In a move that’s going to be a tough pill to swallow for Israel’s far-right government during his first visit to the country, President Trump is going to publicly endorse the idea of Palestinian “self-determination,” in support of his new efforts to kick-start peace talks.
This is a major departure from his previous statements, in which he abandoned US support for the two-state solution, as giving the Palestinians self-determination would necessarily imply that they can establish an independent state on Palestinian soil.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has informed Israel of Trump’s intent to push the peace process, urging them to cooperate with Trump’s efforts, saying he’s not likely to change his mind, despite knowing how difficult the effort will be.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has told Trump he’s ready to reach a peace deal with Israel, and Trump is going into his visit to Israel with an eye on getting the peace process going again. The far-right Israeli government is deeply divided on whether peace is possible at all, and it’s going to be difficult for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to navigate this visit without suffering a major political backlash.
This Presidents contradicting himself and his words can not be trusted.
He supports Embassy to move to Jerusalem,
Now he says he support Palestinians self determination.
He is marching to be impeached any day now.
Trump means both Israeli and Palestinian Embassies.
I don’t support impeachment unless it’s for the cruise missile attack on Syria. However, I do believe he will be impeached, and the cruise missile attack will not be one of the articles. He’s bucking too many powerful players in Washington.
Note my response to Halit above. “This is your brain on Zionism!” is his excuse, what’s yours? Sheer petulance and an unwillingness to accept reality?
Try this instead. Even Trump can’t accomplish everything he promised in an instant with the snap of his fingers. It takes time for him — for any president — to get their footing, get all his operatives in place, and then proceed with getting the work done. Trump has faced unprecedented levels of obstruction and attack just getting started, so that has made progress slow going. But he’s pushing forward nonetheless, and with the Comey firing he’s extracted the first of the swamp creatures — one of the most dangerous and powerful — out of its lair and sent him off to be rendered into pet food and leather goods.
Fantastic! (“Impeach! impeach!, impeach!” Yeah right! In your dreams.)
Now, when he installs a full-on fire-breathing assassin, a grand inquisitor, a swamp-drainer extraordinaire into the chief crime-fighter position, Trump will be ready to take it to the DC Criminal Class. Someone so sufficiently anal about “the rule of law and the Constitution” that even the political class will be held to account. (I dream the impossible dream: that Bush/Cheney, the Neocons, and the Congressional enablers of the Iraq war be measured for orange jumpsuits and frog-marched into the dock for war crimes et al. And, extra bonus!, add Hillary and Barack to the list.)
Perhaps you noticed that Trump is no pussy. When the Dems talked up their usual obstructionism-by-filibuster re the Gorsuch nomination, Trump whispered in Mitch McConnell’s ear “Nuke ’em”, and that’s what McConnell did. (Which by the way means that for the next year and eight months at a minimum, the senate will be a filibuster-free express lane to Make America Great Again.)
I wondered at first why Trump — who is not known for putting up with shjt — didn’t fight back, why he let himself be hammered mercilessly by the DC and MSM branches of the Snowflake Legion. In his private business life he would have dropped down on them — with lawyers-slash-assassins — like the wrath of God. I hoped — I’m a hopeful person — that Trump was marshalling his forces for the swamp-cleaning battle-of-the-century. I waited for him to “Strangle the chicken to frighten the monkey”, as the Chinese say,… that is, make an example of someone. I waited to see who would be “the chicken”. Well, the wait is over. Comey is “the chicken”, and what a fantastic chicken he is. (And a masterful bit of politics by the way, since ***everybody*** had a beef with Comey and wanted him gone.) Now the FBI’s Top Gun will be Trump’s personal snake eater. (Remember: filibuster-free Senate.)
Trump is President. He has the power of the Presidential pardon. He owns the Congress. And the Supreme Court. And now the DoJ and FBI. He’s been taking crap for a while now and I’m sure he’s had his fill. In fact I’d venture a guess that maybe he’s even a bit pissed. Look out! Here come de judge!
I am reminded of Yamamoto’s prophetic quote:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Time now for Trump to ***nuke*** the swamp.
I’m lovin’ it.
