11 nov 2016
Top Israel affairs advisor to President-elect Donald Trump tells Israel's Army Radio that the his boss doesn't share the long-held US stance that Israeli settlements should be condemned or they pose an 'obstacle to peace.'
A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump says his boss doesn't think Israeli settlements should be condemned and they don't pose an "obstacle to peace."
Jason Greenblatt's comments to Israel's Army Radio Thursday would mark a stark departure from the long-time American stance that Israeli construction in areas captured in the 1967 Six Day War makes it more difficult to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Greenblatt is the chief legal officer and executive vice president at the Trump Organization. He has been tapped by Trump as his top adviser on Israel.
Israel and the US are close allies but relations were often tense between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly over Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. Netanyahu and Trump have been friends for many years and ties between the two are expected to improve.
After Trump was proclaimed the victor of the presidential elections, Netanyahu posted a Facebook video congratulating the president-elect, describing him as a "true friend" and expressed his optimism about elevating the US-Israeli relationship to "new heights." Later on Netanyahu called Trump, reiterated his belief that he was a "true friend of Israel" and assured him that the US has no greater ally than Israel.
Settler leadership happy with Trump victory
Meanwhile, Trump's victory has put a new, optimistic wind in the sails of the settlement enterprise in Israel, as right wing MKs and West Bank regional council leaders welcomed the Republican's election.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, publicly supported Trump, and expressed his hope that a new path will be made in regards to the West Bank settlements.
"I'm sorry to say this, but the decision to build a new park in the West Bank isn't made by the head of the Regional Council nor by the Israeli government, but on the whims of the President of the United States and how he feels that day," Dagan said.
Dagan, who participated in the opening of the Trump campaign headquarters in the West Bank, and even met with Trump Advisor David Friedman, continued by saying that "we decided that we will no longer sit on the side and watch as world leaders decide our lives, but become involved instead – both for our sakes, and for the sake of our children." Dagan said.
"Trump's announcements were clearly in favor of strengthening Jewish settlement in the West Bank. We regularly host parliamentarians, congressmen, and senators, and have created extensive relationships with high ranking Republican officials," he continued
Dagan then directed his message to the Netanyahu government, saying "we have high expectations for a significant change in how the Israeli government treats Judea and Samaria following the election of a US president who is a friend to the settler movement in the West Bank. We expect an end to the construction freeze, and even more."
Mayor of Ariel Eliyahu Shaviro also welcomed Trump's victory. The mayor added that he believes that the new American president will stand by his pledge of preventing a Palestinian state, and will continue to support building within the settlements, especially in Ariel.
Meanwhile, Acting Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council Moshe Saville said "I'm sure that a new era of bravery and connection to the land has begun."
The settlers also received support from the Bayit Yehudi party, specifically from Party Chairman Naftali Bennett. He wrote on Facebook that "Trump's victory is a rare opportunity for Israel to announce on its withdrawal from the idea of establishing (a Palestinian state) in the heart of Israeli territory, something which would constitute a direct harm to our security and in the justice of our cause. This is the President elect's view as is written in his platform, and this of course must also be what we do as well. Straight, simple, and clear. This is the end of the era of the Palestinian state."
Meanwhile, Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) said "something happened, the change which occurred (on Tuesday) in the US is a fait accompli. One thing must be made clear, the two state solution must be shelved immediately. The government in the US is going to change, and with that so will the terrible freeze on building which was forced on the State of Israel by the previous administration… I call on the prime minister and the entire government to stand behind the settlement of Judea and Samaria, and to announce the building of thousands of housing units today."
Science Minister Ofir Akunis told Army Radio Thursday that, "We need to think how we move forward now when the administration in Washington, the Trump administration and his advisers, are saying that there is no place for a Palestinian state."
A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump says his boss doesn't think Israeli settlements should be condemned and they don't pose an "obstacle to peace."
