December 9, 2017
The US has maintained the fiction for decades of being an even-handed mediator between Israel and the Palestinians. This week, President Donald Trump finally junked this tired, old canard by agreeing to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from its current headquarters in Tel Aviv.
There was huge symbolism in this move that met with universal condemnation. It means the US is abandoning any chance of a two-state solution, which was the original UN plan for Palestine. Henceforth, Palestinians will subsist in a Jewish unitary state as a powerless, restive underclass. Washington is violating international law, the 1993 Oslo Accords, and countless UN resolutions.
Crusader Trump’s decision strongly suggests there will be no Palestinian state, no Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, and no political hope for the region’s 5.5 million Palestinians refugees living precariously in Israel, the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.
America’s president is a notorious Muslim-hater who has sought to bar people from the Islamic world from the United States. Trump knows very little about the Mideast – which I call the ‘American Raj’ in my last book of the same name because of its resemblance to Britain’s imperial rule over India.
Trump is surrounded by ardent Greater Israel supporters in Washington and New York that include his immediate family, and so-called ‘advisors’ from the extreme far right. Amazingly, his much ballyhooed speech last May in Saudi Arabia to assorted Arab potentates and vassals was actually written by a thirty-something ultra-Zionist right-winger from Santa Monica, California.
Adding to the black comedy, Trump has commanded his young Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to forge a Mideast peace deal. Kushner, a New York real estate executive, is a nice young man but he knows as much about the Mideast as I do about Papua New Guinea.
The ‘peace negotiations’ Kushner has launched are a cruel farce. He and Trump expect a deal of some sort between America’s Mideast vassals – Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, Jordan, the brutal Egyptian dictatorship, and the medieval king of Morocco.
These powerless satraps can make all the ‘peace deals’ they like. But the true parties who must be engaged are Israel, now governed by a very far right government, and the Palestinians, misrepresented by the corrupt Palestinian Authority (PLO) and nationalist Hamas, as well as splinter groups. The PLO is pretty much a puppet of the US and Israel, run by the doddering old Mahmoud Abbas. In the Mideast, only Turkey remains a truly independent Muslim nation that’s not under Washington’s thumb.
Even so, Abbas, other Palestinians and Arab leaders are all denouncing Trump and his bull in a China shop behavior. Who cares? Trump’s actions show just how divided and impotent the Arab world really is.
The Israelis know that their Arab neighbors can huff and puff all they like, but are powerless to do anything but riot in the streets and burn cars. If anti-Israel riots become too violent, Israel has no compunctions about gunning down the demonstrators or blowing up their family homes. Never has the Arab world shown itself so weak and timid.
Moreover, Israel’s new pals in Saudi Arabia have been stabbing Palestinians in the back for decades and secretly want to see them crushed. The feudal Saudis fear and distrust the modern, educated Palestinians. The same applies to Egypt’s brutish military dictatorship that now thrives on Saudi, Israeli and US money.
No one has bothered to consult with the Palestinians who have been marginalized, ignored or bombed for over half a century. There will be no real peace without them.
But President Trump cares nothing about these irksome details. He just wants a faux peace agreement adorned with his royal signature. What really counts to Trump is winning American Jewish support in the next election and satisfying his vital evangelical Christian voter base.
America’s Christian far right, which comprises half of Republican voters, earnestly believes in Biblical prophesy that the Messiah cannot come until ancient Israel is reconstituted, the world’s Jews are ingathered to Greater Israel, the Messiah returns and non-believers perish in the final destruction of earth.
These folk are ardent ‘Christian Zionists’ who applaud Trump’s policies. Most of their information about the outside comes from Christian evangelical publications and TV stations or, in the case of Trump, from Fox TV, another dedicated supporter of Greater Israel.
The Christian evangelists are the core of Trump’s support in rural and suburban America. In fact, as Kevin Phillips wrote in his brilliant book “American Theocracy,” the Republicans have mostly become a rightwing religious party representing the less enlightened parts of America. These fundamentalists must be very pleased that their good president Trump is speeding the arrival of the Messiah.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2017
Such disgusting sycophants leading the un-United States and a novel acting out of Romans 14:11, “Every knee shall bend before me, every tongue give praise.”