You might want to re-read my comment for comprehension. I didn’t advocate impeachment, unless for the illegal attack on Syria. I oppose impeachment on any other grounds, and you and I both know he won’t be impeached for an illegal act of war.
You’re saying impeachment is in my dreams? Nowhere near as much as your dream he’ll drain the swamp. In fact, nothing would guarantee impeachment quicker than a bona fide attempt to drain the swamp.
Point taken, Bill. Nothing personal. I see now, from your postings on Consortium news, that you’re a “good guy”. But you did write: “I do believe he will be impeached…” which — thank you — provided an opening for my rant.
I am delighted at the revolution afoot in the US. I’ve waited my entire life for it. I’m on the winning side for the very first time, and am taking he opportunity to celebrate and have some fun. Join the parade,… or rain on my parade,.. whatever. As for me, I’ll be “singin’, and dancin’, in the rain.”
I didn’t vote for Trump because he crossed my red lines (war is OK if we take their oil, torture is OK and kill the innocent families of terrorists) into the pure evil category, joining Hillary there. I might have voted for Sanders and did vote for Stein.
However, I considered and sill consider him less dangerous than HRC. He was as lawfully elected as Obama or Bush, and I don’t believe we should undermine the legitimacy of government through a “soft coup.” Besides, Pence is worse. I want him to be given the chance to do the few positive things he said he wanted to do: kill TPP (check), renegotiate NAFTA, improve relations with Russia and stop all the regime change laws.
His opponents refused to give him credit for killing TPP, ignoring the likelihood that HRC would have renegotiate some spelling and submitted it to Congress.
As I said, I oppose the “soft coup” and “Russia, Russia” BS. It’s worse than stupid; it’s dangerous to deliberately increase tensions with a thermonuclear power.
I appreciate your dreams and, yes, I opened the door.
I meant to include in my previous reply that the other day I listened to an interview of William Engdahl, who opines that Trump is not as anti-interventionist as people would like to believe, that he’s actually a tool of the Kissinger (realist?) wing of the foreign policy establishment. If so, the game plan is to play nice with Russia in order to lull them into a false sense of security, get them to trust the US and abandon their alliances with China and Iran. I don’t agree with all Engdahl’s stuff, but I’ve heard the same speculation before and it fits with Flynn’s pro-Russia but anti-Iran leanings. I don’t think Putin will fall for it, so eventually they’ll have to go back to trying to dislodge him.
“I’m lovin’ it.”
Of course you are. That’s the thing about fantasies, you can find anything you want in them.
Fair enough. I love my fantasies, they’re fun. I love the spectacle, it’s thrilling. But most of all, I like the reality of a full-on political revolution, the utter destruction of the Neocon/neoliberal narrative, the consternation of the deep state, the bought-and-paid-for pols, and the MSM for-profit propagandists.
The question is not my fantasies, but whether and to what extent my fantasies prove prophetic. On that point, get back to me, say… after election day Nov 2018, when we’ll be able to revisit the issue with a bit more data regarding what is real and what is fantasy. Meanwhile, yeah, I’m lovin’ it. Eat your heart out.
Hey, as long as you’re having fun.
I probably won’t start making exact predictions until much closer in. Tentatively I expect the Democrats to re-take the Senate but not the House, although they’ll gain seats there (making impeachment unlikely but not impossible unless he really goes Full Nixon in some provable way).
I can also confidently prediction that after the 2018 election the neocons/neoliberals will still be mostly in charge, the Deep State’s feathers will remain unruffled, the pols will still be bought and paid for, and the MSM will still be court stenographers.
“Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!” This just out, ***BREAKING NEWS***, “Pigs can fly!”
The Republican Party — actually the ***Trump-owned*** Republican party controls the House, the Senate, the Supreme court and the Presidency, and you’re suggesting that they — the “Trumpublicans” — are gonna throw that away by voting articles of impeachment against the man who made all that possible?
“Delusional!” is one response. “Clueless!” is another. “I want some of whatever it is you’re smoking!” is a third. Perhaps “Desperate need to believe in Santa, the Easter bunny, magic, and other fairy tales.” All good choices to explain this leap into unreality.
But the real reason is that Halit is a Zionist and his capacity for rational thought — not to mention ethical thought — has been destroyed by that sickness of mind and soul.
