Trump's 'Peace Process' Starts by Ending the Fake One - Caroline Glick - https://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/09/04/caroline-glick-trumps-peace-process-starts-by-ending-the-fake-one/
President Donald Trump's decision last week to defund the UN Refugee Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) may not seems as significant as recognizing that Jerusalem is Israel's capital and transferring the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But it is.
Both actions involve rejecting myths embedded in the failed peace process between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Both actions ground U.S. Middle East policy in reality. And consequently, both actions clear a path for a more stable future for all actors in the Middle East and for the U.S. in its relations with the states and peoples of the region.
On September 13, we will mark the 25th anniversary of the peace process between Israel and the PLO. The process, which was supposed to take five years to complete, was based on the idea that peace would be built on incremental moves that would gradually enmesh the two sides in a virtuous cycle of peace. The peace process is popularly dubbed "the Oslo process" because it was initiated through a series of secret negotiations between Israeli and PLO officials in Oslo, Norway.
In the first stages, Israel was supposed to transfer land to the PLO in Gaza, as well as Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), for the Palestinians to manage as an autonomous proto-state. To that end, Israel was expected to legitimize the PLO, an international terror group, funding its operations and lobbying foreign governments to underwrite the PLO-run autonomy, known as the Palestinian Authority (PA).
For its part, the PLO was supposed to use the land, governing power, funding, and international recognition it received to build the foundations of a functioning Palestinian state. It was supposed to cultivate Palestinian society as a free people at peace with Israel.
The Oslo process's gradualist approach assumed that the intractable differences at the foundation of the conflict - first and foremost, Jerusalem, and the so-called "Palestinian refugees" that UNRWA is responsible for - could be left until the end of the process. The idea was that after five years, (or 25 years, as the case may be) of building peaceful relations, the disputes that were irreconcilable at the outset of the process would suddenly seem unimportant. Indeed, they would solve themselves.
Israel, for its part, did what it agreed to do. It transferred almost the entire Gaza Strip and all the Palestinian population centers in Judea and Samaria to the PLO within two years. By 1997, 98 percent of Palestinians in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - including so-called refugees living in UNRWA camps - were living under Palestinian control and jurisdiction.
Israel collected taxes for the Palestinian Authority and forgave its debts, including hundreds of millions of shekels in unpaid medical bills for Palestinian patients that Israel cared for in its hospitals.
Israel lobbied foreign governments to underwrite the PA budget. It appealed to the U.S. Congress to turn a blind eye to PLO terrorism and fund the PA. It gave arms to PLO security forces and encouraged the U.S. and the EU to train PLO forces later deployed to the areas under PA control.
For its part, rather than build the foundations of a state, the PLO used all the resources Israel, the U.S., the EU, and the rest of the international community placed at its disposal to build a terror state. Rather than teach Palestinian children to build their future in freedom with Israelis, the PLO indoctrinated its children to work towards Israel's annihilation. The Palestinian economy, which had grown every year since 1967, suddenly began to contract. Unemployment levels skyrocketed. Large swathes of donor-funded budgets were siphoned off to the personal bank accounts of top PLO officials. As for its newfound legitimacy in international forums, the PLO used its power to delegitimize Israel's right to exist.
So far from solving themselves, by 1998 (and by 2016) those same issues that were supposed to be negotiated in the final stages of the peace process were more intractable than ever. The PLO and its erstwhile partners in Hamas used Jerusalem as a rallying call for jihad aimed at Israel's destruction. They used the so-called refugees that UNRWA has cultivated as an argument for their refusal to accept Israel, and their dedication to its annihilation.
The Palestinians' behavior showed that the architects of the 1993 peace process had it backwards. For any peace process to have had a chance of success, the issues of Jerusalem and the so-called refugees had to be settled at the outset. By leaving them to fester, the peace processors legitimized the PLO position that Israel has no right to exist. In that way, the architects of the peace process paved the way for the PLO to build its kleptocratic terror state and wage its ever-escalating political war to delegitimize Israel's right to exist.
