More on Kushner and company.

First thing to understand is Trump's "Peace Initiative" is a sham. The only thing he is trying to do is to keep the region from exploding. He is under pressure from the Arab countries to do something to make life better for the Palestinians - not necessarily to get them their own state. The Trump administration does not want protests erupting in Arab states because the Israelis do something dumb to the Palestinians. Between Jason Greenblatt, David Friedman and Kushner the information Trump gets on Israel is very heavily skewed. Friedman especially but also Greenblatt to a lesser degree strongly favor the concept of the Greater Israel. While not advocating a complete return of the Kingdom of David, they strongly believe parts of Jordan, Lebanon, the Sinai and Syria BELONG to Israel as G-d promised. I've attended numerous Jewish events in New York City where Friedman and Greenblatt have spoken and they do not hide in any way their dreams for Israel. Israel is getting stronger by the day compared with it's rivals in the region. This strength eliminates the need for any concessions to the Palestinians. For the foreseeable future there will be no Palestinian state, no citizenship for West Bank Palestinians etc. The U.S. declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel even though our embassy is in Tel Aviv sounds like a Trump engineered compromise that will mean absolutely nothing to further a peace agreement. For Israel when they say Jerusalem they mean the territory right up to the border of Ramallah and including Maale Adumim whose municipal boundaries extend all the way to Hebron - a huge chunk of the West Bank. Trump would have pissed off the Palestinians far less if he had just said he was moving the embassy to West Jerusalem. This comment “If you want to look for a silver lining, this administration has been accumulating pro-Israeli credentials,” the former Israeli official said. “When they table a deal, it will be very hard for this [Netanyahu] administration to say no.” Whoever made this comment really will not admit how Israel negotiates. They will graciously say thank you when they get concessions but with their next breath will ask " how about this and that". They will continue to collect concessions until they get 100% of what they want.  jdledell

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This was a draft comment from jdledell.  He has great personal knowledge of the subject.  pl

Comments

[A.Pols]

From the time when the USA became Israel's "guardian angel" there has always been a sham going on. "Peace Initiative" has a nice fresh ring to it instead of "Peace Process", one of history's longest running diplomatic shams.
It's hard to compromise when when one party only wants the disappearance of the other.
The Israelis have spent the last 70 years trying to make life so unendurable for the Palestinians that they would all emmigrate, but they are so stubborn and they "keep breeding". Hence the Israelis continue to be stuck with them and just can't make them go away. And, meanwhile we are joined at the hip with Israel in a partnership that paralyzes open dialog about it here and poisons our relations with a disproportionately larger group in the rest of the world.
Cui Bono?

[Richardstevenhack]

Meanwhile Israel continues to try to up the ante by conducting yet another missile strike on a Syrian military location, this time using ground to ground missiles. This time Syria claims to have shot down approximately half the missiles. This follows the previous attack on Friday.

Apparently the temper in Israel is that war is coming because Bibi needs one.

An ominous warning: ‘Netanyahu needs a war with Iran. And he needs it soon’
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/12/ominous-warning-netanyahu/

I think at some point if these air and ground strikes against Syria continue that Russia is going to have to step up and demonstrate that it could seriously damage Israel. Of course, Russia doesn't want a war with Israel. But Israel doesn't want a war with Russia, either. A single pin-prick Russian strike on an Israeli airbase that is conducting these attacks on Syria might bring that home to Bibi. The US won't do anything about it except moan in the UNSC. If Russia brings up these illegal strikes by Israel first in the UNSC before doing anything directly, the US would be left hanging.

Last year when Obama was considering imposing a "no-fly zone" on Syria, Russia explicitly said that anyone attacking the Syrian military would be shot down. Obama backed down. It's coming close to the time when Russia will have to include Israel in that regardless of any diplomatic consequences.

Russia is the only power in the Middle East who could theoretically rein in Israel, at least temporarily.

[Babak Makkinejad]

jdledell:

There has not been any evidence for the Kingdom of David over 100 years of sifting the dirt of Palestine.

