Trump and Palestine

For decades, much of the world seemed to believe the fairy tale that the United States was a neutral broker, working for a solution to the issues plaguing Palestine and Israel. The U.S. sponsored endless rounds of negotiations, ostensibly looking for an end to these issues.

Before this writer points out the nonsense of that belief, allow him to state two, self-evident (one would think) truths:

(1) No broker is needed. All that is required is for Israel to adhere to international law. This means removing all the illegal settlers, ending the blockade of the Gaza Strip, allowing all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and stopping the theft of Palestinian natural resources (such as water).

(2) Negotiations, even if they were required, which they certainly are not, can only be successful when each side has something the other side wants, that can only be obtained by surrendering something it has. Israel takes whatever it wants from Palestine with complete impunity; there can be no negotiations between those two parties.

Now, back to the fantasy of the U.S. as a neutral broker.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s record in this area is hardly laudable. First, he moved the U.S. embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in violation of international law. This move was condemned by most of the global community in a United Nations General Assembly session shortly after it was made. Palestinians see Jerusalem as the site of their future capital, as does most of the rest of the world.

Second, he put in charge of creating the so-called ‘deal of the century’ his incompetent, Zionist son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is a personal friend of Israeli Prime Murderer Benjamin Netanyahu, and who has investments in illegal settlements. Neutrality, anyone?

Third, Trump cut of all funding to U.N. agencies that assist Palestinian refugees.

Fourth, he closed the PLO office in Washington, D.C.

All this plays well to his fundamental Christian base, which believes that the Bible should be a guide for governments to operate and, most bizarrely, that God determines who should live where. They also seem to believe that Deity overlooks one group of people treating another abominably; isn’t there something in the Ten Commandments (you remember those old things) about loving one’s neighbor as oneself? The cruel barbarity with which Israelis treat Palestinians doesn’t seem to meet that standard.

Trump’s goal seems to be to make things so difficult for the Palestinians that they will accept any deal, no matter how bad for them, and how one-sided for Israel. By cutting off all funds that in any way assist Palestinians, he will bring them close to starvation. He believes (erroneously) that his determination that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel makes it so.

Yet he is, incredibly, unaware of the resiliency of the Palestinian people. They have undergone over 70 years of oppression by Israel and internationally-sanctioned injustice, and yet the resist. They are deprived of weapons other than stones, but still they stand up for their rights. They bury loved ones, murdered by Israelis; they mourn them, and then return to the streets to resist. They suffer the horror of having homes, mosques, hospitals, schools and media centers bombed, all in violation of international law, and yet they continue to attend school, marry, rear children and resist.

Perhaps Trump’s blatant bias against the Palestinians will induce the rest of the world to act. His overt hostility toward the Palestinians and their basic human rights is on clear display for the entire world to see. Even U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has suggested an armed force as one possibility to protect the Palestinians from Israel. This move, unfortunately, would require U.N. Security Council approval, and the U.S., for reasons that can’t even be imagined, would veto such a resolution. Trump and his cohorts in government would prefer to watch Palestinian blood flow, rather than do anything to stop Israel from spilling it.

There have been some good signs. Paraguay, which followed the U.S.’s illegal lead in moving its embassy to Israel to Jerusalem in May has a new president, who is moving it back to Tel Aviv. In response to the U.S. defunding the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, eleven countries (Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland) will send their donations early. Germany has promised to significantly increase its funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). All this, coupled with the vote in the U.N. General Assembly that declared Trump’s naming of Jerusalem ‘null and void’ (128 in favor of the resolution; 9 opposed; the remainder either abstaining or absent) indicates that Palestine has not been forgotten.

But this is not enough; the Palestinian people are suffering from decades of oppression, and it is long past time for the international community to invoke international law, name Israel an apartheid nation and isolate it, as was done to South Africa a generation ago. This isolation is being done unofficially, and with increasing success, by individuals through the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement. The nations that still do not officially recognize Palestine must do so; some of them, including Ireland and England, have passed non-binding resolutions to do so. This must now be made into law.

If left to the United States, Palestine will soon be only a note in history books, while Palestinians suffer as second-class citizens in an Israel that doesn’t welcome or accept Arabs or people of African descent. Tolerating this blatant injustice is typical for the United States, which installs brutal dictators to replace democratically-elected, leftist governments, and where citizens of African descent are routinely killed by mainly white police officers. But it isn’t typical of all other nations, and those that work to support equality and human rights at home and abroad must stand up for the Palestinians. History will already judge generations harshly for allowing this brutality, but it can record that, eventually, justice was served.

Originally published on 2018-09-14

Author: Robert Fantina

Source: Counter Punch

Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection & Pinterest.

Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!

Donate to Support Us

We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.

[wpedon id=”4696″ align=”left”]

READ MORE!