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/943536847581597697
Vice President Pence, more than others, should know no one who lies will enter the Holy City of God, the New Jerusalem. He told a whopper of a lie to the President. In the video, appealing to the Ego of Trump, he says, ” “You’ve restored American credibility on the world stage.”
The Truth reacted quickly with the majority UN vote against US Policy the next Day, and exposed the lie in Pence’s words.
The US UN Ambassador explicitly said the General Assembly, with it’s Democratic Vote, “ATTACKED the US.” That is a very dangerous way of looking at how a Free Vote works. This suggests the Power driving the Trump Administration is anti-Democratic and maybe The Great Satan?
Most disturbing in the video, is how Trump appears bored already with the obsequious comments by his subordinates.
From his look, he’ll be needing a more powerful fix to satisfy his self-centred delusion he is doer of all things.
As they praised him for keeping his promises, don’t forget, he already threatened to bring down “Fire and Fury like this world has never seen before.” People dismiss that at their own peril. The ancient Biblical term ‘abomination that makes desolation’ in the spirit of the letter in our Times, means A-bom-i-Nations. The i is for the 2 nations who think the world revolves around them.
After seeing this Cabinet meeting from Tuesday, out of curiosity, I searched YouTube with these terms, “trump’s cabinet flattering and praising him.” There are too many video clips to post here, but when the Wall Street and bitcoin bubbles burst, Trump may show his anti-Christ personality traits thinking he’s god, and then it will be too late for many. The Book does say that human would come in ‘peaceably’ as in being elected, and would use flattery, and this video is evidence of that.
Israel actually made a surprise attack in 1967. Their great general, Moshe Dayan, once sobered from the huge victory, peered ahead and saw endless strife as an Occupier. He quickly launched a political party that urged the return of much of the seized territory in exchange for peace. But taking others homes and land was irresistible to too many and now Israel has become a brutal Occupier that normalized hate towards non-Jews. Thankfully today more Israelis are waking up to the mutual harm of their Palestinian policies.
As for Israel becoming the envisaged religious state, many Israelis fear this and perceive it akin to life under the Taliban.
From CTV News, “The UN General Assembly has voted 128-9 with 35 abstentions to declare U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ‘null and void.'”
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I guess, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for…” Canada. Canada was one of the abstentions…
and if that’s not threatening, from the BBC:
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“Permanent representative Nikki Haley warned member states that President Donald Trump had asked her to report on “who voted against us” on Thursday.
The draft resolution does not mention the US, but says any decisions on Jerusalem should be cancelled.”
All 3 sides, Jews, Christians, Muslims are innately unconvinced of any lasting peace, because each side is waiting for God to intervene, earnestly believing their respective religious prophesies are the true version of future events.
After the Arab Revolt in 1936, the PEEL Commission recommended Two states solution one for the Arab and one for the Jews.The suggested split was heavily favored the Arabs,80% of the land for the Arabs and the remaining 20% for the Jews; despite the tiny portion Jews accepted the offer but the Arabs rejected it and return to its violent rebellion against the Jews.In 1947 when the UN decided to split the land for Jews and Arabs,the Jews accepted it and Arabs rejected it. Egypt,Jordan,Lebanon,Iraq and Syria joined the conflict and attacked Israel and they lost.East Jerusalem and West Bank was occupied by Jordan by than.In 1967,known as the Six day war, led by Egypt, Syria and Jordan attacked the Jewish nation and lost.After the war Israel wanted to return the West Bank to Jordan and Gaza to Egypt in exchange for Peace.But the Arab League met in Sudan send this message to the World. No peace with Israel, No Recognition of Israel,No negotiation with Israel.In the year of 2000 ,the Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with PLO leader Yasser Arafat to offer new solution to end the conflict, offered a Palestinian state, All of Gaza,94% of the West Bank, and East Jerusalem as its capital and again it was rejected by the PLO leader and attacked the innocent civilians in buses, wedding halls and public places by killing at least 1000 people.in 2008 the Israeli government once again proposed a palestenian state as East Jerusalem as its capital, the new PLO leader Abbas rejected the offer. In 2005 Israel unilaterally left Gaza,given the complete control to the Palestenians,instead of developing this territory, they turned Gaza into a Terrorist base which they fired 1000 over rockets against Israel.Each time Israel have agreed for a Palestenian state the palestenians have rejected the offer and offer violence. In short the palestinians are not for Peace but for violence just like other muslim countries in the world.