It is time to conclude that the Kingdoms of David and Solomon were fiction.

Predicating policy on what can charitably be only considered a historical romance is not practical.

Arguing on basis of the Kingdom of Herod would be more sensible but then it would empty the claim to Palestine of all its purported existential religious import and shrink the size of disputed territories.

[Ishmael Zechariah]

jdledell,
re: "Israel is getting stronger by the day compared with it's rivals in the region"
Could you please expand this statement a bit? Given some recent events it is puzzling to me.
Thanks
Ishmael Zechariah

[eakens]

If reports are true, Trump is about to make a monumental foreign policy blunder tomorrow..... all for what?

[Annem]

FOLKS,

This "peace" deal has been cooked up in cooperation between Netanyahu, Kushner and MBS. Abu Mazen was beckoned to Riyadh and told that Palestinians must agree to the offer or he must resign. Should Abu Mazen resign, the triumvirate are counting on someone like UAE-based multi-millionaire and former security boss Mohammad Dahlan, whose influence within the PLO is questionable.

The deal is horrible for the West Bankers and Palestinians in Jerusalem, only made worse by Trump's announcements about Jerusalem and Israel. Jerusalem as defined by Israel spreads up to Hebron, for instance. The Palestinians will be condemned to remain in their Bantustans supervised by the Israeli forces and with Israel allowed to extend existing settlements and initiate new ones by very slowly. Saudi Arabia and Israel are anxious to get the Palestinian issue off their backs and focus attention on what they see as a far more serious matter, Iran and Hezbollah. This obviously pleases Trump as well.

How other Arabs deal with all this at a time when most are bogged down in their own internal problems will be intersting to see. [We do know that El Sisi is on board though we don't know what this means for Gaza. Critics of El Sisi charge that he is preparing for the settlement of some Palestinians in northern Sinai.

Also, we will need to see how the Palestinians and the Euros and others take it all. As for Netanyahu, this distracts public opinion from the four indictments he faces for corruption.

[robt willmann]

There is talk today, 5 December, that president Trump might announce tomorrow that the U.S. is moving its embassy to Jerusalem, or will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, or both. The New York Times newspaper -- which we must say may or may not be accurate -- says so, and there is a more ambiguous article from Reuters--

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/world/middleeast/american-embassy-israel-trump-move.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-israel/trump-tells-mideast-leaders-hell-move-embassy-to-jerusalem-breaks-with-u-s-policy-idUSKBN1DZ04V?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

[The Beaver]

Annem,

Should Abu Mazen resign, the triumvirate are counting on someone like UAE-based multi-millionaire and former security boss Mohammad Dahlan, whose influence within the PLO is questionable.
This has been the goal of UAE monarchy and some Israelis, along with the two poor buggers: Jordan and Egypt, isn't it/

[Kooshy]

I fully agree, I didn’t know having lost the Lebanon and now Syrian war, zillion Iranian and HIzbollah aimed at you and your benefactors’ Arab clients disestablished and limbo makes one stronger than ever. Good to know

[jdledell]

Ishmael - What I mean is that in a conventional war, neither Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in any combination have the kind of military and equipment that could provide a serious existential threat to Israel. A war would cause Israel serious damage but not to the point of threatening their existence. The IAF would have complete freedom to grind up any attacking forces. Compared with 1967 and 1973 Israel's military has been completely modernized while their rivals have not and would have to use a lot of 30-40 year old equipment.

[English Outsider]

Babak - It seems you're right but I don't believe it matters whether it's fiction or not. The Gothic Crimea isn't fiction but no Germans are wanting to reclaim that. Some did a while back but they wouldn't want to now under any circumstances. The ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples cannot be justified in the 20th/21st Century whatever the truth or falsity of ancient history.