After all, Jerusalem has been Israel's capital for three thousand years. The Jewish people's attachment to Jerusalem forms the basis of Jewish national identity and faith. Non-recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital involves not recognizing the Jewish people's existence. This, in turn, necessarily engenders rejection of the right of the Jewish state to exist.
By the same token, UNRWA was founded in 1949 after the infant state of Israel beat back five invading Arab armies. UNRWA's purpose was officially to care for the Arab refugees who left Israel during the war.
But its actual goal was to reverse the outcome of the war. Whereas the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is tasked with permanently resettling refugees, UNRWA was tasked with perpetuating the refugee status of the Arabs who left Israel in 1948-1948. Not only were the Arabs not given permanent homes, but those who found permanent homes and were naturalized in other countries still remain on UNRWA's refugee rolls to this day - and so do their descendants.
This is the case because UNRWA automatically registers all descendants of these Arabs as refugees. UNRWA has exploited its perpetual mandate to inculcate its "refugees" with a national identity based entirely on rejecting Israel and seeking its annihilation. Not surprisingly, and largely as a consequence of this basic fact, UNRWA's installations are operated by Palestinians who reject Israel's right to exist and devote their lives - whether through indoctrination or direct involved in terrorism - to its destruction.
As the Middle East Forum has demonstrated, while UNRWA claims that from the half million Arabs who left Israel in 1948-1949, there are today 5.5 million Palestinian "refugees," there are a mere 20,000 individuals who left Israel during the pan-Arab invasion who have yet to be given a permanent home. The rest of the people on UNRWA's rolls are at best, welfare recipients.
It ought to go without saying that an agency that exists to perpetuate the Arab war against Israel cannot peacefully coexist with Israel. And yet, operating in accordance with the 1993 peace process's principle of gradualism, the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations spent the past quarter century expanding U.S. support for UNRWA.
Likewise, in the interest of advancing the so-called peace process, all three administrations refused to enforce the 1996 Jerusalem Embassy Act that required them to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
In acting as they did, those administrations did not facilitate peace: rather, they made it impossible. They gave the Palestinians hope that they will one day achieve their goal of destroying Israel because these actions signaled that the U.S. did not fully accept the Jewish people's right to self-determination.
By refusing to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel's capital, and by refusing to openly state and act on the fact that there are not 5.5 million Palestinians refugees who have a right to overrun Israel in a mythological "right of return," Washington gave the Palestinians reason to believe that one day the U.S. would one day abandon Israel entirely.
Trump's recognition of Jerusalem and his defunding of UNRWA remove all doubt about America's recognition of Israel.
Unsurprisingly, Trump's moves have made upset the Palestinians. PLO chief and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies insist that the U.S. has no right to end its welfare payments to pretend refugees.
They can be excused for being indignant.
After all, for 70 years, the U.S. refused to recognize reality on either Jerusalem or UNRWA. For 25 years, three administrations ignored PLO support for terrorism, political warfare against Israel, corruption, and embezzlement. And now, suddenly, Trump and his team are paying attention and basing U.S. policies on reality.
The Palestinians are not alone in their indignation. Over the past 25 years, as the fundamental lies at the heart of the failed peace process continued to inform the policies of successive U.S. administrations, the gamble of the peace process became the religion of the peace process. Israeli leftists, like European and American leftists, embraced the PLO's anti-Israel narrative as an article of faith. It is all but impossible for them to walk away from it after all of these years.
Moreover, the peace process's false assumptions didn't perpetuate themselves. Over 25 years bureaucracies were spawned in Israel and across the world on the basis of the failed peace process and its false belief that, once empowered, terrorists become model citizens and pioneers. Trump's moves expose these bureaucracies' incompetence, strategic blindness, and corruption.
And just as Trump's determination to ground U.S. policy in reality harms those dedicated to perpetuating fantasies, it empowers millions of people who have been marginalized and silenced for a quarter century. It gives them - Israelis, Palestinians Arabs, and Arabs in the wider Middle East - the possibility for the first time to build relations based on reality.
That may not lead to fancy signing ceremonies with doves and balloons on the White House lawn. But it does provide the first realistic basis for honest and cooperative relations between Israel and its neighbors since 1993.
