Moving the USA embassy to Jerusalem has increased tensions with Palestine. Trump’s rhetoric is based in falsehoods, but, what else is new? Palestine now turns to Europe for help with a lasting peace in the Middle East.
By Adam Rasgon
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center right, greets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, center left, during a group photo at a meeting of leaders at an EU-Arab summit at the Sharm El Sheikh convention center in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (click here) urged European states on Sunday to play a greater role in mediating the peace process and recognize the “State of Palestine,” contending that the absence of such recognition was a betrayal of European values.
“Has the time not come for European states that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine to do so, especially in light of your belief in the two-state solution?” Abbas said in a short speech at a two-day summit of Arab and European leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort city....
Does anyone know what Jarad Kushner's Middle East peace plan actually looks like? The peace talks are floundering and there is increased issues with problems within Egypt which distracts from issues internationally.
March 10, 2019
Egypt’s president (click here) is appointing a military officer to lead the country’s transportation ministry, less than two weeks after its minister resigned over a deadly February train crash in Cairo that killed 25 people.
The general turned president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, says that Maj. Gen. Kamal el-Waziri, who heads the military’s engineering authority, is awaiting approval from parliament to replace Hisham Arafat as transportation minister....
There is a tax dispute now between Palestine and Israel which has resulted in salary cuts of 40 percent within the Palestinian government. The two parties are deadlocked with increasing tensions and no end in sight.
February 20, 2019
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (click here) said Wednesday he would not accept partial payment of tax transfers owed by Israel, which decided to withhold reimbursements in retaliation for payments to prisoners jailed for attacks.
"We shall not accept the (tax) money if it is not paid in full," Abbas told a central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Israel's security cabinet on Sunday approved the freezing of $138 million (122 million euros) over the Palestinian Authority's payments to prisoners jailed for attacks on Israelis.
Abbas also said he would not end financial support for the families of Palestinian attackers imprisoned or killed by Israel....
PM Benjamin Netanyahu is up on corruption charges.
February 28, 2019
By Daniel Estrin
After months of anticipation, (click here) Israel's attorney general has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is preparing to indict him on corruption charges.
It's a major blow to the long-serving premier and Trump ally, though not a final decision on an indictment. Netanyahu will still have a chance to hold off any indictment during a court hearing. And in the meantime, he remains in office and seeks reelection in April.
If Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit decides to press charges, which expert expect he will do, it would be the first time a sitting prime minister in Israel has been indicted.
The announcement shakes up Israeli politics just six weeks before voters decide whether Netanyahu gets another term. He has been serving as prime minister for a decade....
And the Jewish people are interested in one thing and one thing only, a peace proposal in Egypt.
March 10, 2019
By Tovah Lavaroff
Support remains (click here) high for Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt, almost 40 years after it was signed on March 26, 1979, according to a new poll by Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Truman Research Institute.
An Internet poll conducted among 400 Jewish Israelis and 100 Arab Israelis found that 82% of respondents held that the peace treaty was essential for Israel’s security....
There has been a marked increase in violence between Israel and Palestine under Netanyahu and Trump have joined forces, with casualties at the Israel border of young adults that are Palestinian. What began as a peace demonstration at the border has turned into violent confrontations because the IDF only sees those at the border as threats and not the hope of young Palestinians for peace.
With all the problems currently besetting Israel in a profound way, it is easy to say the Trump support for Israel is a failure. Trump has been in office for more than 2 years and there is still no concrete evidence of a peace proposal. One would think that if Netanyahu had negotiated a peace plan with the USA it would enhance the elections, but, nothing is being reported YET about the long anticipated Kushner peace plan.
8 March 2019
United Nations - US President Donald Trump’s Middle East adviser (click here) Jason Greenblatt met with the UN Security Council on Friday but gave no details of a much-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, diplomats said.
“There were no details,” Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi told reporters after the closed-door meeting. “There was a discussion from our side about the plan.”
The plan is expected to be released after the Israeli elections in April, but the Palestinians have already rejected it as biased in favor of Israel.
The Palestinians have refused to talk to the Trump administration since the US president recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017....
