PLO dumps Trump easing way for Jordan-Israel negotiations

T. Belman. Trump has no interest in protecting the King. I believe he will install Mudar in power so that Mudar will rubber stamp Trump’s peace plan if there is one as reported. I am trying to find out if I am right.

Caroline Glick just tweeted that she contacted her State Department contacts and they said the report was fake news.

by David Singer

President Trump’s soon-to-released proposal on resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict will be more readily achievable following the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) confirming it will not participate in implementing Trump’s peace plans.
Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat led the charge:

“No one will deceive us and we will not fall into the illusion that the United States can have any balanced ideas that could lead to the achievement of a real and just peace. Washington has become part of the problem and not the solution”

PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas backed-up Erekat a few days later  – censuring Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and stating  Palestinians believe the US can no longer be the sole mediator in the decades-long conflict with Israel due to America’s pro-Tel Aviv bias.

Abbas declared Trump’s plan would be:

 “an end to the peace process in the Middle East”.

Erekat and Abbas’s acts of  political hara-kiri coincided with Trump’s newly-appointed Secretary of State – Mike Pompeo – visiting Jordan

Jordanian Foreign Minister – Ayman Safadi – welcomed Pompeo with the decades-old Arab mantra:

“[The Palestinian -Israeli conflict]  is, we believe, the main cause of instability in the region, and its resolution is the key to achieving the lasting and comprehensive peace that we want. The two-state solution remains the only path to that peace, as we believe in Jordan, and it is the solution that would allow for the emergence of an independent, sovereign Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the lines of June 4, 1967.

 Yes, that – the two-state solution is being challenged. Yes, there are many obstacles. But I think what is – what is the alternative? We cannot give up in our efforts to achieve peace, nor can we say that there is any viable alternative that we can sustain.”

Pompeo begged to disagree:

“ We’re certainly open to a two-party solution. That’s a likely outcome.”

 Another likely outcome will doubtless be revealed in Trump’s proposal.

Pompeo deferred answering whether the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the most serious threat to stability in the region. He would have been derided had he agreed – given the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Libya.

On Trump’s ultimate deal– Pompeo asserted:

“We understand that ultimately this deal will be agreed to between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but certainly it’s the case that as America continues to be involved in facilitating such an arrangement, we’re doing so in close alignment with Jordan and the Jordanian people so that we’re working together …”

Any PLO refusal to agree to the deal will receive the Trump treatment meted out to Trump-defiers – reduced funding and diplomatic downgrading. Jordan – working in close alignment with Trump – will reap substantial dividends.

Pompeo referred to the five-year Memorandum of Understanding signed by the United States and Jordan in February  committing the US to provide over $6.3 billion in bilateral foreign assistance to Jordan over the next five years – a powerful incentive for Jordan to help Trump bring his proposals to fruition.

Pompeo –  significantly – provided two additional substantial sweeteners:

“We’ll continue to work with Jordan to help the Kingdom defend its borders, always.”

Pompeo was signaling that any PLO attempt to overthrow 95 years of unbroken Hashemite rule in Jordan – unsuccessfully attempted by the PLO in September 1970 – would be rebuffed by American military force.

 Protecting the Hashemite regime and Jordan’s borders  –  coupled with massive injections of American financial aid – could see  Jordan replacing the PLO as  Israel’s Arab partner in implementing Trump’s peace proposals.

Trump – the master deal-maker – may  have just pulled another rabbit out of his magic hat.

David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network

[Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators –  whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades]

May 6, 2018 | 2 Comments »

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2 Comments / 2 Comments

  1. Pompeo said, “Iran was the most disestablishing element in the middle east.”

    Singer has selective hearing, he only hears what fits with his years long obsession with Jordan as a magical solution to the conflict.

    Israel will not in the end be pushed into doing things it does not want to agree to. Security west of the Jordan River will remain totally in Israel’s hand no matter what PROPOSAL Trump’s team comes up with. Also ABBAS REFUSING to deal with the USA means Israel will assert that it has a right to come up with Israeli plans. Bibi has already mentioned this.

  2. I don’t think that Pompeo was talking about the PLO when he said that the US would always defend Jordan’s borders. I believe he was referring to what was going on in Syria, and further afield. Even though,I’m sure he feels that the situation there is well in hand and the potential trouble is receding, it was just a nice political statement to make which meant little and wouldn’t cost anything more than the promised -and puzzling- billions.

    Of course they weren’t promised personally for the King’s use but for the country, and Mudar would be able to get the same advantage minus the “royal skimmin off the top” that always happens with our friend Abdul A-Bul Bully/.