EuroMaidan Ukraine – (Selection of the Best Photos)

Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]SaveSaveSave

POLICRATICUS

Read more about the magazine at:IMPRESSUMPublish and AdvertisePublish your articles on global politics online & advertise your website for a moderate fee on our website.Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.Join the debate on our Twitter feed: @Ovsishte[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]

Who was US Special Representative to Kosovo Frank G. Wisner?

On December 19, 2005, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the appointment of Ambassador Frank G. Wisner as the Special Representative of the US Secretary of State to the Kosovo Status Talks. Who is Frank G. Wisner, Jr.? If his name sounds familiar that is because he is the son of Frank Gardiner Wisner, Sr., the CIA agent most responsible for the recruitment of Nazis by the US government after World War II. A former member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the World War II precursor to the CIA, Frank G. Wisner, Sr., was one of the most infamous ...

US Provides Military Assistance to 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships

Source: Rich WhitneyAbout the author: Rich Whitney is an attorney, actor, radio commentator and disk jockey, Illinois Green Party activist and former Green Party candidate for governor.Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]

Germany Preparing for War Against Russia?

According to a report issued on June 6th in German Economic News (Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or DWN), the German government is preparing to go to war against Russia, and has in draft-form a Bundeswehr report declaring Russia to be an enemy nation. DWN says: “The Russian secret services have apparently thoroughly studied the paper. In advance of the paper’s publication, a harsh note of protest has been sent to Berlin: The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexei Puschkow, has posted the Twitter message: ‘The decision of the German government declaring Russia to be an ...

Canadian Foreign Minister is of Nazi Blood

On Jan. 10 (2017, remark by the Editor), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replaced Foreign Minister Stephane Dion with Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist proud of her Ukrainian roots and well-known for her hostility toward Russia. At the time, a big question in Ottawa was why. Some analysts believed that Trudeau’s decision may have started when it still seemed likely that Hillary Clinton would become the new U.S. president and a tough line against Moscow was expected in Washington. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland However, by the time the switch was made, Donald Trump was on his way into the White House and Trudeau’s ...

U.S. Special Operations Forces Deploy to 138 Nations, 70% of the World’s Countries

They could be found on the outskirts of Sirte, Libya, supporting local militia fighters, and in Mukalla, Yemen, backing troops from the United Arab Emirates. At Saakow, a remote outpost in southern Somalia, they assisted local commandos in killing several members of the terror group al-Shabab. Around the cities of Jarabulus and Al-Rai in northern Syria, they partnered with both Turkish soldiers and Syrian militias, while also embedding with Kurdish YPG fighters and the Syrian Democratic Forces. Across the border in Iraq, still others joined the fight to liberate the city of Mosul. And in Afghanistan, they assisted indigenous forces in various missions, just as they have ...

Rescue in Serbia of the Jews during WWII

Serbia rescued more Jews than any other part of the former Yugoslavia during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem , The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, has awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations, those who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, to 127 individuals from Serbia, which is the highest number for the former Yugoslavia.On December 2, 2008, Arthur Koll, the Israeli Ambassador to Serbia, presented to the children and grandchildren of Borivoje Bondzic, Grozdana Bondzic, Ljubica Mandusic-Gazikalovic, and Jelica Rankovic the Righteous Among the Nations award. They are the descendants of Serbs who during the Holocaust risked their own lives ...

What is the Obama Regime?

Obama has announced new sanctions on Russia based on unsubstantiated charges by the CIA that the Russian government influenced the outcome of the US presidential election with “malicious cyber-enabled activities.” The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a report “related to the declaration of 35 Russian officials persona non grata for malicious cyber activity and harassment.” The report is a description of “tools and infrastructure used by Russian intelligence services to compromise and exploit networks and infrastructure associated with the recent U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. government, political and private sector entities.” The report does not provide ...

Eight Reasons Why Ukraine is New Yugoslavia

When the civil war in Ukraine started, the question that arised is whether there are similarities between Ukrainian and Yugoslavian civil wars. So let’s compare these two countries, one that is falling apart – Ukraine and the other one that doesn’t exist anymore – Yugoslavia.Multinational countryYugoslavia was a multinational country with different national and ethnic groups coexisting together and two dominant nations Serbs and Croats. Ukraine is also quite a diverse country with Ukrainians, Russians (around 20% of Ukrainian population) and few minorities (Rusyns, Romanians, Hungarians) living together. Once the Yugoslavia collapsed, in a newly created ex-Yugoslav republic Croatia and ...

The History of the CIA

When I began reading the work of Douglas Valentine about six years ago, I had not read his books, only the articles that the US online journal Counterpunch had published. In fact I only began reading Counterpunch because of the accident of having been introduced to the two original editors of what was then only a printed newsletter. Later I was even able to publish a few pieces in that journal before its more famous founding editor’s demise. Why do I preface a book review with such personal observations? To that question I will return later. After reading numerous articles I ...

