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US on the Brink: Will Attorney General Sessions Drain the Sewer or Fall In It?

by Alan Yerushalmi
written by Alan Yerushalmi

A moment of truth will hopefully be told at the Friday press conference held by Attorney General Sessions. We will know whether the US will turn towards a constitutional republic or will remain an oligarchy empowered by the deep state. While the mainstream media focuses on the circus like atmosphere at the White House, more historic events are taking shape.

Republicans in the US House Judiciary committee sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week to recommend an investigation into the crimes of Hillary Clinton. Among the potential charges are ‘unlawful international dealings’ of the Clinton Foundation. This comes days after President Trump tweeted that Attorney General Sessions has taken a ‘very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes’. While some conservative pundits expressed outrage over the President’s critique of a loyal campaign supporter, this criticism has merit. Outgoing Congressman Jason Chaffetz last month said he didn’t see much difference between the Trump and Obama administrations and that AG Sessions was ‘worse than what I saw with Loretta Lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available’.

History

President Trump has done everything within his legal right to abide by his promise to ‘drain the swamp’  (now upgraded to ‘drain the sewer’). While it is the AG’s job to open an investigation, AG Sessions is aware of the oft-mentioned ‘Clinton body count’ and the recent suspicious murders involving the DNC lawsuit. He is also mindful of the assassination attempt on Congressman Steve Scalise after announcing his efforts to stop human trafficking. It is unclear if prior to his nomination he engaged in some sort of backroom deal with his fellow Senators where he agreed not to prosecute any former colleague(s) including Secretary Clinton.

A growing segment of the US has become completely disillusioned with the two-party system. They are beyond frustrated with politicians who personally enrich themselves, promise one thing when they campaign and do the exact opposite after they get elected. They are outraged at a system that allows Speaker Dennis Hastert to get by with a 15-month sentence after committing horrific criminal acts. For all of President Trump’s indiscretions, his supporters hate the DC political establishment even more.

Opposing View

Opponents of President Trump say that any prosecution of a political opponent is petty, divisive and politically motivated. Richard Painter, a former Bush ethics lawyer, suspiciously claims that the President has committed an ‘impeachable offense’ and that ‘Congress must act now’. Perhaps, those in the prior Bush administrations know that they are next.

Bombshell Interview

In the past, sordid rumors of crimes by the Clintons were relegated to ‘right-wing media’. Now, former critics to the President are demanding justice. During a CNN interview two years ago, lawyer Elizabeth Beck said that President Trump had an ‘absolute meltdown’. Now, ignored by the mainstream media, she appeared on pro-Trump site Infowars to make shocking statements linking the Clinton Foundation to the Mayo Clinic. Ms. Beck unquestionably looks petrified at the information she has come across. She even says, ‘sometimes evil is so powerful there is nothing we can do’. I would like to remind her of Edmund Burke’s quote that ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.

Decision

Perhaps, since Attorney General Sessions is a religious individual, he will take note of a biblical verse that is applicable. As quoted from the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), Chapter 1, verse 16-17,

I instructed your judges at that time, saying, “Listen among your brethren and judge righteously between a man and his brother or his litigant. You shall not show favoritism in judgement, small and great alike shall you hear; you shall not tremble before any man, for the judgement is G-d’s’’

Conclusion

If AG Sessions refuses to open an investigation against the Clinton Foundation, he will be forced to resign. There is no possibility of a future Attorney General to be confirmed by the Senate that is unfriendly to the deep state. The US would continue to be gripped by chaos and confusion. It would be clear that there are effectively two sets of laws – one for the privileged few and one for everyone else. The US will be equivalent to an oligarchy instead of a functional constitutional republic where rule of law exists. Frankly, there is no domestic issue of greater importance.

Some would say that the US has become a laughingstock of the world. I would argue that a country run with a moral compass, led by the rule of law with liberty and justice for all does not need to feel shame. Instead, its citizens can feel proud and thereby lead other nations by example.

Originally Published on News with Chai.

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U.S. SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS MUST END

by Caroline Glick
written by Caroline Glick

A hefty reward awaits the murderer of an Israeli family — courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

The Solomon family was massacred Friday night as they celebrated Shabbat and the birth of their newest grandson in their home. They were massacred by a 19 year old jihadist who posted an explanation of his imminent act of barbarous murder against his Jewish neighbors on Facebook less that two hours before he stormed their home in Neve Tzuf.

