Free Pass Revoked?
It’s not at all clear this early that President Trump and his team truly understand the nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but a report last week is very encouraging.
During his trip through the Middle East, Trump visited Israel. At one point, he met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The same Abbas who hasn’t held elections in years and reportedly only controls 17 percent of the Palestinian territory ceded by the Israelis in the wake of Oslo. Hamas of course controls the rest.
In what might be a first for an American president, Trump gave Abbas a dressing-down for lying about fighting anti-Israel incitement. The fact is, the PA/PLO has never opposed incitement; the evil entity actually encourages it and supports it.
Trump’s alleged encounter with Abbas is a drastic departure from the policy of past American presidents. Think of people like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. They coddled the Palestinians. If Trump did in fact accuse Abbas of lying, it is a watershed moment in American policy.
Our tax dollars end up in the hands of Palestinian families whose sons murder innocents with bombs. The American political establishment has always known about this. When Hillary Clinton talked recently about the need for Palestinians to stop incitement against Jews, she was simply campaigning. Like she has for the past quarter-century and apparently will do again through 2020.
But it didn’t mean anything. She doesn’t care about incitement or the murder of Jews. Nor do most of those in the Democrat political establishment.
Trump does, though. This could have long-range consequences, and is perhaps already paying dividends.
According to ABC News:
“The U.N. has stopped supporting a Palestinian community center in the West Bank that was named for a woman who participated in a deadly 1978 attack in Israel.
“Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s office said in a statement Sunday that the U.N. withdrew its support after learning the center was named for Dalal Mughrabi.
“’The glorification of terrorism, or the perpetrators of heinous terrorist acts, is unacceptable under any circumstance,’ Guterres’s office said. ‘The U.N. has repeatedly called for an end to incitement to violence and hatred as they present one of the obstacles to peace.’”
For the virtually immoral UN to make such a statement is nothing short of remarkable, and must be a direct result of the “new sheriff in town” attitude of Trump. In other words, though the lying media undermine Trump at every turn, he is still able to affect great change, and the behind-the-scenes pressure his team is putting on the previously disingenuous PA is a breath of fresh air.
This will be a fascinating development to watch going forward. One of the more important issues in the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.