Jason Greenblatt's comments to Israel's Army Radio Thursday would mark a stark departure from the long-time American stance that Israeli construction in areas captured in the 1967 Six Day War makes it more difficult to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Greenblatt is the chief legal officer and executive vice president at the Trump Organization. He has been tapped by Trump as his top adviser on Israel.
Israel and the US are close allies but relations were often tense between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly over Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. Netanyahu and Trump have been friends for many years and ties between the two are expected to improve.
After Trump was proclaimed the victor of the presidential elections, Netanyahu posted a Facebook video congratulating the president-elect, describing him as a "true friend" and expressed his optimism about elevating the US-Israeli relationship to "new heights." Later on Netanyahu called Trump, reiterated his belief that he was a "true friend of Israel" and assured him that the US has no greater ally than Israel.
Settler leadership happy with Trump victory
Meanwhile, Trump's victory has put a new, optimistic wind in the sails of the settlement enterprise in Israel, as right wing MKs and West Bank regional council leaders welcomed the Republican's election.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, publicly supported Trump, and expressed his hope that a new path will be made in regards to the West Bank settlements.
"I'm sorry to say this, but the decision to build a new park in the West Bank isn't made by the head of the Regional Council nor by the Israeli government, but on the whims of the President of the United States and how he feels that day," Dagan said.
Dagan, who participated in the opening of the Trump campaign headquarters in the West Bank, and even met with Trump Advisor David Friedman, continued by saying that "we decided that we will no longer sit on the side and watch as world leaders decide our lives, but become involved instead – both for our sakes, and for the sake of our children." Dagan said.
"Trump's announcements were clearly in favor of strengthening Jewish settlement in the West Bank. We regularly host parliamentarians, congressmen, and senators, and have created extensive relationships with high ranking Republican officials," he continued
Dagan then directed his message to the Netanyahu government, saying "we have high expectations for a significant change in how the Israeli government treats Judea and Samaria following the election of a US president who is a friend to the settler movement in the West Bank. We expect an end to the construction freeze, and even more."
Mayor of Ariel Eliyahu Shaviro also welcomed Trump's victory. The mayor added that he believes that the new American president will stand by his pledge of preventing a Palestinian state, and will continue to support building within the settlements, especially in Ariel.
Meanwhile, Acting Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council Moshe Saville said "I'm sure that a new era of bravery and connection to the land has begun."
The settlers also received support from the Bayit Yehudi party, specifically from Party Chairman Naftali Bennett. He wrote on Facebook that "Trump's victory is a rare opportunity for Israel to announce on its withdrawal from the idea of establishing (a Palestinian state) in the heart of Israeli territory, something which would constitute a direct harm to our security and in the justice of our cause. This is the President elect's view as is written in his platform, and this of course must also be what we do as well. Straight, simple, and clear. This is the end of the era of the Palestinian state."
Meanwhile, Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) said "something happened, the change which occurred (on Tuesday) in the US is a fait accompli. One thing must be made clear, the two state solution must be shelved immediately. The government in the US is going to change, and with that so will the terrible freeze on building which was forced on the State of Israel by the previous administration… I call on the prime minister and the entire government to stand behind the settlement of Judea and Samaria, and to announce the building of thousands of housing units today."
Science Minister Ofir Akunis told Army Radio Thursday that, "We need to think how we move forward now when the administration in Washington, the Trump administration and his advisers, are saying that there is no place for a Palestinian state."
9 nov 2016
President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Vice President-elect Mike Pence as he gives his acceptance speech during his election night rally, in New York on 9 November.
On a day that most people expected not to see, we can say few things with certainty.
One of them is that Hillary Clinton would have been a disastrous president for those supporting the Palestinian struggle for their rights.
Her failed campaign pitched her as the natural successor to President Barack Obama, the Democrat who just unconditionally handed Israel the biggest military aid package in history.
During the Democratic primary campaign, Clinton marketed herself as a belligerent and violently hawkish ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the Palestinian people.
She vowed to make blocking the nonviolent Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement a priority of her would-be administration.
