Posted on 12/24/2017 2:43:25 PM PST by fluorescence
The disconnect between the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas and the US administration of President Donald Trump has widened still further, Israeli TV reports claimed Sunday night.
Abbas is said to have told all PA officials that Trump is “a lost cause” and to have ordered the PA to sever all contacts with US diplomatic officials, including those of the US consulate in East Jerusalem responsible for Palestinian affairs.
The US administration, for its part, was reported to have indicated that it is seeking a Palestinian interlocutor other than Abbas with whom it might be able to do business.
The unconfirmed reports, on Israel’s two main television stations, follow Abbas’ declared refusal to have anything further to do with Trump’s peace team in the wake of the American president’s December 6 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announcing the intended relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.
According to Hadashot TV news, Abbas has made clear to his aides that he is “not merely closing the door” on further dealings with the Trump administration, “but also throwing away the key.”
Abbas canceled a planned meeting last week with US Vice President Mike Pence (who subsequently postponed his entire trip to the region because of domestic imperatives), and made plain that neither he nor any PA leaders would meet with Trump peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, who has been here in recent days. Abbas said last week that he would not accept any Trump administration peace plan and reiterated that the US could no longer serve as a peace broker. Now, the TV report said, Abbas has instructed the entire PA apparatus to sever contacts with all US officials, including those at the US consulate.
The same report quoted an unnamed US official source saying that the Trump administration will not present its intended peace plan so long as Abbas is boycotting the Trump team.
The source said the US recognizes that the Palestinians need a “cooling off” period after the Jerusalem declaration, that the US remains committed to achieving an accord, that it has no intention of seeking to impose one, but that it still hopes Abbas will change his stance.
Abbas, however, realizing that the US plan will not meet Palestinian demands, has no intention of lifting his boycott of the Trump administration, the report said.
The report asserted that this sequence of events represents good news for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has now secured US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but will not have to worry about US pressure for concessions to the Palestinians in the foreseeable future.
Responding to the Hadashot news report, a White House official was dismissive. “Apparently, the outlet that has reported this hasn’t been paying attention over the past several months,” the official told The Times of Israel. “As we have said over and over again, we will not impose a peace deal. That is not news. We anticipated a cooling off period and remain as committed to peace as ever and are working hard on our plan, which we will present when the time is right.”
A second report, on Channel 10 news, offered a slightly different narrative, based, it said, on Palestinian sources. According to this report, the US has indicated that it would like to find an alternative Palestinian leader — one who is prepared to deal with the US administration.
This notion, the TV report said, was “worrying” for Abbas and his loyalists, particularly since two names being mentioned as possible alternative Palestinian leaders are Mohammad Dahlan, a former close aide and now a bitter rival of Abbas, and Salam Fayyad, who Abbas ousted as PA prime minister and who is highly regarded in Washington.
The Channel 10 report further stated that Trump has been working with Saudi Arabia to try to pressure Abbas into accepting the intended US peace plan, and that the Saudis have warned Abbas that if he does not do so, he will need to resign. Reports to this effect have been circulating in the region for weeks, even as Saudi leaders have criticized Trump’s Jerusalem declaration and publicly backed Abbas’s demand for East Jerusalem to serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
In his December 6 declaration on Jerusalem, Trump stressed that the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city would still have to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians. His speech, welcomed by Netanyahu and Israeli leaders across most of the political spectrum, infuriated Abbas and regional leaders because it was perceived to be prejudging the fate of the disputed holy city. At the UN on Thursday, a resolution rejecting Trump’s move was approved by 128 votes to 9; the resolution had been vetoed by the US in the Security Council two days earlier.
Abbas has encouraged a series of “days of rage” in the territories since Trump’s declaration. The Islamist terror group Hamas, which rules Gaza and seeks to destroy Israel, has been demanding a violent new intifada.
Satanic mass- murdering abbas continues to receive headline 24/7 coverage by the sold-out mass propaganda media Where is cia ( or Mossad) ?
This old mass murdering Satan-wannabe Muslim has made hundreds of millions of dollars pretending to wanna talk while shooting tunneling and bombing innocent human beings ——its only the Nazi attitudes inside the western governments that enable and fund and arm this farce. Let’s cut off all funding and weapons to the Muslim twrrorists NOW !!!! Obama’s gone, we need to end the damage he’s caused us —- and cerTainly STOP doing more ! No more money or arms to the Fakestinians and kick them all out of USA right away too!
Cutting off the Trump administration is a petulant move and tactic.
He hasn't figured out they don't care...
Are they going to wait until 2020 to see if Trump loses.
That works for me! Who the heck gave that a$$ a key anyway? I want a refund of that $294 mil the USA directed to UNRWA, we could use that here to put up MAGA banners.
Would not be shrewd.
Does this mean he will refuse to take our money?
I think they are going to deal with the French, or maybe the Russians. The United States has is not a player any more.
Trump has single handedly destroyed the 70 year peace process. We were so close to a final solution
Good. Why does the United States have to take the lead on this forever? Why do they need a peacebroker? Let them hash it out themselves. There will never be peace in the Middle East so long as they cling to their tribal cultures. And, the conflict is a jobs program. None of these countries stand to gain anything with peace.
Good. Why does the United States have to take the lead on this forever? Why do they need a peacebroker? Let them hash it out themselves. There will never be peace in the Middle East so long as they cling to their tribal cultures. And, the conflict is a jobs program. None of these countries stand to gain anything with peace.
Ole Mahmood is 82, he’d better take his shot at peace, or take his dirt nap “leaving his people’ still “wandering in the desert.”
Guess he had to tear his mouth way from the US government nipple to say that
Good. Abbas and the Fakestinians don’t want a two star solution. They want to drive Israel into the sea. EFF them.
Mahmoud Abbas is going on 83 years old.
Time for him to go “spend more time with his family”, or some such.
His time has passed.
Yes. Cut him off!
Sorry, but that has never been the case. I’ve made use of the consulate on occasion. It services both Jews and Arabs. Back when it was on French Hill, it looked like a food stamps office. Its new location is much more stately.
Do me a favor, Abbas.
When the $$ runs out they'll come running back for even less $$ than before.
Time for Israel to begin turning off the water & electricity next, since the money to pay it is gone.
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