The murderer used the same language as his”moderate” “pro-peace” “legitimate” leader, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas who said that Jews pollute the Temple Mount with our “filthy feet.”

Ironically and appallingly, just last week the US State Department published a report blaming Israel for Palestinian terrorism and claiming that the PLO-led, and US-funded Palestinian Authority doesn’t incite terrorism and violence and hatred.

The State Department also opposes the Taylor Force bill which if passed — along the lines passed in the House of Representatives, (the Senate bill is an insult to our intelligence), would end US taxpayer subsidization of Palestinian terrorism to the tune of more than half a billion dollars a year.

The State Department — Tillerson included, apparently, doesn’t see anything wrong with the fact that the PA uses more than $300 million every year to pay people like the murderer who butchered the Solomons and their families.

Having murdered the Solomons in their home, this terrorist is guaranteed a lifetime salary and pension for his family that ensure them all an upper middle class economic status — courtesy of US taxpayers via the “moderate” PA, PLO, Abbas, terror machine.

I just gave my final speech in Australia and will be heading on to the US for a month from here.

It is my intention to use my time in the US to convince the Washington types that this appalling, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish policy of supporting people committed to our annihilation in the name of fake peace must end.

Enough is enough. This simply cannot continue. Jewish life is sacred, not worthless. It is time for the US to accept and base its policy on this basic, self-evident fact.

Published from Caroline Glick’s Facebook Page.

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With the Petrodollar Dying Can a US – Japan Alliance Slow a Rising China?

by Alan Yerushalmi
written by Alan Yerushalmi

Massive changes in world alliances are occurring now, with the rapid decline of the petrodollar. This decline is led by China’s drive to move the Middle East into their sphere of influence. This past week, Reuters hinted at the petrodollar’s inevitable demise with an articletitled ‘The waning power of the petrodollar’.

Russia – Saudi Arabia Relations

Saudi Arabia is the cornerstone of the petrodollar system. The ‘blossoming friendship’ between Russia and Saudi Arabia is another direct threat to this arrangement. Saudi Arabia agreed to cut crude oil shipments to its customers in August by more than 600,000 barrels per day and will meet with Russia, among other nations, on July 24 to discuss compliance. According to a Moscow Times report, Saudi Arabia agreed to an arms deal valued at $3.5 billion with Russia.  They will also consider investing in a LNG plant currently being built by Russia.

But, to replace a global reserve currency, currently the US dollar, an alternative system must be implemented to replace the existing one.

New US Stance on China

By fixating on the theme of ‘Russia – Trump collusion’ charges, commentators in the US miss the reality that China is clearly the bigger (if not biggest) threat to US hegemony. While both Russia and China are two of the top three military powers in the world, the size of the Chinese economy (approximately ten times the size of Russia’s) gives China a substantially greater ability to inflict severe harm to the US economy than Russia. As forecast last November, instead of selling out US strategic assets to China, the Trump administration, to its credit, has implemented a more nationalistic approach to benefit its own citizens and not its personal interests. A Bloomberg report partly confirms this, as Chinese ‘cross-border purchases plunged 67 percent during the first four months of this year’ due to ‘tighter capital controls and increasingly wary counterparties’. This reflects a clear contrast to a prior administration that approved the sale of sensitive US missile technology to China. Interestingly, related entities, like a foundation, haven’t been (as of today) criminally prosecuted since witnesses strangely commit suicide before they were scheduled to testify. Also, the Trump administration is focused on potential Chinese spying. Guo Wengui, a Chinese dissident residing in the US, has claimed that China has ‘at least 25,000 Chinese intelligence officers and more than 15,000 recruited agents conducting espionage operations in the US’.

China’s Solution

China is moving towards implementing some type of gold backed currency or trade note to minimize the role of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Russia’s largest bank has just this week begun trading physical gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange. Since virtually all business and consumer transactions today are done digitally, the viability of a gold standard remains in question. The days of going to your local store and buying an item for a gram of gold are long gone. China’s central bank (PBOC) has developed its own digital currency and there have been rumors that China will roll out a cryptocurrency backed by gold. Several firms have already introduced a gold-backed cryptocurrency.