She went out of her way to campaign against the mildest efforts to hold Israel accountable, including appealing directly to members of her United Methodist Church last spring to vote against divestment from companies that assist and profit from Israel’s occupation.
Clinton positioned herself as an anti-Palestinian extremist at a time when the Democratic Party base showed itself more open than ever to embracing Palestinian rights.
Her extreme support for Israel is just one of the many ways she and her party operatives pandered to donors and revealed themselves to be out of touch with large segments of the country they had taken for granted.
But Hillary Clinton will not be president.
President Trump
The only thing that can be said about President-elect Donald Trump with any confidence is that no one knows exactly what he will do.
Earlier in the campaign he insisted that he would be even-handed in dealings with Israelis and Palestinians, driving many of Israel’s most fanatical and neoconservative supporters into Clinton’s arms.
But facing a backlash, he quickly pivoted, promising Netanyahu he would recognize Jerusalem as the “undivided capital of the State of Israel,” and actively encouraging Israel to continue building colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Trump still showed flashes of unwillingness to appease. After winning his party’s nomination in July, he brushed off a reporter’s question about whether he would follow the “tradition” of other Republican candidates and visit Israel.
“It’s a tradition, but I’m not traditional,” Trump shot back.
Even if these changes reveal an erratic man with no fixed views, Trump’s most pro-Israel positions don’t differ much in substance from the policies of Obama, on whose watch settlement construction more than matched the pace during the term of President George W. Bush.
Visceral fears
In his victory speech last night, Trump returned to a regular theme: “We will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us … We’ll have great relationships. We expect to have great, great relationships.”
That will be little comfort to people in the US and around the world whose visceral fears are stoked by the forces that helped propel Trump’s rise: his racist baiting and incitement against Muslims and Mexicans, his boasts about sexually assaulting women, his denial of global warming and his indulgence of anti-Semitic white supremacists, including the Ku Klux Klan, which gave him its endorsement.
The Israeli counterparts of these vile American racists are celebrating Trump’s victory today.
Netanyahu congratulated Trump, calling him a “true friend of Israel.”
“I am confident President-elect Trump and I will continue to strengthen the alliance between our two countries and bring it to greater heights,” the Israeli prime minister added.
Naftali Bennett, the Israeli education minister who has boasted about his killings of Arabs, hailed the coming Trump era.
“Trump’s victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause,” Bennett said.
But the so-called two-state solution was already dead and Clinton would not have changed that.
Fighting back
The Palestinian cause has already shifted to a struggle for equality against an entrenched system of Israeli occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid anchored and rooted in support from the US bipartisan establishment.
Palestinians were not waiting for the result of the US election to decide which way their struggle would go.
Trump has won, but some things have not changed. Over the last decade, support for Palestinian rights has been rising in the United States, particularly among the young – and in the increasingly diverse Democratic Party base that has been utterly failed by its establishment leadership.
More than ever, people understand that US support for Israel comes not only from the same places where support for white supremacy, mass incarceration, unchecked police violence and US militarism and imperialism are strongest.
It also stems from the liberal, pro-human rights circles that championed Clinton, who more often than not equate colonizer and colonized, oppressor and oppressed, occupation and resistance.
This base has no choice now but to rally from its despair, which at any rate the election of either candidate would have precipitated, to keep organizing and fighting for its rights and the rights of people around the world.
The truth is, we had no choice but to wage that fight anyway.
On a day that most people expected not to see, we can say few things with certainty.
One of them is that Hillary Clinton would have been a disastrous president for those supporting the Palestinian struggle for their rights.
Her failed campaign pitched her as the natural successor to President Barack Obama, the Democrat who just unconditionally handed Israel the biggest military aid package in history.
During the Democratic primary campaign, Clinton marketed herself as a belligerent and violently hawkish ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the Palestinian people.
She vowed to make blocking the nonviolent Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement a priority of her would-be administration.
