Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that President Joe Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday. Biden is traveling to Israel following the deadly terrorist attacks on the country by the terrorist group Hamas, which is occupying the Gaza Strip. Biden will travel to Tel Aviv to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials ahead of an anticipated Israeli incursion in force into the heavily populated Gaza City. The attacks by land, sea, and air have killed at least thirty Americans. Thirteen Americans remain unaccounted for. The White House has said that some Americans are being held hostage. More than 1,300 Israelis were killed and over 2,800 were wounded. At least 150 are believed to be prisoners of Hamas. Biden will discuss issues including American citizens and others unable to leave Gaza, information about the hostages held by Hamas, civilian causalities, and providing humanitarian assistance. Biden will then travel from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan on Wednesday to meet with King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The Biden Administration has expressed concerns that the coming Israeli offensive combined with the blockade could result in excessive civilian casualties for the Palestinian people. Israel has called for 1 million people in Gaza to evacuate to its southern end. U.S. officials said on Sunday that they have been trying to assist Americans looking to leave the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but to this point, none of the Americans have been able to get out. Republicans, including U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), claim that Biden has been silent about the role they believe that Iran has played in financing Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups. “When Joe Biden took office, Iran was broke,” Tuberville said on the social media site X. “Now, Iran is sitting on billions and bankrolling terrorists. @JoeBiden’s policies have emboldened and funded our enemies.” Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL03) also agreed with Tuberville. “I stand with the people of Israel in the face of the cold-blooded assault that Iran-backed Hamas terrorists have launched on their home,” Rep. Rogers said in a statement. “Israel has a steadfast right to defend itself against attacks on its people, and this barbaric attack will not go unanswered. The U.S. will continue to support our ally through robust security assistance which Israel utilizes in its self-defense. Israel remains the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East – our prayers are with the people of Israel.” Rogers is the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Biden and Blinken have been heavily criticized for their recent allowing of $6 billion in illicit oil sales money go to Iran to facilitate a prisoner exchange involving five American citizens unjustly imprisoned by the Iranian Regime. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Donald Trump peace plan delights Israelis, enrages Palestinians
Trump’s plan envisions a disjointed Palestinian state that turns over key parts of the West Bank to Israel.
Donald Trump hosts Israeli leaders who call his peace plan historic
The Trump proposal is widely expected to be favorable to Israel.
Trump administration backs bill to halt aid to Palestinians
The Trump administration declared its firm support Thursday for a bill that would suspend U.S. financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority until it ends what critics have described as a long-standing practice of rewarding Palestinians who kill Americans and Israelis. The State Department announcement comes nearly six weeks after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee backed the measure. The legislation, which is named after an American who was stabbed to death in Israel by a Palestinian, reflects bipartisan outrage over what lawmakers have termed a “pay to slay” program endorsed by the Palestinian Authority. “The Trump administration strongly supports the Taylor Force Act, which is a consequence of Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization’s policy of paying terrorists and their families,” the State Department said. The department added that President Donald Trump “raised the need to end any part of this program that incentivizes violence against Israeli and American citizens with President Mahmoud Abbas last May in both Washington and Bethlehem.” But the Palestinian Authority has disputed the accusations and called the bill misinformed. Husam Zomlot, chief representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to the U.S., said last month that the program is more than 50 years old and is aimed at giving support to families “who lost their breadwinners to the atrocities of the occupation, the vast majority of whom are unduly arrested or killed by Israel.” One of the bill’s main sponsors, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the Palestinian Authority has created monetary incentives for acts of terrorism by paying monthly stipends of as much as $3,500 to Palestinians who commit acts of violence and to their families. The amount of the payment depends on the length of the jail sentence they receive for the crime, he said. Corker is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Palestinians have argued that ending Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem – lands that Palestinians seek for their state – is key to defeating terrorism. Taylor Force was an MBA student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and a West Point graduate who was visiting Israel in March 2016 when he was killed. Force was from Lubbock, Texas. His parents live in South Carolina. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Palestinian Authority praised Force’s killer as a “heroic martyr.” He estimated that the Palestinian Authority has paid $144 million in “martyr payments” over the years. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Jared Kushner leading Donald Trump delegation to Middle East
White House adviser Jared Kushner is leading a delegation to the Middle East on behalf of President Donald Trump to discuss the possibility of resuming the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A White House official said Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, left Sunday along with Jason Greenblatt, envoy for international negotiations, and Dina Powell, deputy national security adviser. They were in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday and expected to be in Israel on Wednesday, the official said. They were planning to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the private meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity. The three were expected to meet leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt during their trip. Kushner, Greenblatt and Powell have been heavily involved in a behind-the-scenes process to help Trump broker peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, which the first-year president has called the “ultimate deal.” The talks this week are aimed at helping forge a path to substantive peace negotiations, but no major