Disgusting behavior - Bill Wilson -
The Senate is elected by the people to serve six-year terms and there are only two per state. It is considered the upper chamber of Congress and is supposed to be wiser and more experienced. Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution states: "No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen." There is a certain decorum within the Senate to treat members civilly and, in the very least, serve with the pretense of restraint and honor. This, however, is not the case with the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The leftist news media has been hyping Kavanaugh's hearing for months, saying it will be fierce, a battle, testy, and so on. Certainly, the protesters were ready, many of them being paid and coached on what to shout on cue when the media was filming them. They disrupted the hearing, yet police were very tolerant before arresting some two dozen "protesters." Democrat Senators were also prepped and on cue, arguing, insulting, interrupting, essentially acting like arrogant bullies with no sense of respect for the chamber, its history or the office they were elected to hold. Leftist Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) admitted that the Democrats had planned their behavior during a phone call the previous day.
The hearing was so raucous that Kavanaugh's two daughters were ushered out by their mother. The Washington Examiner wrote: "As Democratic senators fought to delay the hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and as spectators jarringly heckled the process Tuesday, his two young daughters were rushed from the hearing room...And at times hecklers in the audience shouted out, apparently scaring the young girls there to support their father. One screamed, "This is a mockery. This is a travesty of justice. Cancel Brett Kavanaugh, adjourn the hearing." The current political environment has been reduced to this: visceral showmanship, fake (paid) opposition, and dishonor. It is the fake news cycle in action.
These "protests" were designed to induce the storyline that somehow the hearing was unfair, that information was being withheld, and to stir the politically intolerant, ideological bigoted base of the uniformed voters who believe this garbage to be real. The behavior of these Democratic Senators is disgusting and a disgrace to the country. The willing media dupes were so focused on the "protests" that the substance of Kavanaugh's positions were muted by the noise. Advise and consent does not mean rebel and obstruct. Proverbs 17:11 says, "An evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him."Hopefully, the American people will consider this behavior with a message at the ballot box.
What's On & Off The Table When It Comes To Middle East Peace - By Sean Savage -
Long eluding his predecessors, U.S. President Donald Trump has not shied away from attempting to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he has called the "deal of the century."
Trump has broken with previous administrations by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocating the U.S. embassy there. While relations with Israel may be at an all-time high, the same cannot be said of the Palestinians, who have officially boycotted the Trump administration since last year's announcement over Jerusalem and what they perceive as favoritism towards Israel at present.
In recent weeks, tensions between the Palestinians and Trump have increased with the Trump administration cutting more than $200 million in assistance to the Palestinians. This also comes as the Trump administration has withheld $65 million to UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency dedicated solely to the needs of Palestinian refugees, with additional reports indicating that the United States may cut all funding to UNRWA in the coming weeks.
The growing strain has also been exacerbated by speculation over the announcement of plan by the administration to bring forth a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and expert on Palestinian politics, told JNS that the intent of the Trump administration's cuts targeting the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA seem to be geared towards weakening the Palestinian's negotiating position ahead of talks.
"The logic here seems to be an intent to weaken the Palestinian negotiating position before rolling out the peace process, with the intent of offering a lifeline to lure them into a new paradigm," he said. "The cuts to the P.A. and UNRWA certainly have the potential to be destabilizing. It really depends on how long this period lasts. It should not be prolonged if the intent is to prevent instability."
Yet Ghaith al-Omari, an expert on Palestinian and Arab matters for the Washington Institution for Near East Policy, said the cuts by the Trump administration will likely play right into the hands of the Palestinian leadership.
"These cuts will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza, but the public anger will be directed against the U.S. and Israel not the P.A.," he said. "The angry mood created by these measures plays into the P.A.'s hands as it reinforces [Mahmoud] Abbas's rhetoric casting the Trump administration as an antagonist."
As such, al-Omari believes that this will bolster the Palestinian public's support for Abbas not to engage with Trump, while also possibly producing volatility in the West Bank and Gaza.
"These cuts could produce instability that could manifest in a deteriorating security atmosphere in the West Bank and Gaza dues to the worsening humanitarian conditions," he said.
