From Ian:
Caroline Glick: President Trump and Jared Kushner Target Hamas in Gaza
PMW: PA: What is “Zionist ISIS-ism”? Israeli MPs visiting the Temple Mount
Caroline Glick: President Trump and Jared Kushner Target Hamas in Gaza
Last week, President Donald Trump’s Middle East team signaled a shift in the administration’s policy for contending with Hamas-controlled Gaza — one no prior administration had the courage to make.Isi Leibler: Trump: A balance sheet
On July 19, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, his special representative for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman published a joint op-ed in the Washington Post in which they made clear that they are walking away from their earlier efforts to rebuild Gaza’s economy as a means of advancing the prospects for a broader peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
(This columnist had argued for exactly that policy just two days before.)
Noting that the blame for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis rests squarely on the shoulders of the Hamas regime, the three wrote:
International donors are conflicted: Should they try to help the people directly, at the certain risk of enriching terrorists, or withhold funding to Hamas and watch the people it is supposed to govern suffer? In the past, investments in badly needed infrastructure have been diverted for weapons and other malign uses, and even the projects that are built are often destroyed as a consequence of Hamas’ aggression. Until governance changes or Hamas recognizes the state of Israel, abides by previous diplomatic agreements and renounces violence, there is no good option.
Kushner, Greenblatt and Friedman acknowledged as well that “the international community also bears some blame.”
“More countries want to simply talk and condemn than are willing to confront reality, propose realistic solutions and write meaningful checks,” they wrote.
The President’s Middle East policy team concluded by noting that the time has come for the international community to base its policy towards Gaza on reality rather than platitudes. In their words, Hamas is the root cause of the endless rounds of war with Israel and the suffering of the people in Gaza.
“Hamas leadership is holding the Palestinians of Gaza captive,” they explained.
“This problem must be recognized and resolved or we will witness yet another disastrous cycle [of war].”
Israel
Trump's election has proved to be a gift to Israel.
Trump was the first American president to formally refer to Israel as an ally. He ended Obama's policy of moral equivocation between Israeli self-defense and Palestinian terrorism and refused to maintain the façade that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a peaceful moderate. He also drastically cut U.S. aid to the Palestinians.
He has made it clear that the U.S. would not tolerate the Palestinian diversion of aid money to reward terrorists and their families.
The administration placed full blame on Hamas for the Gaza escalation of terror.
Envoy Nikki Haley aggressively defends Israel at the U.N. The U.S. also withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council, an organization dominated by anti-Israel tyrants and rogue states.
Despite howls of protest, Trump has fulfilled his electoral promise to move the U.S Embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump and Putin issued an unprecedented joint press statement following their recent meeting in which they explicitly proclaimed their commitment to "work together to ensure the security of Israel." Trump said, "I think that working with Israel is a great thing, and creating safety for Israel is something that both President Putin and I would like to see very much."
To sum up, Trump is clearly calling the shots and rearranging the existing global order.
For Israel, Trump has been like manna from heaven. That does not mean that we endorse all his actions, and we continue to squirm at his cruder outbursts.
PMW: PA: What is “Zionist ISIS-ism”? Israeli MPs visiting the Temple Mount
Abbas' advisor on religious affairs said that the presence of Jewish Israeli MPs in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount, "defiles" the Islamic holy sites and in particular the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rescinded his previous ban on Israeli Parliament members visiting the Temple Mount - which had been in place for nearly three years as a precaution against violence - and allowed them to visit once every three months.
According to PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Netanyahu's decision is no less than a "war crime" and the presence of Jewish Israeli MPs at Islamic holy sites constitutes "defilement":
"The prime minister of the extremist right in the occupation state [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has committed a complete war crime against the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, and particularly at the Al-Aqsa Mosque...
The prime minister of the occupation state is engaging in bullying, arrogance, and Zionist "ISIS-ism" against the members of our people and its holy sites, both in Jerusalem and Hebron, by giving relief, support, and protection to the break-in campaigns of the extremist Jews into the holy sanctuaries in Jerusalem and Hebron, to [the sanctuaries'] defilement, and to the attack on the Muslim worshippers, who have the right to manage their holy sites with complete freedom and without the interference of the tyrannical occupation authorities." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 5, 2018]
Al-Habbash further threatened that "a continuation of the crime mentality led by the occupation government will drag the entire region and the world into a religious war whose results will be disaster for everyone."
In a later statement, Al-Habbash repeated his antisemitic accusation, claiming that "the series of Israeli crimes against the holy sites has severely escalated due to occupation [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to allow the Israeli Parliament members to invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas and defile them." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 11, 2018]
