breakthroughs are expected. Trump has not outright endorsed the two-state solution, which has been at the heart of U.S. policy for nearly two decades. The president has urged Israel to show restraint in settlement construction but not demanded a freeze, disappointing the Palestinians. Trump also pushed back a decision on his campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Israel has welcomed the promise, while the Palestinians have strongly opposed it. In Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Kushner and other U.S. officials met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a report on the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Their talks included “realizing a genuine and lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis and to bring about security, stability and Middle Eastern prosperity,” as well as cutting off support for extremists, the report said. The trip to Saudi Arabia comes as no surprise as the kingdom hosted the first overseas trip of Trump’s presidency. Saudi Arabia is now engulfed in a diplomatic dispute with Qatar, another U.S. ally nation in the Gulf that hosts a major American military base. Qatari media reported Kushner and the American officials also met that small country’s ruling emir on Tuesday as well. . Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Donald Trump charts new Mideast course; maybe no separate Palestine
Charting a striking new course for the Middle East, President Donald Trump on Wednesday withheld clear support for an independent Palestine and declared he could endorse a one-nation solution to the long and deep dispute between Palestinians and Israel. The American president, signaling a new era of comity between the U.S. and Israel after rocky relations under President Barack Obama, said he was more interested in an agreement that leads to peace than in any particular path to get there. Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump broke not only with recent U.S. presidents but also distanced the United States from the prevailing position of much of the world. While Trump urged Netanyahu to “hold off” on Jewish settlement construction in territory the Palestinians claim for their future state, he offered unwavering support for Israel, a pledge he appeared to substantiate with his vague comments about the shape of any agreement. While it once appeared that a two-state solution was the “easier of the two” options for the Palestinians and Israel, Trump said he’d be open to alternatives. “I’m looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like,” he told reporters. “I can live with either one.” The United States has formally backed the two-state solution as official policy since 2002, when President George W. Bush said in the White House Rose Garden that his vision was “two states, living side by side in peace and security.” In practice, the U.S. already had embraced the policy informally. President Bill Clinton, who oversaw the Oslo Accords in the 1990s that were envisioned as a stepping stone to Palestinian statehood, said before leaving office that resolution to the conflict required a viable Palestinian state. Separately on Wednesday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Netanyahu to end settlement building and expressed “willingness to resume a credible peace process ” Also on Wednesday, CIA chief Mike Pompeo secretly held talks in the West Bank with Abbas, the first high-level meeting between the Palestinian leader and a Trump administration official, senior Palestinian officials said. The White House wouldn’t comment on the meeting All serious peace negotiations in recent decades have assumed the emergence of an independent Palestine. The alternatives appear to offer dimmer prospects for peace, given Palestinian demands for statehood. Dozens of countries, including the U.S., reaffirmed their support for a two-state accord at an international conference in Paris last month, before Trump’s inauguration. In Cairo on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “There is no Plan B to the situation between Palestinians and Israelis but a two-state solution. … Everything must be done to preserve that possibility.” At one point Wednesday, Trump noted the need for compromise in achieving any Mideast peace. Netanyahu interjected: “Both sides.” On terrorism and other matters, there appeared little daylight between the leaders. Echoing language used by Trump over a need to combat “radical Islamic extremism,” Netanyahu said that for peace to be sustainable, two “prerequisites” must be met: “Recognition of the Jewish state and Israel’s security needs west of the Jordan” River. While a two-state solution would involve Israel ceding occupied territory that is strategically and religiously significant, many in the country believe a single binational state would be even more difficult to maintain. It would mean granting millions of Palestinians citizenship and voting rights, threatening Israel’s Jewish majority and its Jewish character. Trump’s campaign platform made no mention of a Palestinian state, and his inner circle included allies of the West Bank settler movement. A delegation of settlement leaders was invited to Trump’s inauguration. But after weeks of dancing around the issue of expanded Israeli settlement construction, Trump asked Netanyahu to “hold back on settlements for a bit.” In recent weeks, Netanyahu has approved construction of more than 6,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast War. He also allowed Parliament to pass a law retroactively legalizing some 4,000 settlement homes built on private Palestinian land. Still, Netanyahu indicated he was open to some sort of arrangement. “We’ll work something out but I’d like to see a deal be made. I think a deal will be made,” he said. And Naftali Bennet, the head of Israel’s pro-settler Jewish Home Party, hailed the new atmosphere between Trump and Netanyahu, saying: “The Palestinian flag was today lowered from the mast and replaced with the Israeli flag.” American presidents have long struck a delicate balance in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stressing the close U.S. friendship with Israel but also sometimes calling out Israel for actions seen as undermining peace efforts, such as expanding settlements. Trump and Netanyahu also were to discuss Iran and the president’s campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Trump said that he’d like to see the embassy move and said his administration is studying the issue closely. Palestinians and Arab governments have warned that such a move could be deeply destabilizing. After repeatedly clashing with Obama, including over a U.N. Security Council resolution in December condemning Israeli settlements, Netanyahu has seemed relieved by Trump’s arrival. He even recounted his personal relationships with members of Trump’s family, including son-in-law Jared Kushner, whom Trump has previously described as the man who could mediate a Middle East peace deal. “Can I reveal, Jared, how long we’ve known you?” Netanyahu said with a chuckle. “I’ve known the president and his family and his team for a long time and there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
