What will the future hold for Palestinians?

In the American Thinker, Ted Belman explains what might be the future of Palestinians

Haley is for real!

At Conservative Daily Post, Martin Walsh reports,

Less than a month after announcing that the United States would be officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Donald Trump’s administration is gearing up to make another big move against the terrorist-supporting regime in Palestine.

The AP reports that the Trump administration is preparing to withhold up to $125 million from the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, a move that would slash almost all of the year’s first contribution.

The U.S. will notify Palestine and the U.N. that the funds will only be reallocated upon major changes to the organization, all of which will ensure America’s best interests are prioritized above all else.

Some reports have speculated that President Trump will send only $60 million of the planned $125 million in the first installment to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, in order to show the corrupt agency that the U.S. is done playing games.

The decision to withhold a big chunk of the funds is supported by both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, where all three believe the U.S. shouldn’t allocate funds to Palestine when they are funding terrorists in the region.

Haley wants the U.S. to completely cut-off all funding to the agency whereas Mattis and Tillerson want to cut only half.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, briefed on the situation and decision being mulled over by the U.S., said he agreed the agency does nothing but perpetuate tensions in the region by siding with Palestine and the terror groups they pop up.

Netanyahu mostly agreed with Haley about cutting all of the funds, which led to a reported agreement with Tillerson and Mattis to propose the $60 million compromise.

Nevertheless, the move signifies Trump’s commitment to support our strongest ally in the Middle East as well as combating terrorist groups in the region.

Trump isn’t going to appease nation’s that support terrorists like former President Barack Obama did for eight years, and Palestine is about the learn that lesson the hard way.

Israel is to blame for terrorism attacks committed by Palestinians?

Highly respected (by me) blogger Ace of Spades is going out on a limb. He advocates the firing of McMasters, Tillerson and Mattis, in that order,

with the possibility that the latter two will learn from the first firing and correct themselves.

What got Ace's ire? This report by Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon.

The State Department is facing harsh criticism for claiming in an official report that Israel is to blame for terrorism attacks committed by Palestinians and accusing the Jewish state of being largely responsible for an impasse in peace negotiations, according to a leading member of Congress who is calling on the State Department to correct its "inaccurate and harmful" characterization of Israel.

...Rep. Peter Roskam (R. Ill.), co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, criticized the latest report in a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and called on the administration to immediately amend it to portray Palestinian terror attacks as a primary reason for the impasse in peace talks.

The State Department's current characterization, Roskam claims, is harmful to Israel and likely to impede efforts by the Trump administration to renew peace talks.

"The State Department report includes multiple findings that are both inaccurate and harmful to combating Palestinian terrorism," Roskam wrote in a letter sent Thursday to the State Department, a copy of which was exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "This report wrongly insinuates Israeli security measures on the Temple Mount and a stalled peace process as key forces behind terrorism."

"Most egregiously," Roskam adds, "it portrays the PA as innocent peacemakers far removed from being the source of terrorist activity."

Read more here.

At least Trump is trying

At Truth Revolt, Carolyn Glick writes,

...On Thursday, less than 48 hours after US President Donald Trump completed his successful visit to Israel, his chief negotiator Jason Greenblatt was back in town.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson set the tone for Greenblatt’s mission when he told reporters aboard Air Force One that during his visit, Trump “was putting a lot of pressure” on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas “to get back to the table” and negotiate a peace deal.

Tillerson went on to explain why Trump is so keen to make a deal.

“We solve the Israeli-Palestinian peace dilemma, we start solving a lot of the peace throughout the Middle East region,” he said.

Trump apparently agrees with his secretary of state.

At his joint appearance with Abbas in Bethlehem on Tuesday, Trump said, “I firmly believe that if Israel and the Palestinians can make peace, it will begin a process of peace all throughout the Middle East.”the people of Israel rationally fear the consequences of naturalizing 1.5 million to 2.5 million Palestinians who have been indoctrinated for more than 25 years to seek their annihilation.

...Trump said in Bethlehem that he is interested in spurring Palestinian economic growth. The fact is that the Palestinian economy grew the most when it was integrated in the Israeli economy. Integration with the Israeli economy, rather than handouts to PLO kleptocrats, is the key to Palestinian prosperity.

...In Riyadh, Trump said, “We will make decisions based on real-world outcomes – not inflexible ideology. We will be guided by the lessons of experience, not the confines of rigid thinking.”

It isn’t too late for Netanyahu to come forward. He can offer an alternative to the failed two-state fantasy. He can release himself, his country and Trump from the two-state/one-state cognitive straitjacket.

Trump doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. But absent a clear strategic plan of action from Netanyahu, he will have no choice but to do so.

Read more here.

At the Bookworm Room today

As usual, Bookworm covers some really interesting stories today. In addition to the story about Egypt offering the Palestinians land, there are stories about CRTV ending its relationship with Mark Steyn, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn refusing to be intimidated by the ACLU, Greenpeace admitting that it just tells lies, a report revealing “More than 330,000 households in Germany have seen their electricity cut off over the past year alone.”

