“Bin Salman and the United Arab Emirates are trying to strangle Jordan’s economy until it agrees to their terms, submit to their leadership in the region, and agree to Trump’s so-called ‘ultimate deal’,” Jordanian member of parliament Wafa Bani Mustafa told Al Jazeera last week.
Rami Khouri, professor in the American University of Beirut, has clarified that al-Masri is a “massive figure in Jordan and Palestine.”
“The Jordanian government, when it needs money, turns to the Arab Bank to get some advances (…) So this is a massive sign that Saudi Arabia is sending to Jordan, that ‘we are prepared to rattle your whole economic structure’, and to the Palestinians as well, where Masri is a leading investor (…)
This is basically another move by Mohammed bin Salman, who effectively runs the country, to bring Jordan and Palestine in line with the Saudi wishes to have a close working relationship with Israel and the US to push through an alleged peace plan (…) an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement (…)
Everybody who has looked into this and heard about what it contains … says that this is a totally unrealistic, one-sided Israeli deal that has been pushed by the Americans and now supported by the Saudis,” professor Khouri explained in an interview with Al-Jazeera.
Nikki Haley furious over resolution, describing it as an ‘insult’ and saying the US won’t be told where it can put its embassy
Yep, they made them make it very clear how isolated the US/Israel really are. And yes Haley, you dumb asshole, this IS an insult. Not just to the Palestinians, but a middle finger to the entire world.
Also I have some thoughts on where you can put your embassy.
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Last edited by Watser?; 12-18-2017 at 08:33 PM.
Reason: Good gods, it's a horribly sycophanthic article now that I read it again...
Seven countries - Guatemala, Honduras, Togo, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and the Marshall Islands - joined Israel and the United States in opposing the measure.
"The United States will remember this day," US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the assembly.
So will we, asshole.
Egypt, one of the biggest recipients of US aid voted in favor too, so please, please, please cut that aid and watch them tear up Camp David the next day.
But what about Togo? There too, the vote seems to be more about Israel than the U.S. Togo’s authoritarian ruler, Faure Gnassingbé, has been outspoken about his love for Israel. “I am dreaming of Israel's return to Africa and Africa's return to Israel,” he wrote in a guestbook on a visit to Israel in August, a fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proudly tweeted. Netanyahu has supported Gnassingbé through a period of political turmoil, a decision that led to the embarrassing scene of having to cancel a planned Israel-Africa summit in Togo after pro-democratic protests against Gnassingbé got out of hand. And though the U.S. provides aid to Togo as well, the Togolese were apparently frustrated by American threats to “take names” of anyone who voted yes on the measure. Togo voted no—in support of Israel—but released a statement saying it had done so “despite the threats” from Washington
Guatemala announced it will also move its embassy to Jerusalem, but they may not have thought it trough:
Quote:
Guatemala is the main exporter of cardamom pods that are used with coffee to Arab and Islamic countries with more than $300 million dollars of exports a year. When former President Ramiro J Leon Carpio (1993-1996) made a similar decision to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he was forced to quickly rescind that decision when Arab and Islamic countries closed their doors to the Guatemalan market.
Former vice president of Guatemala, Eduardo Stein (2004-2008), warned of the negative consequences of the decision by Morales, who is facing impeachment on corruption charges.
He said, in a statement published in various media, that this decision will have great economic implications for Guatemalan society and will affect more than 45,000 small-scale cardamom farmers, thus affecting the country’s economy and hurting more than 400,000 Guatemalan citizens assuming that every small-scale farmer employs 10 workers.
The president of the Union of Guatemalan Exporters also warned, in an urgent letter to the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the consequences of this move on the local economy, particularly since the Islamic and Arab countries are one of the largest markets importing cardamom pods from Guatemala, and therefore any potential boycott by these countries and the closure of their markets for Guatemalan products will result in major economic shocks that will directly affect hundreds of thousands of families in Guatemala.
The PPS said Israel has detained a total of 637 Palestinians in the West Bank since the outbreak of protests on December 6 following US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. They included 174 minors and 13 women.
As Ben Ehrenreich writes at the Nation, the slapping has revealed Israel to the world as a bully because it struck such “a hideous nerve” in Israeli society. While Scott Roth anatomized that nerve for us: Israelis are in “sheer denial” that their country has any responsibility for the “humiliation, violence, and terror of the occupation.”
Which brings me to liberal Zionists. As readers know, I care more about liberal Zionists than anyone in America because they are gatekeepers to the Democratic Party, and when the Democratic Party turns, Israel will become a partisan issue and we will win (because Chuck Schumer and Tom Perez and Haim Saban have more power over the Palestinian future than John Hagee and Sheldon Adelson).
The Tamimi case exposes the utter paralysis of liberal Zionists, their inability to face what Israel has become.
But ... but ... my Jewish friend keeps insisting that the Palestinians are bad people who hate the Israelis for no reason whatsoever and are constantly preying upon the hapless, peace-loving Israelis who want nothing more than to live together in harmony -- and so, because of their mindless and irrational hate, they deserve absolutely everything that Israel does to them.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”