Tackling UNRWA 'head on'
Nevertheless, the Trump administration has begun targeting UNRWA with the hope of reforming the institution that provides services to more than 5 million Palestinian refugees. Detractors have argued that UNRWA, which counts every Arab who fled during the 1948 War of Independence and their descendants as refugees--an arrangement that is exclusive to just the Palestinian refugees--has helped to perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by keeping millions of Palestinians as permanent refugees.
"We will be a donor if it [UNRWA] reforms what it does ... if they actually change the number of refugees to an accurate account, we will look back at partnering them," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said recently.
Additional reports have also indicated that the Trump administration may officially refute the Palestinian "right of return."
Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and a co-author of the 2013 book Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief, explains that the cuts by the Trump administration to UNRWA will help raise awareness over the issues concerning UNRWA.
"I suspect the cuts will be part of the preconditions for talks which the P.A. will reject. That said, [they] will ultimately raise national awareness re: UNRWA's functionality," he said.
"It also sheds light on the subversive dynamic between UNRWA and the Palestinian leadership; the existence of UNRWA allows the Palestinian Authority to continue shirking core responsibilities towards its citizens," he added.
While the United States has not ignored the issue of UNRWA in the past--with a number of congressional resolutions seeking to limit or cut off funding, as well as promoting transparency and accountability in regards to UNRWA since the 1970s--Romirowsky said this is the first time the issue has been tackled head on.
"Understanding the way that UNRWA helps perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem reveals an entrenched and dysfunctional bureaucracy, accustomed to 70 years of international welfare, including over $370 million from the U.S. in 2016," he said.
Involving the Arab world in peace talks
At the same time, reports over the past year have emerged indicating that the Trump administration has been reaching out to Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, which has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, to play a role in facilitating peace. Reports have even gone as far as to suggest that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states may normalize relations with Israel before striking a deal with the Palestinians.
"The Trump administration initially tried to build on the shared Israel and Arab concerns regarding Iran in order to adopt the 'outside-in' approach, whereby they sought to convince Arab states to open relations with Israel before a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal is concluded," said al-Omari. "These efforts were bound to fail since Arab states have traditionally and consistently been unwilling to pay the political and diplomatic price of publicly opposing or even going ahead of the Palestinians on such an emotive issue."
In June, both Kushner and Greenblatt visited several Arab states--Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar--in a bid to reportedly drum up support ahead of the Trump administration's rollout of its peace plan. Kushner and Greenblatt also discussed with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman about providing humanitarian relief to the Gaza Strip, according to the White House at the time.
Additional reports have also circulated regarding Israel attempting to form a long-term truce with Hamas through indirect negotiations via Egypt and other Arab states, such as Qatar.
Nevertheless, Schanzer believes that the Arab Gulf states remain key to the success or failure any peace deal for the Trump administration.
"If the Gulf states can exert their influence and push the Palestinians toward the Trump position--whatever that may be--then there is a fighting chance for success. It certainly won't be the United States or even members of the [Middle East] Quartet fulfilling this role," he said.
The 'deal of the century'
Moving forward, it is unclear exactly what type of plan the Trump administration aims to introduce. Experts are split on whether or not Trump will continue support for a two-state solution or introduce a new paradigm to the equation.
"From what we can see, this will be vastly different. Every other process has brought the Palestinians and Israelis to the table as equals,' said Schanzer. "The Trump team will do no such thing."
"What we are seeing is a dynamic that is reflective of the actual dynamic on the ground--one in which the Israelis have significant power and assets, and the Palestinians do not. This will be the starting point in these negotiations. We will soon find out whether this is a successful strategy."
However, al-Omari believes that while a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be "welcome" if it takes core issues like Jerusalem and refugees "off the table," then that could doom any prospects it might have.
"Such an approach is bound to be robustly opposed not only by the Palestinians," he said, "but also by various Arab states, including U.S. allies such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia."