Bookworm seconds the Ann Coulter Obamacare Repeal Plan. It doesn’t have to be complicated –a one-year transition period and then let the free market do its work.

There is a piece about troubled homes and transgender confusion, followed by an introduction to Praxis, a 9-month startup apprenticeship program for 17-28-year-olds who want to take a gap year or skip college entirely. After completing a professional bootcamp, participants work 6 months at a growing startup, develop marketable skills and experiences, and receive a full-time job offer upon completion.

Lastly, she links to an article on why mature people support the Second Amendment. Do you see why the Bookworm Room is one of my favorite blogs to read?

Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel against Iran?

Bookworm reports,

There’s land if the Palestinians want it. Did you know that President al-Sisi in Egypt has offered the Palestinians a state that would include Gaza plus 618 adjacent square miles in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula? This offer reflects the fact that the Egyptians, like the Jordanians, Saudis, and every other Sunni Arab state around can’t stand the Palestinians.

With Iran looming on the Iranian, the Sunni nations are becoming more aware that Israel is their bulwark against Iran. If they can get rid of the Palestinian issue — and get the troublesome Palestinians out of their countries — they can unite to face off against Iran. You can read more here.

The Trump administration has frozen Obama’s quiet, last minute cash gift to the Palestinian Authority.

World Israel News reports,

When asked about the transfer by a reporter during Tuesday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that “[Trump] is very concerned about how taxpayer money is spent, whether it’s sent overseas and what we get for it in terms of the relationship or our support for a democracy or aid to another country for their defenses. But he’s going to be examining all aspects of the budget… He’s going to make sure that every deal, every dollar that is spent by the government is done in a way that respects the American taxpayer.”

Read more here.

Paris "peace" summit declaration contains five offensive anti-Israel components

Aaron Klein reports at Breitbart,

Instead of convening a summit on the ongoing civil war in Syria, or the migrant crisis threatening Europe, or the rampant anti-Semitism plaguing its own country, France on Sunday held a convention attended by over 70 nations to affirm the international community’s commitment to creating a Palestinian state.

Klein lists six items included in the final document that were offensive to Israel.

1 – The text draws a moral equivalency between “violence,” which would include Palestinian terrorism targeting civilians, and “settlement activity,” meaning Israelis building homes in the West Bank or eastern sections of Jerusalem.

2 – The declaration calls for Israel to “fully end the occupation that began in 1967,” language that seems to mean that Israel would need to withdraw from the entire West Bank and eastern Jerusalem and thus shrink the country to indefensible borders.

3 – The declaration patronizes Israel by calling on both parties to “restate” their commitments to the two-state solution.

4 – The declaration gives credibility to the so-called Arab Peace Initiative, which threatens Israel’s security.

5 – The Paris declaration “welcomed” UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which passed last month when the U.S. abstained and refers to the entire West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as so-called occupied Palestinian territories while demanding a complete halt to all Israeli construction in those areas.

Read more here, as Klein explains further each of the five points.

Tyrannical savages

Bookworm Room is very angry with the actions of Barack Obama and John Kerry. Her conclusion:

Obama loves to reward evil. Iran sponsors worldwide terrorism for almost forty years, so Obama gives it billions of American dollars and the green light for a nuclear program. Cuba sponsors terrorism and is a prison state for the Cuban people, so Obama gives it full recognition. Why shouldn’t he give the Palestinians — a people who have never had a state, who terrorize their own population, whose ties to the land go back at most 200 years, and who actively work towards the genocide of all Jews in the region — their own state? They’re the kind of people Obama loves: tyrannical savages.

Thanks to Obama’s actions, this can only end with much blood being spilled. I pray that Israel is able to minimize its people’s sufferings. And I pray that Israel completely destroys both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, freeing the people they control from their corrupt, tyrannical rule.

And I pray that God has something horrible in store for Obama, a man of unspeakable evil.

The Left now sympathizes more with the Palestinians than the Israelis

Timothy Lee posts this graph at Freedom Line.

A recent Pew Research survey reveals an alarming and corrosive new reality. The political left in America for the first time sympathizes more with the Palestinians, who effectively deny Israel’s right to even exist and officially celebrate terrorist attacks in Israel, over the Israelis whom they seek to eradicate.

Palestinians celebrate Paris terror attacks

Another UN scandal

Anne Bayefsky shows how the United Nations is

Criminalizing Israel’s efforts to exercise its right of self-defense against a foe openly committed to genocide strikes at the heart of the sovereignty, well-being, and legitimacy of the Jewish state. Demonizing a democratic society that is ready, willing, and able to ensure the accountability of its armed forces is not about protecting Palestinians. It is about endangering Israelis.

Human-rights law is being perverted for anti-human-rights ends, and it is about time human-rights lawyers — and all those who care about defeating the enemies of rights and freedoms — stood up and objected.

Read more here.

