01-26-2018, 07:18 AM
Jerusalem off the table, Middle East conflict back on.
This might be a foreign policy learning moment for US voters, as Trump suddenly makes US aid an explicit standard of US diplomacy worldwide--except for Israel--and something like a loyalty test. So would the personal-authoritarian dynamic currently plaguing the DOJ be elevated to international diplomacy?
And would Trump and his advisors be more or less likely to blow up the Iran deal after this? Would they see that as complicating US Middle East policy now about to undergo a severe test or would they just shrug off such potential complications?
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/politics/trump-small-embassy-jerusalem/index.html
CNN)President Donald Trump threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinians on Thursday if their leaders don't agree to peace talks with Israel, a hardline negotiating tactic that will do little to rebut the notion he's abandoned US neutrality in the long-simmering Middle East dispute.
Speaking ahead of talks with Israel's prime minister on the sidelines of the economic summit in Davos, Trump said Palestinians had disrespected the United States by not agreeing to meet with Vice President Mike Pence during his trip to the region last week.
And he declared Jerusalem "off the table" in negotiations after he declared the disputed city the capital of Israel last year.
"They're going to have to want to make peace," Trump said, "or we're going to have nothing to do with them any longer."
"We'll see what happens with the peace process but respect has to be shown to the US or we'll just not going any further," he said.
The President's remarks sparked renewed debate about whether the US is still able to play the role of mediator in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
And flatly contradictory comments by Trump and some of his senior officials on the status of Jerusalem are raising questions about the administration's peace plan, which remains a mystery to most of the players on both sides. . . . .
Palestinians thought otherwise. Trump is "blackmailing the Palestinian people and punishing them for fighting and believing in their freedom and human rights," according to a statement from Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary-General Saeb Erekat, responding to Trump's remarks at Davos.
In New York, the Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, recalled the early days of the Trump administration, when there was some hope the President's interest in making "the ultimate deal" would spur progress.
"In the span of a year we have seen hopes rise for peace and the sudden dashing of those hopes," Mansour told the Security Council. "The dramatic deterioration of the situation, the escalation of tensions and the deepening of political deadlock are cause for great concern."
This might be a foreign policy learning moment for US voters, as Trump suddenly makes US aid an explicit standard of US diplomacy worldwide--except for Israel--and something like a loyalty test. So would the personal-authoritarian dynamic currently plaguing the DOJ be elevated to international diplomacy?
And would Trump and his advisors be more or less likely to blow up the Iran deal after this? Would they see that as complicating US Middle East policy now about to undergo a severe test or would they just shrug off such potential complications?
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/politics/trump-small-embassy-jerusalem/index.html
CNN)President Donald Trump threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinians on Thursday if their leaders don't agree to peace talks with Israel, a hardline negotiating tactic that will do little to rebut the notion he's abandoned US neutrality in the long-simmering Middle East dispute.
Speaking ahead of talks with Israel's prime minister on the sidelines of the economic summit in Davos, Trump said Palestinians had disrespected the United States by not agreeing to meet with Vice President Mike Pence during his trip to the region last week.
And he declared Jerusalem "off the table" in negotiations after he declared the disputed city the capital of Israel last year.
"They're going to have to want to make peace," Trump said, "or we're going to have nothing to do with them any longer."
"We'll see what happens with the peace process but respect has to be shown to the US or we'll just not going any further," he said.
The President's remarks sparked renewed debate about whether the US is still able to play the role of mediator in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
And flatly contradictory comments by Trump and some of his senior officials on the status of Jerusalem are raising questions about the administration's peace plan, which remains a mystery to most of the players on both sides. . . . .
Palestinians thought otherwise. Trump is "blackmailing the Palestinian people and punishing them for fighting and believing in their freedom and human rights," according to a statement from Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary-General Saeb Erekat, responding to Trump's remarks at Davos.
In New York, the Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, recalled the early days of the Trump administration, when there was some hope the President's interest in making "the ultimate deal" would spur progress.
"In the span of a year we have seen hopes rise for peace and the sudden dashing of those hopes," Mansour told the Security Council. "The dramatic deterioration of the situation, the escalation of tensions and the deepening of political deadlock are cause for great concern."
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
