State Department won't help Trump plan Israel policies

Washington Examiner ^ | 1/4/17 | Joel Gehrke

[detective]

President-elect Trump won't get any help from the State Department in implementing Israeli-relation policies opposed by President Obama before his inauguration. "The short answer is no," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "You have one president at a time."

Obama's team invoked that axiom to justify high-profile foreign policy actions in recent weeks, notably his decisions to sanction Russia over the election year cyberattacks and to allow the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israeli settlement construction.

Kirby's statement extended that principle to barring any aid in helping the Trump team prepare to move the United States embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem or recognize Jerusalem as the nation's capital.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

Kirby sucks!

(get it?)

[CommerceComet]

I generally don't have an issue with this, provided that the State Department doesn't deliberately poison the well with respect what they know that Trump wants to do.

Until January 20, sad to say but Obama is still President and the State Department answers to him. However, I think the State Department does have the right to balk at performing actions which deliberately sabotage the new President's known agenda.

[Ancesthntr]

President-elect Trump won't get any help from the State Department in implementing Israeli-relation policies opposed by President Obama before his inauguration. "The short answer is no," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "You have one president at a time."

Frankly, the State Department is correct in this narrow matter - even though the policies that it is currently administering are wholly immoral and against the self-interest of this country. That is, like it or not, obeying the rule of law.

However, in 14 days and about 20 minutes, that will change. I expect that many of those now working at higher levels there will get transferred to the consulate in Thule, Greenland (which doesn't exist yet, but Trump can order the DoD to airlift a few uninsulated double-wides there, and they'll be set up within a day or 2).

[rlmorel]

No, but denying assistance and preparation to the President Elect is a different matter.

"...Kirby's statement extended that principle to barring any aid in helping the Trump team prepare to move the United States embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem or recognize Jerusalem as the nation's capital..."

The key word is "prepare". I hope he fires on the spot any and all State Department hacks that he has the authorization to do it to. It is a fever swamp of liberalism.

[trebb]

That’s OK -Once Trump is inaugurated, there will be cooperation or a serious changing of the guard.

[Ancesthntr]

“This. Why do these people think they are impossible to fire? I would have at least STALLED and said I was looking into it.”

---

Don’t fire them, transfer them to the new State Dept. facility in Thule, Greenland (2 double-wides, uninsulated, to be deployed there by the Army Corps of Engineers on Jan. 21.

[Balding_Eagle]

“Anybody else get the feeling our government was so much worse that we could have ever thought?”

What’s the most shocking to me is how open they are about things.

How bad are the things they are keeping hidden?

[semimojo]

...aid in helping the Trump team prepare to move the United States embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem or recognize Jerusalem as the nation's capital...

Neither of those actions are consistent with the policy of the US.

Why would the State Department spend resources on actions opposed by the Administration they work for? They shouldn't.

[morphing libertarian]

Obama’s Smooth transition

[RegulatorCountry]

John Kirby sounds like a perfunctory, prissy little caricature yanked out of some wooden Ayn Rand novel, which would be all of them.

[LibertyOh]

“... he won the 2016 presidential election by running a campaign in which he never even mentioned this issue. I challenge anyone to find me a Trump TV ad, internet streaming ad, or campaign rally speech where he even mentions anything related to Israel, Palestine, etc.”

While I agree with the opinions on this thread that the State Dept. has no policy implementation obligation to the new administration until Jan. 20, Trump was very clear during the campaign that he planned to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and that he would move the Embassy there. Examples:

March 21, 2016: http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.710188
October 13, 2016: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-vows-to-ignore-un-recognize-jerusalem-as-israels-capital/article/2604528

There are many articles documenting Trump’s stance. Don’t know how you could be so ignorant as to make your statement.

[rlmorel]

Because this is the United States of America, not the United States of Barack Obama or the United States of the Democrat Party.

And because that mindset will change in 14 days. I would not side with a State Bureaucrat liberal POS like Kirby under any circumstances.

What this shows is that the talk of a "smooth transition" is just that, but at least Trump understands that completely, even if a lot of people fall for that claptrap that comes out of the lying mouths of filthy liberals.

What they are doing is deliberate sabotage, nothing else, even though they and others will use the fig leaf of "It isn't policy yet". He isn't asking them to take action before the election. He isn't asking to change policy before the election. It is pure rhetoric to say he is changing policy or taking action in advance of the inauguration and that they are denying him any preparatory assistance because he is not president.

He will be President, and he will change policy. They know that and are simply being obstructionist, doing what liberals do, and I think that is perfectly fine. It shows what kind of people they are, and that has value.

[beethovenfan]

Kirby looks like a poof.

[COUNTrecount]

Short answer....YES!

[Alberta's Child]

You can disregard anything from an address that was given to a lobbying group. By definition a candidate is going to tell those people whatever they want to hear.

Trump actually stated very clearly in the February 25, 2016 Republican candidates' debate that he wanted to take a "neutral" stance on issues involving Israel/Palestine. He was hammered by other (losing) candidates who somehow construed that as an "anti-Israel" stance.

[McGruff]

Fire them all and start over again.

[Alberta's Child]

See Post #95.

[Alberta's Child]

How does the location of the U.S. embassy have anything to do with "terrorism" at all?

Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would fly in the face of the standing U.S. policy on this issue as laid out in the Declaration of Principles (1993) and the Interim Agreement (1995) on Palestine. Israel is a signatory to both of these documents.

[MGunny]

Kirby will be out of a job very shortly. Doesn’t really matter what these professional tax payer funded morons have to say.

[Hugh the Scot]

How about a State Department shut-the-hell-upman then?

Nobody cares about this guy’s opinion, except that it will be used to undermine Trump.