Didn’t the Palestinians reject these offers because Israel refused the right to return for Palestinians who fled the area ? It always seemed to me that condition was designed to derail any agreement in such a way to blame the other party ( or they sell out their own people to make an agreement I doubt Israel would have kept anyway )
The Peel commission formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission was a British Royal Commission of inquiry recommended the partition of two states and no conditions were set.When the 115 over Islamic leaders met in Syria in 1937 publicly condemned the Peel commission recommendation and denounced the formation of Jewish state because its against their faith and against their god.The Arabs declared war against the Jews in the name of their god and signaled the entire muslim countries to kill the Jews.They portrayed the Jews were eternal enemies of allah and killing of Jews is will of allah.The Arab world wanted the palestine conflict for their religious benefit and countries like Iran which shamelessly lost to the tiny nation in 1967 war finding way to destroy the Jewish nation by working tirelessly day and night by training the terrorist groups in Lebanon. Interestingly Israel building its armies to defend their territory not for war neither want to kill the arabs,shame on you Arabs!
A very interesting analysis. However, it lacks islamic perspective to balance the argument and shed some light on the chain of events that will follow. The author and readers, who are interested in politics of Middle-East and Israel should read this book to find Islamic perspective http://www.imranhosein.org/media/books/j_in_q.pdf
I share from the book, “To paraphrase this means that Jews believe in a destiny of Jerusalem that will witness the advent of the Messiah. When the Messiah comes he will restore the golden
age of Judaism and he will rule the world from Jerusalem. That will validate the Jewish claim to Truth and invalidate the claims of rivals. Christians have the same belief. When Jesus, the Messiah returns, he will reign over the world from Jerusalem and he will validate the Christian dogmas of Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement, etc. Thus
will the Christian claim to Truth be validated and all others invalidated. The Muslims also believe that Jerusalem has a destiny that will validate Islam’s claim to Truth and invalidate the current Christian and Jewish claims. Since these three conceptions of
Truth, all of which claim to originate from Abraham (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam), have such profound differences, they cannot possibly all be true.”
I believe that neither side can ” own ” Jerusalem and still have a lasting peace on the table.
My Solution would be that Jerusalem become an independent city state, comparable to say the Vatican, or Hong Kong, or Rome at times of its history.
Secondly, as the UN helped cause this historic mess, they need to be at the forefront of the solution… the UN moves from New York to Jerusalem… assistance in building a working government, police, and economy will also be enhanced by UN assistance.
Removing the UN headquarters from New York to an independent state may also help reform the UN itself into a better less biased more functional body.
It would be the work of decades, but at least it would be a step in a very different direction with potential for true change everywhere.
“Secondly, as the UN helped cause this historic mess, they need to be at the forefront of the solution… the UN moves from New York to Jerusalem… assistance in building a working government, police, and economy will also be enhanced by UN assistance.”
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This won’t happen unless the UN Charter is revised… They cannot fix the problem they have created.
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There has to be 3 or 4 times as many countries on the Security Council, with no veto. A majority decides the actions, and maybe, no abstentions… else they are only playing a game of ‘Silly Buggers’ and not really doing anything. Once the Charter is revised so that things can effectively be voted on, the UN will be useless. My current term for the UN is the TTUN… Toothless Tiger UN…
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Dik
Error: ‘Once’ in the third paragraph should be ‘Until’.