Kosovo and the Crisis of Ignoring International Law and Global Opinions

Kosovo obtained part independence when America and many European nations gave the go ahead for the creation of this new nation. However, it is clear that things are not plain sailing because many other nations did not support this elitist adventure, therefore, the wider international community was ignored. Therefore, today we have a situation where some nations support this new state, however, the majority of nations in Africa, Asia, and South America, have not given their consent. Also, the Russian Federation, Spain, and some other European nations, refuse to accept this American led adventure. Therefore, what does the future hold for Kosovo ...

West Rules Macedonia (FYROM) as a US-EU Protectorate, To Put a Check on Russian Influence in the Balkans

A year ago, at a closed-doors meeting between the USA and EU officials and the leaders of the four major parties of FYROM in Strasbourg, a route map for the resolution of the protracted political crisis was agreed on (or rather imposed). The roots of this political crisis are to be found outside FYROM: it is actually more a confrontation by proxy between “the West”, which supports the opposition, and Russia, which is trying to maintain its influence in the region. In conjunction with the public discontent at government policies and the escalating corruption, the negotiations have contributed to sharpening ...

A Partitioning of Yugoslavia During WWII (1941−1945)

Regardless of the reached agreement on the Croatian ethnopolitical autonomy in Yugoslavia, the (Roman Catholic) Croatian traditional and historical animosity and even a hate against the (Christian Orthodox) Serbs remained extremely strong – a fact which both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini knew very well to exploit in the coming events of the 1941 April War against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.Partition of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941Originally, Yugoslavia signed the pact with the Axis Powers on March 25th, 1941 but due to the British plot, the military putsch was organized in Belgrade two days later followed by the forming ...

A Letter From the Greek American Community on the Cyprus Talks

On the eve of the Conference on Cyprus, we feel compelled to express our views on the Cyprus negotiations on behalf of the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC), the International Coordinating Committee Justice for Cyprus (PSEKA), the Federation of Cypriot American Organizations (FCAO), the American Hellenic Institute (AHI), the American Hellenic Council (AHC), the Hellenic Federation of New Jersey, and the Coordinated Effort of Hellenes (CEH). Our community has worked with successive US Administrations on behalf of a workable and lasting solution on Cyprus. In 2004, when we warned that the flawed Annan Plan was headed in the wrong direction, ...

Science in Serbia

There is nothing extraordinary in the science in Serbia. It would not deserve particular attention of the European scientific community, if it were not for the fact that the case of Serbia turns out extraordinary, indeed.Let us start with an extraordinary question: would it be possible a state in contemporary Europe to sucumbe to a fashist rule (or communist or any other totalitarian government)? The answer is extraordinary too - yes. The case in point is Serbia.The trick is marked by Kosovo (see, e.g. P. Grujić, Kosovo Knot, 2014). When this southern province of Serbia, Kosovo and Metohia (Kosovo in ...

FYROM Should be Named Paionia as it was 2,500 Years Ago

The name of the modern land-locked country north of Greece, with its capital at Skopje, has returned to the news. It is officially called FYROM, but embedded in that name is “Macedonia” which is a reflection of the longstanding attempt to take over the modern Greek province of Macedonia as reflected in maps used in many places, including schools.It is clear that this naming implies territorial ambitions which have long been understood (http://macedonia-evidence.org/documentation.html). If that threat to the stability of the southern Balkans is to be stopped permanently, I suggest that the following must happen:1) the country should be named ...

Mosul, Iraq and Obama’s Legacy of War

Barack Obama is the first two-term American president to have presided over war every day of his tenure in office. He bequeaths to a Trump administration ongoing operations in Afghanistan, continuing drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, the consequences of the 2011 destruction of Libya, the instigation of civil war in Syria, US sponsorship of the brutal Saudi interventions in Yemen, and the civil conflicts in Ukraine, the Caucuses and across Africa. Obama’s blood-soaked legacy, however, is most graphic in Iraq. There is a bitter irony in this, given the fact that he was elected in 2008 largely on the basis of ...

Hillary Comes Out as the War Party Candidate

On June 2 (2016), a few days before the California primary, Hillary Clinton gave up trying to compete with Bernie Sanders on domestic policy. Instead, she zeroed in on the soft target of Donald Trump’s most “bizarre rants” in order to present herself as experienced and reasonable. Evidently taking her Democratic Party nomination for granted, she is positioning herself as the perfect candidate for hawkish Republicans. Choosing to speak in San Diego, home base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, on a platform draped with 19 American flags and preceded by half an hour of military marching music, Hillary Clinton was certain ...

Barack Obama: The Nobel Peace Prize Winner Who Bombed Seven Countries

U.S. jets are bombing Syria again this month, part of an overall pattern of military expansion during the Obama administration that’s seen military involvement in dozens of conflicts. As the United States renews a bombing campaign against ISIS forces in Syria, it seems like America’s penchant for waging war knows no bounds. During the first seven years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the U.S. bombed seven countries while supporting other destabilizing military actions throughout the Middle East. Here’s a look at these seven countries and the effects of bombing: Afghanistan — Despite the announced “end” of the Afghanistan War, significant U.S. military presence ...