The final fig leaf has just dropped revealing the true nature of the American ‘honest broker’ for the so-called Deal Of The Century. Biased, aggressive, untrustworthy and sitting solidly and without compromise in the Israeli corner.

Thank you, Mr Trump
Thank you, Mr Mike Pompeo
Thank you, Mr John Bolton
Thank you, Ms Nikki Haley
Thank you, Mr David Friedman
Thank you, Mr Nathan Greenblatt
Thank you, Mr Jared Kushner

Why all this largesse on my part towards the declared enemy of the Palestinian people? Because yesterday, my friends and compatriots, the Trump administration performed the cruelest act of strong arm tactics against the Palestinian people by closing the offices of their ‘sole representative’, the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Washington. The reason given for this bullying tactic was that the PLO “has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.”

Really, Mr Trump?

Please tell us what the Palestinian Authority has been doing since the Oslo Accords almost twenty five years ago that were agreed by the then leader of the PLO, Yasser Arafat and signed by his successor, Mahmoud Abbas?

And please, also tell us what twenty five years of compromises by the PLO/PA have given us, the Palestinian people.

As if that wasn’t enough, Mr John Bolton, the chief of Homeland Security confirmed on Monday that the Trump administration had closed the Palestine Liberation Organisation’’s office as “punishment” for calling on Israel to be investigated by the International Criminal Court and threatened the ICC with sanctions and annihilation.

“We will not cooperate with the ICC”, he said. “ We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us”.

Why such venom?

Because the ICC is moving towards prosecuting the USA and Israel for war crimes committed against the people of Afghanistan and Palestine respectively.

Mr Sa’eb Erekat, Secretary General of the PLO, responded to this move by stating, “This is another affirmation of the Trump administration’s policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people.”

While Mrs. Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Council of the PLO, was a little more forthcoming. She described the US government as “extremely cruel and spiteful to persist in deliberately bashing the Palestinian people by denying them of their rights, giving away their lands and rightful capital of Jerusalem”.

“This form of crude and vicious blackmail … once again seeks to punish the Palestinian people as a whole who are already victims of the ruthless Israeli military occupation.”

This, my friends and compatriots, came after the Trump administration recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocated the USA embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Also, it came after the United States of America had withdrawn any financial support for the PA and even more importantly, cut off any and all financial support for UNRWA, further limiting the diet that Israel has enforced on Gaza and other Palestinian refugees for the last eleven years. As if to make the murky waters of American foreign policy totally muddy these announcements came on the tail of a recent visit by Palestinian Security Chief, Majed Faraj and his team to Washington and a meeting with officials, including a face to face between Mr Faraj and Mr Mike Pompeo, ex CIA chief and now Secretary of State.

To the PLO Executive Command, I’m sorry but, as far as America is concerned, you don’t matter. Nothing you say or do will make any difference. The message is loud and clear. Israel is our ally. Israel matters to us and to our national security and interests in the area and you do as you’re told. Or else.

If those people purportedly acting on our behalf need any further explanations as to why they do not matter at all just listen to the words of Mr Netanyahu.

“The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive.”

There you have it in big, bold letters. If the people at the helm of the PLO/PA think that they have an authority think again. If they think that they will ever have a semblance of a contiguous future state on Palestinian soil think again. If they think that diplomacy will get them anywhere think again. The USA has just closed all avenues and Israel continues to flex its muscles.

To the people at the helm at both Ramallah and Gaza, I say this.. the meek shall not inherit the earth.

What next?

Are you going to crumble?

Are you going to be erased from history?

Or are you going to unite and resist?

Jafar M Ramini is a Palestinian writer and political analyst, based in London, presently in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Jenin in 1943 and was five years old when he and his family had to flee the terror of the Urgun and Stern gangs. Justice for the people of Palestine is a life-long commitment.

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org/

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