She went out of her way to campaign against the mildest efforts to hold Israel accountable, including appealing directly to members of her United Methodist Church last spring to vote against divestment from companies that assist and profit from Israel’s occupation.
Clinton positioned herself as an anti-Palestinian extremist at a time when the Democratic Party base showed itself more open than ever to embracing Palestinian rights.
Her extreme support for Israel is just one of the many ways she and her party operatives pandered to donors and revealed themselves to be out of touch with large segments of the country they had taken for granted.
But Hillary Clinton will not be president.
President Trump
The only thing that can be said about President-elect Donald Trump with any confidence is that no one knows exactly what he will do.
Earlier in the campaign he insisted that he would be even-handed in dealings with Israelis and Palestinians, driving many of Israel’s most fanatical and neoconservative supporters into Clinton’s arms.
But facing a backlash, he quickly pivoted, promising Netanyahu he would recognize Jerusalem as the “undivided capital of the State of Israel,” and actively encouraging Israel to continue building colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Trump still showed flashes of unwillingness to appease. After winning his party’s nomination in July, he brushed off a reporter’s question about whether he would follow the “tradition” of other Republican candidates and visit Israel.
“It’s a tradition, but I’m not traditional,” Trump shot back.
Even if these changes reveal an erratic man with no fixed views, Trump’s most pro-Israel positions don’t differ much in substance from the policies of Obama, on whose watch settlement construction more than matched the pace during the term of President George W. Bush.
Visceral fears
In his victory speech last night, Trump returned to a regular theme: “We will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us … We’ll have great relationships. We expect to have great, great relationships.”
That will be little comfort to people in the US and around the world whose visceral fears are stoked by the forces that helped propel Trump’s rise: his racist baiting and incitement against Muslims and Mexicans, his boasts about sexually assaulting women, his denial of global warming and his indulgence of anti-Semitic white supremacists, including the Ku Klux Klan, which gave him its endorsement.
The Israeli counterparts of these vile American racists are celebrating Trump’s victory today.
Netanyahu congratulated Trump, calling him a “true friend of Israel.”
“I am confident President-elect Trump and I will continue to strengthen the alliance between our two countries and bring it to greater heights,” the Israeli prime minister added.
Naftali Bennett, the Israeli education minister who has boasted about his killings of Arabs, hailed the coming Trump era.
“Trump’s victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause,” Bennett said.
But the so-called two-state solution was already dead and Clinton would not have changed that.
Fighting back
The Palestinian cause has already shifted to a struggle for equality against an entrenched system of Israeli occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid anchored and rooted in support from the US bipartisan establishment.
Palestinians were not waiting for the result of the US election to decide which way their struggle would go.
Trump has won, but some things have not changed. Over the last decade, support for Palestinian rights has been rising in the United States, particularly among the young – and in the increasingly diverse Democratic Party base that has been utterly failed by its establishment leadership.
More than ever, people understand that US support for Israel comes not only from the same places where support for white supremacy, mass incarceration, unchecked police violence and US militarism and imperialism are strongest.
It also stems from the liberal, pro-human rights circles that championed Clinton, who more often than not equate colonizer and colonized, oppressor and oppressed, occupation and resistance.
This base has no choice now but to rally from its despair, which at any rate the election of either candidate would have precipitated, to keep organizing and fighting for its rights and the rights of people around the world.
The truth is, we had no choice but to wage that fight anyway.
8 nov 2016
Tayseer Khaled, member of the executive committee of the PLO and head of the Palestinian Expatriate Affairs Department ( PEAD ), commented on the recent leaks concerning Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, saying that USA administrations have to get used to selling illusions, regarding the so-called “peace settlement”.
Clinton wrote, to her senior advisors, a few days after the Israeli elections, that she believes a “Potemkin peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is better than nothing.”
Khaled added that, according to Wikileaks, Clinton’s senior foreign policy advisor, Jake Sullivan, emailed Clinton on March 23, 2016, with an attached link published by a New York newspaper about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology for his election day statement that “Arab voters are coming in droves, to the ballot boxes.”
