Replies to post #306509 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Israel PM vows to annex West Bank settlements if re-elected

"Trump's Middle East strategy is bound to fail"

2 hours ago

Israel elections 2019


AFP
Israel has established more than 100 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected.

Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday and Mr Netanyahu is competing for votes with right-wing parties who support annexing part of the West Bank.

The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Last month the US recognised the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, as Israeli territory.

* Can Jewish settlement issue be resolved?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38458884

* What Trump’s Golan Heights move really means
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47667720

* Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu: Commando turned PM
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18008697

Israel has settled about 400,000 Jews in West Bank settlements, with another 200,000 living in East Jerusalem. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Palestinians want to establish a state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

What happens to the settlements is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians - Palestinians say the presence of settlements make a future independent state impossible.

Israel says the Palestinians are using the issue of settlements as a pretext to avoid direct peace talks. It says settlements are not a genuine obstacle to peace and are negotiable.

What exactly did Netanyahu say?

He was asked during an interview on Israeli TV why he had not extended Israeli sovereignty to large settlements in the West Bank.

"You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage," he said.


Reuters
Mr Netanyahu is seeking re-election

"I am going to extend [Israeli] sovereignty and I don't distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements."

A spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told Reuters: "Any measures and any announcements will not change the facts. Settlements are illegal and they will be removed."

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Potentially explosive comments

By Sebastian Usher, BBC Arab affairs editor

These comments by Benjamin Netanyahu are potentially explosive over an issue that has helped stall peace efforts for years.

They will resonate with several parties with which he'll try to form a coalition government if he wins the biggest share of votes.

But the very idea of annexation will rouse new Palestinian fury, as well as international condemnation.

Mr Netanyahu may have been emboldened by the Trump administration, which just last month recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

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What is the political background?

Mr Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party is in a tight race with the new centre-right Blue and White alliance.

However other parties, some of which support annexation, could end up being kingmakers when they try to form a governing coalition.

* Israel election: Who are the key candidates?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47572296

* The ex-military chief trying to unseat Netanyahu
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47737733

In Mr Netanyahu's own Likud party, 28 out of the 29 lawmakers running for re-election are on record as supporting this approach. Until now the prime minister was the only exception.

What is the situation of peace negotiations?

Mr Trump's administration is preparing to unveil a long-awaited Middle East peace plan, which US officials say will be fair.

However the Trump administration has carried out a series of actions that have inflamed Palestinian opinion and generally pleased Israel.

In 2017 Mr Trump announced that the US recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42259443 , overturning decades of official US policy.

In response Mr Abbas cut off relations with the US, saying the US could no longer be a peace broker.

Last year the US stopped contributing to the UN Relief and Works Agency .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45377336 (Unrwa), which has been looking after Palestinian refugees since 1949.

Last month President Trump officially recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights ..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47697717 .

Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been at a standstill since 2014, when a US-brokered attempt to reach a deal collapsed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47840033

[fuagf]

Jared Kushner’s Palestinian peace plan reads like a real estate developer’s brochure

"Trump's Middle East strategy is bound to fail
"Did Israel Just Stop Trying to Be a Democracy?" "

By Ephrat LivniJune 24, 2019

About two years ago, US president Donald Trump entrusted his son-in-law and White House advisor, Jared Kushner, with one of the world’s most pernicious problems: achieving peace in the Middle East.

Specifically, Kushner was tasked with formulating a plan to finally end land disputes between Israelis and Palestinians. Most observers assumed any deal would include Palestinian statehood and end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

On June 22, Kushner—who previously worked in his family’s New York real estate development company—unveiled his proposal ..

Generations of Palestinians have lived under adversity and loss, but the next chapter can be defined by freedom and dignity.

Today, we're unveiling Peace to Prosperity: the most ambitious international effort for the Palestinian people to date. https://t.co/q1pX9yJJzE

— The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) June 22, 2019

. Entitled “Peace to Prosperity .. https://www.whitehouse.gov/peacetoprosperity/overview/ ,” it reads somewhat like a glossy brochure for a proposed building development—perhaps unsurprising given the backgrounds of Kushner and Trump.