This week's fake news is deeper than deep state - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com
This week is an excellent example of how fake news is created and a new-level false narrative results. It is a lesson in discernment for those who seek the truth. Jesus said in Matthew 24:4-5, "Take heed that no man deceive you." Ephesians 5:6, "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of those things come the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." And 2 Timothy 3 warns that in the last days there will be perilous times because people will be truce-breakers, false accusers, traitors and despisers of those that are good." It is very important that we not be tossed about by the falsehoods that are designed to break our faith, our freedom, and our joy in the Lord. This week is a clear test.
The godless want to have the form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. They want to puff themselves up, shout the loudest, bully their will over those with whom they disagree, and silence those who oppose them. Follow the Democratic Party plan to oppose Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. As admitted by leftist Illinois senator Dick Durbin, they had a plan to "protest" his nomination. That plan called for disrupting the Senate hearing, creating chaos, radical demonstrations resulting in arrests, and claiming the release of confidential documents that the Republicans were withholding. As it turned out, the brouhaha was contrived, as the documents were already cleared for release. But the stunt grabbed headlines on the false narrative that damning information was being withheld on Kavanaugh.
Then some Christians got all up in arms about Kavanaugh being unfit because he said Roe vs Wade is settled law in the nation. I read his statement. He was stating an obvious fact. Roe vs Wade is settled law in this nation and over 65 million unborn citizens have lost their lives over it. Kavanaugh has been coached well to state facts when asked these entrapping questions. I do not know if he would be my choice if I were president, probably not. But he is far better than anything the communist Democrats would choose. People, we need to read and listen with discernment, seek the truth and be aware of the underlying strategies so that we are not deceived. The Democratic response to Kavanaugh is disgraceful and unacceptable, and the news media reports are based off of a contrived, well-planned deception.
Similar is the so-called White House official who anonymously wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times. Think about it. Democrat leadership and talking heads all across the mainstream media are using that Op-Ed as a reason to remove the president either by impeachment or because he is mentally unfit to serve. All this based on the talking points of the coup-makers written down in an editorial by an anonymous source. Coup-makers want to remove a president based on hearsay from someone who won't put their name to the accusations. The media irresponsibly has taken this fake news and made it the linchpin to removing an elected president from office. Again, this is well-planned and orchestrated deception. These are just two examples this week of how fake news is created and amplified to deceive many. It's deeper than deep state.
America in crisis--The resistance in the White House - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com
The New York Times has published an Op-Ed by an anonymous "senior official in the Trump administration" whose "job would be jeopardized by its disclosure." The essay paints the picture of an impetuous madman in the Oval Office who likes dictators, has little appreciation for America's allies, and is mentally unfit for office. The writer claims that government officials have joined an internal resistance movement to thwart the President's agenda and isolate their operations from Trump's influence because "we believe our first duty is to this country." The timing of the article coincides with the release of a book "Fear: Trump in the White House" by investigative reporter Bob Woodward, essentially saying the same thing.
The Op-Ed supplies all the talking points for undermining the President. Indeed, it's publishing at the same time of Woodward's book release reinforces the points that there are people inside the White House who are protecting the country by vowing "to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office." And on cue, the piece has put on one page the narrative backing Woodward's book, encouraging the leftist talking heads to continue their diatribe to oust the president. America is in a crisis. This is the very picture of creating a self-perpetuating narrative with no identifiable sourcing. It is a deep state masterpiece, an historical swamp-based attack to admittedly preserve what America elected Trump to shake up.
A key admission in the Op-Ed that should alert Americans to the agenda is the recalling from the grave the specter of establishment, one world order advocate, John McCain. The writer states: "Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation. We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example - a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them." This is no less an admission of the political moorings of the writer and the agenda of his "resistance."
You are watching history unfold. These are serious charges. Americans must discern whether they are true or if it is yet another wave of the coup attempt initiated by the Democratic Party and aided and abetted by the deep state and the media immediately following the 2016 election. Wisdom is needed. There is now a clear stake in the ground where people who hide themselves and their identities are making claims that coincide with the leftist narrative. Let us all pray that the Lord's hand be upon our nation and that Jesus' words in Luke 12:2 be manifest: "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known." The truth, if brought to light, will surely reveal wicked abominations.
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