And, like so much of his presidency, there’s no there there.
Ever since day one, President Trump has been promising to deliver the “deal of the century” to solve all that has troubled the Middle East for a thousand years. His penchant for idle and reckless boasting was telling enough. But he betrayed all hope of success when he appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner to broker this elusive peace. (Kushner, of course, is the Zelig-like dilettante of Trump’s presidency.)
I see no point in elaborating on the fated failure of this peace deal. Suffice it to know that it suffered from the same kinds of delusional representations that doomed Trump’s deal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. No doubt you recall this infamous tweet:
Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. … Before taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
But we soon learned that his long trip produced an agreement that wasn’t even worth the paper it was written on. Even worse, time and again, North Korea used Trump’s puppy-like solicitation for summit meetings as cover to increase its nuclear arsenal. So, in fact, North Korea is far more dangerous today than it was before Trump took office.
Except that Trump couldn’t care less. And he never learns. Only that explains him trumpeting a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians at the White House yesterday, which only the Israelis support … because it is so heavily weighted in their favor.
The Palestinian leadership united in declaring the plan a nonstarter — ‘a thousand no’s,’ shouted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. …
‘The plan tells us that there is no Jerusalem, no return of refugees, no control of borders, no airport or seaport, the settlements have become legitimate, the martyrs and the detainees have become criminals, and all this for $50 billion” in promised investment funding, [Muhammad al-Burai, an idled teacher] said. “Is there a sane person who accepts this?”
(The Washington Post, January 29, 2020)
To be fair, some Israelis are as outraged as Palestinians. In fact, nothing could be more damning than Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, affirming former President Jimmy Carter’s admonition that, instead of a two-state solution, Netanyahu is turning Israel into a permanent state of apartheid. As it happens, I not only presaged this deal in “Instead of Peace, Israel Settling for Apartheid?” May 1, 2014, but admonished Israelis in “Israel Votes to Become more Like Apartheid South Africa,” March 18, 2015.
In any event, it was hardly surprising that only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed up for yesterday’s ceremony. Which is rather like a groom going ahead with the wedding ceremony knowing full well his bride has no intention of showing up. This, because, after he promised her he’d never cheat again, she caught the bastard cheating the night before their wedding day.
But this is even worse than that. Because the ringmaster of this would-be shotgun marriage, namely Trump, had the guests so cowered and beholden to him, they blithely played along with his ceremonial charade.
Mind you, Abbas could also be forgiven for not wanting to soil his good character by any association with these two. After all, Trump is in the midst of an impeachment trial for attempting to extort the Ukrainian president to dig up dirt on his political rival, and Netanyahu has just been indicted for bribery.
According to the indictment, the prime minister ‘damaged the image of the public service and public trust in it,’ and is suspected of abusing his position and status, and of knowingly ‘taking a bribe as a public servant in exchange for actions related to your position.’
(The Times of Israel, January 29, 2020)
As I remarked in “Trump Targets Iran to ‘Wag the Dog’ – Just as He ‘Projected’ Obama Would Do,” January 5, 2020, Trump and Netanyahu are birds of a feather if ever there were two.
Enough said.
Related commentaries:
North Korea…
instead of peace…
Israel apartheid…
impeachment…
indictment…
wag the dog…
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