Trump wants Israel “to move forward with annexation to create a wedge issue visavis Joe Biden and the Democratic Party [to have] a hard political tool to use against Democrats in a very tight election. We all remember last summer the brouhaha that Trump created over the potential visit of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to Israel and accusing the Democratic Party of being leftwing radicals,” Israeli journalist Neri Zilber tells J Street webinar.
Why is Trump lying down for Israeli annexation of West Bank even as global chorus condemns it? He needs what could be $200 million from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson for election. He has delivered for the largest Republican donors again and again, from moving embassy, to tearing up Iran deal, to attacking the ICC.
Israel is about to jeopardize its support in the Democratic Party by annexing parts of West Bank, but Netanyahu is going ahead evidently with Trump’s blessing. And a fire set by the Israeli military in Jordan Valley last week shows the plan to confiscate more Palestinian land, says journalist Alex Fishman of Ynet on call with Israel Policy Forum.
The peaceful serenity of the cover image of the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” glosses over the Israeli theft and control of Palestinian land and resources.
U.S. liberals opposed to annexation use Israel-centric and racist arguments, that it will hurt Israel or threaten a Jewish majority, Jim Zogby explains.
Rep. Ted Deutch shows imbalance of US government in mideast policy. He is “frustrated” with Palestinian leaders for not recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and for demanding that Jerusalem be the capital of a future Palestinian state. But as for criticizing Israel, Deutch says he raises “concern” about Netanyahu’s annexation plans out of “love” for Israel.
Once Israel annexes the Jordan Valley, the 65,000 Palestinians living there won’t become Israeli citizens, but will be in an “enclave,” Netanyahu says. “Call it what you want,” he says of Palestinian bantustan state that might result. “At the heart of the Trump plan are foundations we have only dreamed about.”
Robert Cohen writes, “Looking the other way when a crime is committed is not a Jewish value I remember being taught in my Hebrew classes. The British Board of Deputies’ effort to build non-existent Jewish unity over Israel turns out to be little more than political expediency in Israel’s favour.”
I did not witness the beginning of the Nakba in 1948, but I am still experiencing it.
Ambassador David Friedman’s racist advice to Israeli — “you don’t have to live with [a] Palestinian state, you have to live with the Palestinian state when the Palestinians become Canadians,” is a perfect echo of Dov Weissglas saying Palestinians could have a state when they became Finns. And it reveals the bad faith in Trump’s deal of the century.