As developers are wont to do, Kushner paints a rosy future. “Generations of Palestinians have lived under adversity and loss, but the next chapter can be defined by freedom and dignity,” the proposal states.

The plan is premised on three tenets: “Unleashing economic potential, empowering the Palestinian people, and enhancing Palestinian governance.” It’s replete with buzzwords, charts, and tables. It promises investments in private enterprise, education, health care, and government in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. It features images of happy Palestinians, with minimal mention of Israel and no discussion of the state of Palestine.

Shockingly, it contains no political solution to the problem Kushner was tasked with solving. It doesn’t address the famously difficult questions that have doomed other peace proposals, like the status of the city of Jerusalem or Palestinians’ right of return. There’s no talk of what might be done with Israeli settlements in occupied territories, nor any discussion of borders at all. What it offers is a carrot and a warning:

---
If implemented, Peace to Prosperity will empower the Palestinian people to build the society that they have aspired to establish for generations. With the support of the international community, this vision is within reach. Ultimately, however, the power to unlock it lies in the hands of the Palestinian people. Only through peace can the Palestinians achieve prosperity.
---

The White House says that a political solution outlining that peace will eventually be proposed. But for now, there is just this colorful and optimistic roadmap to Palestinian prosperity.

It’s no wonder, then, that Arab leaders decried the proposal as a “nonstarter” and see no reason to take it seriously. “Homelands cannot be sold, even for all the money in the world,” Egyptian analyst Gamal Fahmy said in a Reuters report .. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-plan-arabs/kushners-economic-plan-for-mideast-peace-faces-broad-arab-rejection-idUSKCN1TN0RW . “This plan is the brainchild of real estate brokers, not politicians. Even Arab states that are described as moderate are not able to openly express support for it.”

The plan is being similarly dismissed in Israel. As diplomatic correspondent Noa Landau notes in the Israeli publication Haaretz .. https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-economic-side-of-deal-of-the-century-is-more-a-vision-than-blueprint-1.7402538 .. (paywall), “The so-called ‘deal of the century’ is jumping a hundred steps ahead some have said [about] the Americans’ colorful printed proposal.” But she argues that this is “precisely the intention” and “there is no point analyzing it from too pragmatic a perspective.” Kushner’s deal is about a “vision” for Palestinians, she writes.

That much is true. The plan provides a picture of a rich and shiny life that might be possible, putting aside all the major obstacles. Like any business proposal, it is meant to intrigue potential investors and get them dreaming big before getting bogged down by pesky facts on the ground.

https://qz.com/1650724/kushners-palestinian-peace-plan-resembles-real-estate-brochure/

A "“vision” for Palestinians", eh. Israel was formed May 14, 1948, and there has been a vision for Palestinians since before that time.

[fuagf]

Evangelicals and Empty Promises: A Year After Trump’s Embassy Move, Only One Country Has Followed U.S. to Jerusalem

Trump's Middle East strategy is bound to fail

In recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Isreal in moving the U.S. embassy there Trump rebuffed a 1980 UN
Security Council resolution, reversed decades of U.S. policy and isolated the U.S. from the EU on the question.

With all links

12 months ago, President Donald Trump broke one of the international community’s greatest taboos. However, despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s best efforts to leverage the historic moment, Guatemala is the only other state to have followed suit. Here’s why

By Noa Landau May 14, 2019

* Trump now expects payback from Netanyahu. It could blow up the Middle East
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-trump-now-expects-payback-from-netanyahu-it-could-blow-up-the-middle-east-1.7134850

* Brazil announces opening Jerusalem 'business office' - instead of promised embassy
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-brazil-formally-announces-opening-business-office-in-jerusalem-instead-of-embassy-1.7068760

* Trump cuts aid to pro-Israeli governments in Latin America
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trump-cuts-aid-to-pro-israeli-governments-in-latin-america-1.7067456

[Insert: That cutting of aid, of course, will not help to stem the flow of asylum seekers to the U.S. Trump needs the flow to enhance his tough-guy image going into 2020, and his evangelical supporters will look away from the fact that he is cutting aid to pro-Israeli governments as they look away from all his other behavior in conflict with claimed Christian values.]