Dik
I favor a veto less larger security council as well, with some mechanism to bump a vote to the entire general assembly if deemed necessary. Also I think with votes from countries in the same region as the problem should count 5X more than everyone elses as they have more at stake. But my original points that as long as the UN is headquartered in New York they will be seen to have a US bias and having the UN in Jerusalem would be an all in for the peace process… either they make it work or fold the UN.
Mike:
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Sometimes those in the immediate area are less likely to see the overall issues and I would not like to see it weighted… maybe no abstentions or any abstentions get included with the winning side of the vote.
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As far as ‘more at stake’, the entire world has a vested interest in maintaining it. It also has to have significant power to enforce the judgements. The idea of less than a 60% ‘win’ should pass it on the General Assembly… and the UN should be located in a dedicated ‘free’ area without being in a particular country.
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They can also use video conferencing so that there is a ‘public’ record of all their actions.
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a Merry Christmas or Season’s Greetings to all from this part of Canada…
From the CBC, “Two FBI officials who would later be assigned to the special counsel’s investigation into Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential campaign described him with insults like “idiot” and “loathsome human” in a series of text messages last year, according to copies of the messages released Tuesday.”
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Very unprofessional, but, the man has integrity… I don’t think you can insult the Donald.
The Donald’s stupidity never fails to amaze me… Time for the rest of the world to label the United States as a ‘Rogue State’.
Another great article, as always, Eric. Another source of information for narrow minded Christian Zionists is Briebart. The White House lawn gnome Steve Bannon left the White House so he could better spread misinformation to the ignorant masses and help shore up trump’s base.
“earnestly believes in Biblical prophesy that the Messiah cannot come until ancient Israel is reconstituted,” I would like to know what part of the Bible they get that from? Also, John wrote that he who denies Jesus is the Christ is antichrist, so how can Christian Zionists believe they are ancient Israel?
I just returned from a stay in USA, and am, again, reminded just how uninformed the American populace is.
The source of this misinformation is America’s pathetic news media.
Surf the networks all day long: it is impossible to find a real news channel. There is no coverage of news around the world; the rare exception might be a narrative about how a situation in another country might affect American interests.
I weep for a country that wallows proudly in its shallowness….one that I once admired.
Perhaps a few of your followers might look to Al Jazeera, BBC, or CBC to obtain a wider view.
(I cared enough to join a fact-finding mission to Israel/Palestine.
The real story is rarely heard in North America).
Thank you, Eric, for trying.
I generally start with the BBC and round it off with the Guardian. I then check der Spiegel and then Reuters. I top it off with CTV News and the CBC… and, then I try to make up my mind what the truth is… it’s a good start.
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I then check Eric to see if there are any new postings…
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der Spiegel has some excellent articles and best of the bunch for general correctness and insight.
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Of late, I’ve been catching up on the LA Times for info on their fires.
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Dik
The two state solution has always been a joke. With Trump’s decision we are closer to the truth finally being admitted- Israel is an apartheid state and has never intended that an independent Palestinian state exists. For it to do so the Israelis would have to evacuate the west bank and connect it to Gaza with a land corridor- a sort of backwards “L”. That’s not happening so there will be no peace- unless it’s the Roman version.
You got it right.
Excellent commentary! Eric, you really nailed Trump’s real reasons for making this decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and order the move of the US embassy to that city from Tel Aviv. One other factor is Trump’s and the Republicans’ need for more funding from wealthy Jewish-Zionist donors like Sheldon Adelson, who pretty much calls the tune for Republican policy vis à vis Israel and the Palestinian people. Getting more Jewish votes will be vital for the Republicans in the mid-term elections to maintain and even increase their control of the US House of Reps and the Senate, particularly in states like New York, Connecticut, Florida, and California. Most important will be the donations of wealthy Jewish people to the Republican Party. Those donations could be very generous if the vast majority of those voters view the Republicans as the most reliable vehicle for advancing Zionist interests.
The way the Donald is going… the Republicans are going to need more than Jewish-Zioist donors to ‘pull off’ the next one…
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Dik