US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered today to Israel two parting gifts of inestimable value on his farewell tour of the Middle East, the importance of which go well beyond his visit to the illegal Israeli colony of Psagot in the Palestinian West Bank. His last-minute moves to further legitimatize Israeli annexation, and delegitimatize opposition to Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people, will be difficult for the incoming Biden administration to reverse.
A group of Republicans senators led by Arkansas’ Tom Cotton are urging the Trump administration to label West Bank goods as “Made in Israel.” A letter sent to Trump by the lawmakers was obtained by Axios. “This decision would support Israel and push back against anti-Semitism and the BDS movement,” it states.
“I would like to tell Pompeo, and all Americans, that when you drink that wine, you are drinking the blood of the Palestinian people,” Abdel Jawab Saleh, a Palestinian who owns land on this site of the Psagot settlement said.
Trump is trying to tie Biden’s hands against returning to Iran deal with “spider web” of sanctions that Democratic hawks won’t reverse, says Sina Toossi of National Iranian American Council. And Israel may take it into its own hands to try to kill the deal in the transition period. “I’m worried that Israel and Saudi Arabia might view the rhetoric from the Trump administration as a green light for Israel to launch a strike on Iran,” Toossi says.
41 Democratic congress members have signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, condemning Israeli’s demolition of a West Bank village and demanding to know whether U.S. equipment was used.
The New York Times is publishing a misleading report on its front page that further raises the risk that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu could provoke a conflict with Iran during the Trump administration’s final 66 days.
The focus might currently be on Trump’s attempts at a judicial coup, but eyes are also turning to Georgia’s upcoming Senate runoffs.
According to a report from Nahal Toosi at Politico, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has developed a process to deem certain human rights groups antisemitic. “If Pompeo goes through with it, it’ll be interesting to see if Biden tries to roll it back & how & what blowback he’d get,” Toosi writes.
Politico reports that the Trump administration might soon declare that number of prominent human rights organizations as antisemitic and discourage other governments from supporting them, all due to these organizations’ alleged support for the BDS movement.
The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has campaigned for Donald Trump in the Middle East, saying a Joe Biden victory would be bad for Israel and Gulf States, in what appears to be a violation of the law saying federal employees must be nonpartisan. Though it’s hardly the first time Friedman has engaged in such actions.