[jdledell]

Babek - There you go again, using logic when discussing Israel. There is no logic to the claims, but there is a lot of religious faith. The reality is Israel uses the sacred texts to define the various kingdoms, with a generous benefit to themselves of any ambiguity. On virtually any street corner you can buy maps of the various kingdoms and none of them can be validated with current science. A strong religious faith will always trump logic.

[Jony Kanuck]

Col;

While it's possible that in the twisted picture Trump has of the middle east, doing Israel a favour (Pandora's box?)to get them to give the Palestinians some scrap could move things forward!

Someone who has better knowledge of Islam than me could comment whether this would hasten the day that a Jihad is proclaimed against Israel.

The last Israeli strike against Syria really got my attention though: A couple weeks back I read an Elijah Magnier column that said Hizbollah & Syria see the Golan Hts as unfinished business. this time they are prepared to do something about it. So Syria, in particular has been carefully escalating their response to Israeli attacks. The rabid Israeli response to a couple 20yr old anti air missiles shows it doesn't take much! The western analysis of the last strike says camp for Iranian mercs (Iraqi & Afgani Shia) of which there may be 10k. Hizbollah meanwhile has pulled back into Lebanon & is armed to the teeth. So when Syria shot down several Israeli missiles, I thought the pattern is established.

If I was an Israeli military, I would be disturbed: Hizbollah, SAA & 10k mercs, all battle hardened, well equipped & eager to see Jerusalem.

[Lemur]

how do u view the growing regional clout of Iran and Russia, including their asymmetric capability in relation to Israel?

[Allen Thomson]

Yes, I'd like to see a map showing what is seriously expected by Likud and friends to be Greater Israel.

Euphrates to Nile?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel ?

Mediterranean to, er, what?

Or what?

[J]

If Dahlan is UAE based, and a member of the Palestinian security and legislative bodies, then why is his citizenship Serbia and Montenegro?

My inquiring mind wants to know.

[elaine]

Babak Makkinejad, Here we go again. The last time you started this I
sited the Tel Dan Stele. For reasons unknown you rejected that as any
archaeological evidence of the Kingdom of David (Dawood).

I surfed the net for references to King Solomon (Sulaimen) (David's son) in the Quran. That's your area of expertise, so would you care to explain those
references? Or perhaps the Ethiopian traditions of Sheba & Manalik?
Time for you to prove the whole thing is fantasy. Perhaps pass on the
abrupt polemic & delve a bit into the realm of apologetics. Certainly
Sulaimen had a dad.

[VietnamVet]

jdledell,

When the daughter and son in law are Hasidic Jews it is understandable that the First Family would considered Israelites as chosen ones. Nation states are being superseded by multi-national corporations and their institutions. Democracy and societal good demolished. Five men own half of the world’s wealth. Paranoia is rampart. Donald Trump will fight the “Deep State” with a private spy network:
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-private-spies-deep-state-735091

No one in power in DC places the national interests of the United States first. A few connected families are grabbing it all while they can and pushing their own ideology and religion. Israel is a shining example.

[Dorsey Gardner]

Since our Congressmen are owned by the Lobby (when they aren’t abusing their interns at the taxpayers’ expense), the only way to make a difference is to support the Global Boycott — BDS Movement. Not only does it hurt Israel economically, but it has a far greater effect when it isolates Zionists and their supporters and makes them pariahs.
To enumerate the best response to the endless lies of Israel, let me provide a list:
1. BDS - you can find stickers for BDS online. Put them wherever public announcements are posted, wherever grafitti is found, wherever the Lobby can’t complain. Also, send a check to the BDS organization — you can find it online.
2. Support blogs such as “If Americans Knew,” Council for the National Interest, Palestine Legal, and the Rachel Corrie Foundation. Forget giving to your colleges and universities, they are owned by the Lobby.
3. In the presence of your Jewish friends, refer to Palestine as “Occupied Palestine” never Israel. First of all, it is the correct nomenclature. Second, it will send a message that what they are doing is unacceptable and they will never be successful in controlling the narrative despite all the hasbara from the NYTimes, WAPO, and Harveywood.
4. Read “Holocaust HighPriest” and “Breaking the Spell” by Nicholas Kollerstrom. If you read these books you will never, and I mean NEVER, believe in the nonsense called the Holocaust. Without the Holocaust, the pack of lies that is call Israel disappears.
5. On a more optimistic note, the dirty secret about Israel is that there is a significant out-migration from the Promised Land to, of all places, Germany and elsewhere. When you see a photo of Jewish settlements, do you see any people? Right, its all vacant houses in the middle of nowhere. Israel has been trying to convince Jews to make Aliyah and it ain’t working. Who would want to live in a hellhole surrounded by lunatics with fetlocks and shawls carring AK-47s shooting up the place. The Jews have managed to create Hell-On-Earth. We should let them have it except that the Palestinians are getting caught in the crossfire, US has to pay for it, and it has led to endless destabilization of decent neighbors (I’m not talking about Saudi Arabia) who just want
to live their lives.