Seven minutes later, according to the PNN, Clinton responded positively to Netanyahu’s comments quoted in the article. She wrote that Netanyahu’s apology was “an opening that should be exploited,” and tied it to the promoting of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Khaled said that, to those who follow the track record of US policies, there was nothing new in what Wikileaks had revealed. He added that US policies, as a sole sponsor to the peace process, had actually destroyed precious opportunities of making progress toward a comprehensive and just settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
As a result, Palestinians should learn not to pin hopes on the mediation conducted by Dennis Ross, who works closely with the Likud Party, and is looking forward to continuing his mediation role in Clinton’s era, should she win.
Clinton wrote, to her senior advisors, a few days after the Israeli elections, that she believes a “Potemkin peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is better than nothing.”
Khaled added that, according to Wikileaks, Clinton’s senior foreign policy advisor, Jake Sullivan, emailed Clinton on March 23, 2016, with an attached link published by a New York newspaper about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology for his election day statement that “Arab voters are coming in droves, to the ballot boxes.”
Seven minutes later, according to the PNN, Clinton responded positively to Netanyahu’s comments quoted in the article. She wrote that Netanyahu’s apology was “an opening that should be exploited,” and tied it to the promoting of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Khaled said that, to those who follow the track record of US policies, there was nothing new in what Wikileaks had revealed. He added that US policies, as a sole sponsor to the peace process, had actually destroyed precious opportunities of making progress toward a comprehensive and just settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
As a result, Palestinians should learn not to pin hopes on the mediation conducted by Dennis Ross, who works closely with the Likud Party, and is looking forward to continuing his mediation role in Clinton’s era, should she win.
9 oct 2016
After strong condemnation from Washington of decision to build 300 housing units in the settlement of Shvut Rachel, the prime minister explains to the US secretary of state that the construction is meant to provide an alternative for Amona residents.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken to US Secretary of State John Kerry in an effort to mitigate the latest crisis with Washington over the Israeli government's decision to approve the construction of 300 housing units in the settlement of Shvut Rachel.
Netanyahu told Kerry that the construction in Shvut Rachel is meant to provide an alternative for the residents of the illegal outpost of Amona, which is schedule to be demolished in December after the High Court of Justice determined it is built on privately-owned Palestinian lands.
Netanyahu added that the new housing units will be built only if no other solution is found.
The prime minister has been holding a series of meetings with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and other officials in an effort to find a solution to the Amona crisis and to prevent similar such cases in the future.
Both the State Department and the White House issued unusually strong statements against the decision last week.
"Proceeding with this new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. "Such moves will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from many of its partners, and further call into question Israel's commitment to achieving a negotiated peace."
The White House also issued a sharp condemnation of the decision, saying it undermines the peace process and contradicts assurances from Jerusalem.
"We did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing. "I guess when we're talking about how good friends treat one another, that's a source of serious concern as well."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken to US Secretary of State John Kerry in an effort to mitigate the latest crisis with Washington over the Israeli government's decision to approve the construction of 300 housing units in the settlement of Shvut Rachel.
Netanyahu told Kerry that the construction in Shvut Rachel is meant to provide an alternative for the residents of the illegal outpost of Amona, which is schedule to be demolished in December after the High Court of Justice determined it is built on privately-owned Palestinian lands.
Netanyahu added that the new housing units will be built only if no other solution is found.
The prime minister has been holding a series of meetings with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and other officials in an effort to find a solution to the Amona crisis and to prevent similar such cases in the future.
Both the State Department and the White House issued unusually strong statements against the decision last week.
"Proceeding with this new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. "Such moves will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from many of its partners, and further call into question Israel's commitment to achieving a negotiated peace."
The White House also issued a sharp condemnation of the decision, saying it undermines the peace process and contradicts assurances from Jerusalem.
"We did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing. "I guess when we're talking about how good friends treat one another, that's a source of serious concern as well."