Israel, where Arabs have a future

Here is an extract from a speech by George Deek, an Israeli Arab, speaking recently in Oslo: - See more at: http://theatheistconservative.com/#sthash.gJAMHOuD.dpuf

In the Arab world, the Palestinian refugees – including their children, their grandchildren and even their great-grandchildren – are still not settled, aggressively discriminated against, and in most cases denied citizenship and basic human rights. Why is it, that my relatives in Canada are Canadian citizens, while my relatives in Syria, Lebanon or the gulf countries – who were born there and know no other home – are still considered refugees? Clearly, the treatment of the Palestinians in the Arab countries is the greatest oppression they experience anywhere.

And the collaborators in this crime are no other than the international community and the United Nations.

Rather than doing its job and help the refugees build a life, the international community is feeding the narrative of the victimhood.

While there is one U.N. agency in charge of all refugees in the world – the UNHCR, another agency was established to deal only with the Palestinian ones – UNRWA. This is no coincidence – while the goal of the UNHCR is to help refugees establish a new home, establish a future and end their status as refugees, the goal of UNRWA is opposite: to preserve their status as refugees, and prevent them from being able to start new lives.

The International community cannot seriously expect the refugee problem to be solved, when it is collaborating with the Arab world in treating the refugees’ as political pawns, denying them the basic rights they deserve. Wherever the Palestinian refugees were granted equal rights – they prospered and contributed to their society – In South America, in the U.S., and even in Israel. In fact, Israel was one of the few countries that automatically gave full citizenship and equality for all Palestinians in it after ‘48. And we see the results: despite all the challenges, the Arab citizens of Israel built a future.

Israeli Arabs are the most educated Arabs in the world, with the best living standards and opportunities in the region.

Arabs serve as judges in the Supreme Court; Some of the best doctors in Israel are Arabs, working in almost every hospital in the country. There are 13 Arab members of parliament who enjoy the right to criticize the government – a right that they exhaust to the fullest – protected by the freedom of speech; Arabs win popular reality shows; and you can even find Arab diplomats – and one of them is standing in front of you.

Today, when I walk the streets of Jaffa, I see the old buildings and the old port, But I also see children going to school and university; I see flourishing businesses; and I see a vibrant culture. In short, despite the fact that we [Arabs] still have a long road ahead of us as a minority, we have a future in Israel.
- See more at: http://theatheistconservative.com/#sthash.gJAMHOuD.dpuf

Read more here.

What might happen if Joseph and Mary tried to reach Jerusalem today?

David Bernstein writes:

Since Joseph and Mary were Judeans, i.e., Jews, from Nazareth, they wouldn’t need to be afraid of Israeli roadblocks needed to combat Palestinian terrorism, but of being murdered by terrorists from Hamas or Fatah.

As a woman pregnant out of wedlock, if Mary was a Palestinian she’d have a lot more to fear from a potential honor killing than she would from having to traverse and Israeli checkpoint; twenty-seven Palestinian women were victims of honor killings in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013 alone.

Read more here.

Israel must be permitted to quell the jihad

Andrew McCarthy writes:

Only the decisive defeat of the jihadists — the breaking of their will, the demonstration that the culture they’ve bred is hopeless — could conceivably induce the Palestinians to abandon the dream of annihilating the Jewish state. Without the smashing of Hamas and its allies, Palestinians will never make the three concessions that must be non-negotiable if there is to be real peace: (a) acceptance of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state; (b) renunciation of terrorism (or what Islamic-supremacists call “resistance”); and (c) abandonment of the “right of return” demand “that would, by design, end Israel as a Jewish state,” as Alexander Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky recently noted in Forbes.

There is war because the Palestinian conception of peace is the elimination of Israel. That is why Palestinians chose Hamas and its jihad. To emphasize this incontestable fact is not to rationalize civilian deaths — deaths that are caused by Hamas. It is to illustrate that there can be no lasting peace unless Israel is permitted to quell the jihad.

Read more here.

Where the Palestinian factions learned to work together

You have probably heard about the agreement signed yesterday by the top leadership of Fatah and Hamas to reunite their parties. Do you know where these groups learned to work together? In Israeli prisons. Ben Hattem writes a one-sided article here about what he describes as brutal conditions in Israeli prisons.

Palestinians starving in Syria

When Palestinians die in other countries, does anyone notice? Or is it just when they have difficulties in Israel? Khaled Abu Toameh writes,

Palestinians are being starved to death. But this is not happening in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Nor is it taking place in Israel.

Rather, this is happening in an Arab country, Syria, while the international community continues to turn a blind eye to the tragedy.

According to reports from Syria, some 20,000 Palestinians living in Yarmouk face death from starvation as a result of the siege on the camp that began last July.

The Palestinians once again feel betrayed by their Arab brothers, who continue to pay lip service to the Palestinian cause while at the same time starving them to death, killing them and displacing them.

As for the international community, no one seems to be worried about the starving Palestinians in an Arab country. After all, this is not taking place in Israel and no Israelis are involved.