[turcopolier]

jdledell

what you say is sadly true and equally true of the other side. Al-Quds is sacred to them. pl

[WJ]

Sir,

What is your take on this fellow Peter P. Strzok II? His back history is purportedly Georgetown, Army Intelligence (his father PP Strzok I is Army Corp of Engineers), and was until recently deputy director of counterintelligence at FBI with focus on Russia and China. He is the fellow who altered Comey's draft to read "extremely careless" instead of "grossly negligent", he interviewed HRC, Mills, Abedin (and gave the latter two immunity); he pushed for the continued payment of Steele in the amount of $50,000 for further Dossier research in the face of some resistance (cf James Rosen); he also interviewed Flynn, and for most of the first half of 2017 and for all of 2016 appears to have been the most important and influential agent working on the HRC-Trump-Russia nexus. James Rosen suggests he has CIA connections as well. The dude has also no internet presence. There is not much information out there on a person who seems to be pretty influential in DC / FBI / Foreign Intel circles. He screwed up, and a lawyer, sent texts, and now is gone. Does he strike you as fishy at all, or is this kind of stuff pretty common for people in his field and position.

[jpb]

Deuteronomy 7:6 6 “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

Jews proclaimed themselves God's 'chosen people', above all ordinary humanity. This idea is an abomination, yet it is accepted and tolerated by ordinary humanity, without question, lest one be condemned as an anti-semite.

The racist ideas of Judaism and their real estate contract with God are a plague on humanity. That Zionists in our midst assert power over all the earth and its nations as their birthright. Only this truth and its consequences will free our nation and the people of the world from the Zionist plague.

[jdledell]

Lemur - Israel has a great deal of respect for Russian military capability, as they should. Israel is pretty careful in Syria not to stick their finger in Russian eyes. I've got a nephew who is a F-16 pilot and his orders when flying in Syria is to stay as far away form the Russian navel base in Tartus as possible.

Iran irritates Israel because of it's support for Hezballah and Israel will continue to try to limit the amount of supplies and equipment sends to Hezballah but other than that it's a standoff between Hezballah and Israel. However, Israel is genuinely concerned about Iran's possible breakout for a nuclear bomb. Israel realizes that it would only take 3 or 4 such bombs to virtually wipe out the country. They have some legitimate concerns that some crazy in Iran could launch such a strike.

However, Israel is NOT going to war against Iran to take out their nuclear capabilities in spite of the Saudi urging. It would be a fools errand since Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Egypt together could not conquer Iran to put an end to Iran's nuclear capabilities. It would take a complete occupation of Iran to put stop this activity and that is impossible given the limitations of those military sources and the size and population of Iran. An added factor that inhibits Israel from attacking Iran is that they do not know how Russia would react.

[turcopolier]

WJ

I know nothing of him other than what is in the press but his partisan interference in investigations appears to be a blot on the honor of the FBI but then I am old fashioned. pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

I am familiar with that single fragment with a partially legible markings that may or may not mean David.
After 100 years and that is the only shred of evidence.