One of President Trump’s best features is his willingness to take bold and decisive action in contentious situations. Where other presidents and politicians would be scared into submission or inaction due to fear of controversy or bad press, Trump simply doesn’t care, opting to do what wants regardless of what people say.
This is an especially useful style of governance when it comes to various issues that have stagnated and seen no movement over the years, like North Korea and the Israel/Palestine situation. When it comes to the latter, Trump hasn’t kowtowed to the always whining Palestinians. Instead, he’s told them to get their act together or they’ll lose the funding they receive from the US.
As reported at the New York Post, on Thursday, the president reiterated that he’s holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians because they “disrespected” the United States by not meeting with Vice President Pence during his recent tour of the Middle East.
“When they disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great vice president to see them, and we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support, that money is on the table and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace,” Trump said during a discussion with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum.
The Palestinians anger stems from the president’s decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which is seen as an affront to the Palestinian’s belief that they should be in control of the holy city.
“The hardest subject they had to talk about was Jerusalem,” the president said at the global summit. “We took Jerusalem off the table. So we don’t have to talk about it anymore, but they can’t get past Jerusalem.”
He also warned the Palestinians that they had better be an equal partner in the pursuit of peace with Israel.
“I can tell you Israel does want to make peace and they’re going to want to have to make peace, too, or we were going to have nothing to do with it any longer,” he said.
Trump highlighted the realities of negotiations, that each side would be vying to come out on top, which he said is fine. But he reminded them that they must “respect” the procedure itself, and not continually undermine it every time something doesn’t go their way.
“But they have to respect the process also and the fact that the US has given tremendous support to them over the years in terms of monetary support,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens with the peace process, but respect has to be shown to the US or we’re just not going any further,” the president added.
Unsurprisingly, the Palestinians are enraged at Trump’s comments and have declared that negotiations are dead. “If Jerusalem is off the table, then America is off the table as well,” spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told CNN.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to sit down with Pence during his visit to Israel after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and promised to move the US embassy there.
It seems that negotiations have hit another impasse in the decades-old battle between the Israelis and Palestinians. However, once the Palestinians start feeling the pressure from their aid being cut and realize Trump isn’t going to bend, maybe then they’ll come crawling back to the negotiating table.
Source: New York Post