On May 14, 2018, President Donald Trump broke a decades-old diplomatic taboo and relocated the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The move forced the rest of the international community to examine its policy on Israel’s capital for the first time since the 1980s, when a UN resolution deemed that no diplomatic missions should be stationed in the contested city.

In the past year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it his mission to turn the diplomatic tide in Jerusalem’s favor, courting numerous countries — especially those with large evangelical communities — and using his close ties with the U.S. president to try to leverage them to relocate their own embassies as well.

[...]

In August 1980, following legislation that enshrined Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital, the UN Security Council voted in favor of Resolution 478, which bans diplomatic missions from the city. Since then, no country has opened an embassy in the city, opting instead for consulates and attachés. Until Trump.

[...]

Relocating the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was one of his early campaign promises. That hardly made him unique: Many presidential hopefuls have made such a vow, only to renege after taking office. But Trump made sure to stress that this was one promise he planned on keeping.

One reason was that Jerusalem was key in his attempt to win over the coveted evangelical vote — already a growing part of his political base thanks to his enlistment of Mike Pence, the devout, born-again Christian, as his vice president.

The evangelical spirit behind the embassy relocation was present during the inauguration ceremony .. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-u-s-opens-jerusalem-embassy-as-gaza-border-clashes-escalate-1.6091443 .. that took place that May day in the Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem: The small and exclusive group present included a few dozen evangelicals who had come as part of a special delegation from the United States, headed by Pastor John Hagee and Robert Jeffress. After his speech, Hagee asked his audience for a “Hallelujah.”

Other speakers — Jewish and Christian alike — peppered their speeches with biblical quotes .. https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-u-s-opens-jerusalem-embassy-as-gaza-border-clashes-escalate-1.6084820 .. relating to God and Jerusalem. Even Netanyahu quoted scripture: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great fury” (Zechariah 8:2). Some evangelicals take that line to be a reference to Jesus’ return to Jerusalem.

Netanyahu also hailed the embassy move as a “great day for Israel, the U.S. and peace,” while, in a video speech, Trump reiterated his ongoing support for “reaching a peace deal.” But in stark contrast to the pomp and circumstance in Jerusalem, Gaza saw tens of thousands protesting Trump’s decision .. https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/u-s-embassy-gaza-protests-and-nakba-day-live-updates-1.6078190 .. along the border fence with Israel. Dozens were killed and hundreds wounded as part of the “March of Return” demonstration that continues until this day.

Turning the tide

Even before Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem at the end of 2017, Netanyahu (then Israel’s foreign minister as well) had long been at work on an aggressive flagship campaign to create a diplomatic wave of embassy relocations.

“There is no doubt that once the U.S. Embassy moves to Jerusalem, and even before that, that other embassies will also relocate [there] too,” he told Israeli diplomats. Israel, he claimed, was in touch with other countries “that will recognize [us] similarly.”

In an event for foreign diplomats to mark Israel’s 70th anniversary, Netanyahu even went so far as to offer special aid to the first countries that relocated their embassies to Jerusalem. “What you can do to advance peace,” he told them, “is moving your embassies here. … The first 10 embassies to move here will get preferential treatment — we will help you.”

Netanyahu even claimed that Israel was “in talks with half a dozen countries seriously considering moving their embassies to Jerusalem.”

If anything, Trump’s announcement had the opposite response to what Netanyahu had hoped for. The leaders of Europe’s biggest countries — German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron — as well as the United Nations and European Union, all rejected the unilateral step. Jerusalem’s status, they reaffirmed, would be negotiated as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-year-after-trump-s-embassy-move-only-one-country-has-followed-u-s-to-jerusalem-1.7227246

See also:

Faith and freedoms: why evangelicals profess unwavering love for Trump
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149801072

swanlinbar - Interesting background. Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of Trump
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=149801072

Trump's Middle East strategy is bound to fail
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=148034093