MGB:_It is good that the Pope is speaking out. No one else seems to speak for the rights of Palestinian Christians. Not Israel and not the Authority and certainly not the United States. Indeed, he should be a party to any talks.
This was a convenient announcement for Trump. His Alabama Senate candidate is looking particularly obnoxious and, unbeknownst to Trump at the time, survivors of sexual harassment are Time’s person of the year, not Trump but maybe some of his accusers. Finally, this announcement took his son’s testimony in front of House Intelligence off the lead of the evening news. Of course, one night’s opportunism has really messed things up in the region.
I urge Palestinian citizens and the rest of the world not to take this media event too seriously. Indeed, don’t take it seriously at all. No rage, no protests. Just give Trump the attention he deserves. Zero.
Luckily, there is no site available to move the U.S. Embassy to. It is still a pipe dream to actually move it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It will take years, if it ever actually occurs. These things can move fast or slow. This will be slow.
Ideally, we should also announce plans for an Embassy to the Palestinian State in East Jerusalem. President Bush advocated that they have elections. The follow-up is to build an embassy to them.
A just Administration would also offer to guarantee Palestinian security and do so with an occupying force. By that, I mean that the IDF needs to leave. No more blowing up houses, no torture, no arbitrary arrest. We should do the same for Gaza. We can then deprive protesters of a target, expel the illegal settlers and help people rebuild their homes. Israel has historically claimed to abide by an American theory of civil rights. It has done an awful job of abiding by those principles. We will take it from there. The Wall will also come down and a new border negotiated, one that moves into the North in Israel proper so that the Israeli Arabs and Palestinians can become one again.
Whether that second state remains an American protectorate or a part of a larger Pan-Arab state depends on what happens in Syria, who has not right to call itself an independent nation any more. Until Jordan’s king steps up, however, all remains unsettled.
If Israel wants remain a single-state, it certainly can, but it must be secular, not Zionist and it must accept some kind of monitoring to assure Palestinians of full democratic rights, including service in the military and the government. Israel claims not to be an apartheid state. Prove it. Put lots of Arabs in the Cabinet, including the occasional Prime Minister. Anything less is abuse of the alien, which Torah frowns upon and while such abuse occurs, there will be no peace and no return of the Commandments to Israel or restoration of the Temple, which Israel probably does not care about but it is part of the American Evangelical wet dream.
This is why Israel should beware Trump bearing gifts.
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