Trump Threatens to Cut Off All US Aid to Palestinians

Says They Don't Respect Him

The latest in a series of threats to cut foreign aid around the world, President Trump has issued a statement today complaining the Palestinians don’t show him “appreciation or respect” for the hundreds of millions of dollars the US has given them. He went on to suggest the US shouldn’t make any future payments because of their refusal to accept his peace process.

This centers around President Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, which declared the city as Israel’s capital, and fueled massive worldwide protests, but nowhere so much as Palestine, which considers the eastern part of the city their own capital. Trump’s declaration led Palestinian leadership to conclude the US could no longer serve as a peace arbiter.

President Trump appears not to realize how badly the Jerusalem declaration was taken, however, presenting it as having resolved the “toughest” issue, Jerusalem’s status, and thereby making the rest of the negotiation simpler.

Trump’s declaration is not only not accepted internationally, but even within his administration most officials had been insisting it wouldn’t have an impact on Jerusalem’s final status in the peace process, despite Trump clearly declaring the city “off the table” and ceded to Israel by US diktat.

This is all but a best-case scenario for Israel’s far-right government, as they not only don’t have to keep putting off Trump on the peace deal, but don’t have to take the blame since Trump’s decided it’s all the Palestinians’ doing.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.