Trump orders closure of PLO offices in D.C.

Red State reports on Trump's order to close the PLO office in Washington D.C.

In the past eighteen months, the administration has green-lighted increasing the population density in some Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Jerusalem has been recognized as the capital of Israel, the US has just cut some $300 million from the UNRWA–the UN agency that funds anti-Semitic propaganda and discourages Palestinian “refugees” from assimilating in their host nations–and, last week, our ambassador said he could not imagine a situation under which Israel would relinquish the Golan Heights, clearly implying that US recognition of Israel’s conquest of that area was being considered. Today, however, the hammer came down.

In 1994, as a bit of baksheesh for participating in the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, aka the Palestinian Authority, was allowed to open what amounted to an embassy in
Washington, DC. The idea was that recognizing the PLO with some trappings of statehood would result in the PLO leadership acting like the leaders of an actual nation. That certainly worked well. While numerous members of Congress have criticized this decision over a quarter of a century, the stupidity of rewarding Palestinian intransigence acquired a life of its own. Until today:

"The Administration has determined after careful review that the office of the General Delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington should close. We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November 2017. However, the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel. To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise. As such, and reflecting Congressional concerns, the Administration has decided that the PLO office in Washington will close at this point. This decision is also consistent with Administration and Congressional concerns with Palestinian attempts to prompt an investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court."

Read more here.

Kerry stands with the Palestinian terrorist protectors

Traitor John Kerry violates the Logan Act by sending a message to Palestinian terrorist protector Abbas telling him "Don't give in to Trump." He also told Abbas that he is thinking of running for president in 2020. Read more here.

Hat tip to Ace of Spades, who adds,

I was told it was a crime when Trump aides, during the transition, reached out to foreign leaders.

"We have one president at a time," the Washington Post and other DNC front groups intoned.

Well?

Where is the call for a special prosecutor now?

Rewarding their terrorists

From the Right Scoop:

The Palestinian Authority paying jailed terrorists and their families salaries has finally become a big deal in the US, as it should.

However, Mahmoud Abbas, even just a few days ago, has said he will NEVER stop paying these salaries to jailed terrorists and their families:

INN – Abbas’ Fatah movement posted the pledge on its official Facebook page on Sunday.

“‘Even if I will have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary (rawatib) of a Martyr (Shahid) or a prisoner, as I am the president of the entire Palestinian people, including the prisoners, the Martyrs, the injured, the expelled, and the uprooted,” Abbas was quoted as saying.

Here’s how much money they spend on these terrorist salaries:

According to the 2016 PA budget, the PA currently pays 26,800 families of “Martyrs” a total of 660 million shekels ($183 million) per year, and 6,500 terrorist prisoners receive PA salaries amounting to 486 million shekels ($135 million) per year.

That’s a combined $318 million dollars each year they pay terrorists. Broken down that’s over $7,200 to each of 26,800 families and almost $21,000 to each of 6,500 jailed terrorists!

For comparison, the minimum wage in the West Bank equates to about a $5,000/yr salary and many people make less than that.

So how much does the US contribute to the Palestinian Authority?

According to CNS News for last year:

American taxpayers will account for $442 million in aid to the P.A. in FY 2016.

Fox News reported this year that we give over $300 million each year to the P.A.

So one might easily conclude that we are giving the P.A. the money to pay these terrorist salaries, which is absolutely outrageous!

This is why all US foreign aid dollars (and aid from other countries) to the Palestinians need to cease immediately! If they refuse to stop paying these terrorist salaries, then let them go bankrupt!

This is something so easy for Congress and Trump to do together. Forget about a phony peace deal and make this happen!

"There is no upside to Trump's move."

Caroline Glick reports,

...The US’s chief challenge in the Middle East today is to form a coalition of states and actors that can help it stem Iran’s rise as a nuclear-armed, terrorism-sponsoring regional power. The members of such a coalition are clear.

Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE stand united today in their opposition to Iran, its nuclear program, its support for Sunni and Shi’ite jihadists and terrorist groups, and its moves to establish an empire of vassals that spans westward through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, southward to Yemen and eastward through Afghanistan.

The members of Iran’s coalition include its Lebanese foreign legion Hezbollah, the Assad regime, the Shi’ite militias in Iraq, Hamas, other Sunni terrorist groups aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and Yemen’s Houthis.

By embracing the PLO, rather than build and strengthen the anti-Iranian alliance of Israel and the anti-Iranian, anti-Muslim-Brotherhood Arab states, Trump is tearing that alliance apart. In its place he is cobbling together an anti-Israel alliance comprised of Iran’s allies in Qatar and to a degree in Turkey, the PLO, and at least passively, Hamas. This anti-Israel alliance is supported, grudgingly, by the Saudis, Egyptians and others who cannot afford to be seen abandoning the Palestinians.

In other words, by embracing the PLO, Trump is strengthening Iran and its supporters at the expense of Israel, the US-aligned Sunni states and the US itself.

...by embracing Abbas and the PLO on Wednesday, Trump empowered Hamas. He signaled to Hamas – and to every other terrorist group in the Middle East – that to receive international support, including from his administration, all you need to do is say that you are willing to follow the PLO’s dual strategy of engaging simultaneously in terrorism and political warfare and subterfuge.

There is no upside to Trump’s move. It will not bring peace. It harms prospects for peace by empowering Abbas and his terrorist henchmen.

It will not strengthen Israel. It places Israel on a collision course with the Trump White House and undermines its regional posture.

It will not help the US to build a coalition to defeat Iran and its vassals. It subverts the coalition that already exists by embarrassing the Sunnis into siding with terrorists against Israel.

It does not advance the US war on terror. It empowers terrorists to kill Israelis and others by using US tax revenues to fund the PA, providing a blueprint for other terrorists to wage political war against the West and Israel.

And it harms Trump by alienating a key constituency and undermining his relations with Congress.

It is hard to see how Trump, now committed to this dangerous folly, can walk away from it. But to diminish the damage, a way must be found, quickly.

Read more here.

KGB agent Abbas

At Front Page Magazine Carolyn Glick writes about Russian subversion and the KGB career of PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas.