s own people. The United States is the biggest loser of power and prestige in the Middle East. Iraq is now an Iranian satellite.

But that level of roiling diplomatic failure was not enough for the “believe what I say not what I actually do Trump administration.” No, an American Israeli-Palestinian policy is now dictated by an under-educated son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose father had to pay $2.6 million for Harvard to allow Jared to attend and generate a degree. Baby-boy Kushner, who faces a pretty deep inquiry into his real estate financing business, has designed a U.S. policy to bully the Palestinians into accepting a right-wing Israeli Likud Party vision (that of Benjamin Netanyahu) of how Palestine should look.

The two-state solution that was officially sanctioned by the United States, the United Nations and the vast majority of countries in the world. Gone. Israel as a multicultural nation where Islam/Arabic are on par with the notion of the Torah/Hebrew. Gone. Judaism is the now officially the priority faith in a nation that will soon have more Muslims than Jews. Palestinians slipped from being second class citizens to third class. Keeping Jerusalem an open city since it is so much a core of so many religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), while keeping Tel Aviv as the functional capital of Israel. Gone. As the United States has officially moved its embassy to Jerusalem, a huge slap in the face of the Islamic world. Stopping building armed Jewish settlements on the Palestinian West Bank. Off the table.

The Palestinian Hamas hardliners, anti-Zionists who purposely put their citizens in harm’s way knowing that Israel will overreact and make themselves look terrible in the eyes of the rest of the world, are cheering as the United States dramatically abandons Palestinian moderates, pushing those in the middle – willing to negotiate for peace – into the extremist camp. All the while, Trump and his gang of diplomatic dilatants firmly believe that their bullying tactics will ultimately force Hamas and the rest of Palestine to come back, begging and humbled, to the peace talks to “seal the deal” as Trump, boy-Kushner, the right-wing evangelical (Armageddon fomenters) part of Trump’s base and the Netanyahu clones believe it should be sealed: With Israel completely in the driver’s seat, a one-state solution where Palestinians know and accept their second/third class status  

The next Trumpian move? “In the latest effort to pressure the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, the State Department announced Monday [9/10] that it has ordered the Palestinian leadership to close the office that serves as its de facto embassy in Washington. [Pictured above]

“The punishment comes days after the Trump administration said it would cut off more than $300 million in funding for the United Nations agency that provides humanitarian assistance to more than 5 million Palestinians who have scattered across the Middle East since the creation of Israel.

“The State Department blamed Palestinian leaders for the tensions, which have left the White House with nothing to show for months of diplomacy with Israel and the gulf Arab states in an effort to forge what President Trump once called the “ultimate deal.”

“Leaders of the Palestinian Authority have accused the Trump administration of acting in bad faith by hewing to a sharply pro-Israel line rather than acting as an honest broker for peace. Their refusal to even talk to Trump’s envoys has created growing frustration in the White House.

“The Palestine Liberation Organization ‘has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel’ and should close its office in Washington, Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement.

“To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise,” she added...

“Palestinian leaders have refused to meet with them since Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December and moved the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Palestinians claim part of the holy city as their capital of an eventual independent nation.

“Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador in Washington, was not expelled in the State Department order, but he said Monday that he was not surprised that he was told to shut the office... ‘Such a reckless act confirms that the administration is blindly executing Israel’s ‘wish list,’ which starts with shutting down Palestinian diplomatic representation in the U.S.,’ he said.

“Palestinians also have a delegation at the United Nations in New York, which in late 2012 upgraded Palestine to the status of ‘nonmember observer state. Around two-thirds of the U.N. members recognize the state of Palestine...

“Also Monday, national security advisor John Bolton threatened harsh punishment if the International Criminal Court attempts to act against the United States or Israel.... Speaking to the Federalist Society, a conservative Washington think tank, Bolton described the ICC, which prosecutes crimes against humanity such as genocide, as ‘ineffective, unaccountable and, indeed, outright dangerous.’... Palestinian officials have said they intend to take Israel to the ICC for what they see as war crimes in Israel’s attack on protesters in the Gaza Strip...

“Diana Buttu, a former legal advisor to the Palestinian Authority, said the Trump administration is punishing Palestinians while refusing to criticize Israel’s construction of Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians, which is considered illegal under international law... ‘Palestinians are getting all the sticks and Israel all the carrots,’ Buttu said in a telephone interview from the West Bank city of Ramallah.” Tracy Wilkinson writing for the September 11th Los Angeles Times. 

What Trump has done is to provoke the moderates, make them join with the very extremists he sought to disenfranchise, and convince anti-U.S. hardliners in the Middle East to replace U.S. funding. Simply, this President’s moves have further destabilized an already volatile region, throwing gasoline on a raging fire. And globally, the United States continue to isolate itself and fall into the abyss of international irrelevance.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we really don’t have to wonder why, if the United States needs serious international cooperation to achieve its economic, political and military objectives, it just might find few if any takers.