There will be no brokered agreement because there will be no Palestinian state. The negotiations surrounding a ‘two state solution’ have been an Israeli charade from the start. The entire ‘peace process’ is a ruse. It’s just background noise for the real project: building more all-Jewish settlements in what was supposed to be Palestine. Even Carter finally figured this out. There’s grand theft underway. And the US is paying for it.
Key problem: Israel owns Washington. Therefore, Israel will call the shots now and into the future. The rest is theater.
Sadly, the Palestinians are a conquered people. It’s time somebody clued them in about this.
And here’s some more bad news: the Americans live under a kind of soft occupation as well. Trump is about to find this out the hard way. In the end, Bibi will not budge. And Trump will blink.
Trump will eventually be humiliated by the Israelis and the sad status quo will continue. Welcome to Zio-America.
So true. Well meaning Trump doesn’t know what he’s getting into. He will be humiliated.
You don’t know Trump.
“Sadly, the Palestinians are a conquered people.” Do you really think they don’t know this? Please don’t be such a condescending idiot. They live that reality everyday.
Stop the Aid construction will cease there is also the BDS gaining ground every day
The Israeli occupation army should then be replaced with United Nation blue helmets or troops from some other neutral country. If Netanyahu resists STRONG sanctions should be applied to bring Zionists to their knees. Hopefully Trump will not change his mind again.
This solution is obvious and Israel has always refused it. They don’t want peace. They want the land.
United Nation blue helmets failed miserably in Lebanon.
Even US troops failed miserably in Lebanon?
How many troops would be necessary?
What country is neutral?
What country is willing to send in troops?
Talk to a Haitian. I suspect that they’d say this would not be an improvement.
Half right. It needs to be done by someone other than the Israelis. They quite deliberately defeat the purposes in favor of their own project to expand Israel.
However, I’m afraid that time and again the UN has failed those who relied on it. There is a fundamental problem with the UN blue helmet projects. We can debate what that is, but we have far to many failures over the whole world to pretend it works. It failed in the old Yugoslavia, it failed in Haiti, it failed all over, not just in Lebanon or in dealing with the enemies of Israel and Israel itself.
The core of an army is not its people, as witnessed by all the armies that fell apart despite having good people. There is much more than turns a group of people from a mob into an army that accomplishes its missions. That is what is missing with the UN units and their efforts.
Self Determination? What does that mean actually? …and if the Palestinians have determined themselves to be royally screwed?
Either self determination means nothing, or it contradicts the Israeli demand that any Palestinian state must be negotiated directly with them and can happen only on their terms (which has meant not at all).
As long as they don’t determine that they want their land back.
I rather suspect that saying they want everything on their side of the 1967 border line would be a popular vote getter amongst Palestinians.
That sure is a long way of saying “all that matters is ethnicity.”
“I’m a racist” would have worked just fine and would have been much shorter.
It’s a land grab until Palestine is allowed statehood and the means to defend itself. Personally, I vote for Palestine getting very, very chummy with either the Chinese or the Russians- maybe even the Indians- for help in getting their infrastructure sorted out and a security force squared away. In return, the assisting nation gets some choice real estate to build an embassy or perhaps even a small military base. Alas, if Palestine buddies up to the US they’ll lose their shirt- just like every other nation (except Israel) has done as a US ally.
The Palestinians will be offered a form of self-determination : “What will it be, Mohammed – Are you moving to Jordan, or do you want to just be shot here where you stand?”
Palestinians leaders have become very wealthy. Arafat had a net worth of $1 billion, Abbas $100 million, Abu Marzouk $2-3 billion, Khaled Mashaal, $2.6 billion. It literally pays not to make peace.
Johnson11b,
How do you know that – sounds like some prime hasbara horse-manure. Even if true, it is besides the point – that Israel is stealing the Palestinians’ land and intends to keep it. Keeping stolen land is really what pays not to make peace
I might be ‘enthusiastic’ about Trump’s latest talk about ‘peace’ if while on this trip to Israel, he also visited Palestine…
Please explain: “Israeli Arabs obtained Israeli citizenship illegally and against international law.”