Japan’s Plan

With the world’s third largest economy, Japan maintains its place as a key participant to stunt Chinese ascendance. The Japanese central bank has bought stocks at unfathomable proportions as they now own at least ‘71 percent of all shares in Japan-listed ETFs’. Japan has officially moved to a policy of ‘unlimited money printing’ according to Forbes. While central bank manipulation can prolong unsound economic policy, there is no dispute that Japan’s massive debt load (approximately 234% debt-to-GDP ratio) can never be paid back.  So, before the Japanese Yen begins its inevitable decline on the path towards hyperinflation (like Venezuela or Zimbabwe), Japan must transition to an alternative system. Since they have negligible natural resources and a military force incapable of invading countries for profit, Japan appears to have settled on Bitcoin as their solution. On July 1, the consumption tax on the sale of Bitcoin was officially eliminated and over 260,000 retail stores are now poised to accept Bitcoin via a specialized application.

A fundamental appeal of cryptocurrencies (and blockchain technology) is its decentralized nature and its empowerment of individuals to bypass the central banking system of control. Japan has moved to the forefront of the break with central bank authority. The nature of China’s government, which censors the Internet and restricts free speech, cannot be expected to yield control to the individual in lieu of the state.

China’s Overreach

There may be some signs that more nations are wary of China’s ambitions. Last month, China attacked India and destroyed two Indian bunkers. After it flew six warplanes over the Miyako Strait between two southern Japanese islands in a military exercise, China dryly told Japan to ‘get used to it’. The US, India and Japan have aligned against this Chinese threat with recent naval exercises.

Conclusion

Perhaps, more nations will align with a renewed US led by President Trump who has worked to destroy the US deep state and who vowed at his inauguration to ‘seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world’ and ‘not seek to impose our way of life on anyone’ versus an increasingly imperialist China. Unfortunately, according to US military intelligence, defense cooperation and economic ties between Russia and China is slowly expanding. However unlikely, it would be most beneficial for US interests to drive a wedge between the Chinese-Russian alliance to forestall this progress.

The potential transition from the US as the world’s only superpower to something else will be a historic moment. It will inevitably arouse concern from countries historically allied with the US. These counties could take the advice of Philippines President Duterte who speaking on behalf of his own country said ‘We cannot forever be the little brown brothers of America. … We have to develop, we have to grow and become the big brother of our own people’.

Originally Published on News with Chai

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CAGE MATCH: Conservative Leadership vs. Alex Jones

by Alan Yerushalmi
written by Alan Yerushalmi

Originally Published Under the Title: The Secret Reason Why Many Conservative Media Figures Won’t Denounce Alex Jones

Currently under fire for her controversial interview with Alex Jones, Megyn Kelly tweeted the following a few days back:
“…How does Jones, who traffics in these outrageous conspiracy theories, have the respect of the president of the United States and a growing audience of millions? President Trump, by praising him, appearing on his show, and giving him White House press credentials, has helped elevate Jones, to the alarm of many. Our goal in sitting down with him was to shine a light – as journalists are supposed to do – on this influential figure, and yes – to discuss the considerable falsehoods he has promoted with near impunity.”

Legitimate question – why does Alex Jones have the respect of President Trump? As a presidential candidate, President Trump in fact said that Alex Jones has an ‘amazing reputation’. To date, he has not revoked his statement about Mr. Jones thereby making him conspirator-in-chief. So, in light of this, how can anyone take President Trump seriously? But curiously, as the NY Times states, many conservatives have never publicly denounced Alex Jones.

I have constructed a hypothetical conversation between Rush Limbaugh and President Trump which will provide the answer to why conservatives won’t denounce Alex Jones:

PT: Rush, great to see you.

RL: Mr. President, great to see you. You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you, and I say this with all due respect, but why are you so fond of this Alex Jones guy? I remember calling him a Democrat kook years ago. He is just nuts.

PT: Uh, huh. Well, Rush..

RL: No really, Mr. President. I don’t think you are helping yourself by associating with him.

PT: Rush, you and I know all about fake news.

RL: Sure, drive-by media, but..

PT: Let’s start with the Kennedy assassination, you don’t actually believe the official Warren Commission report, do you?

RL: No, of course not. Wait, you’re not going go all National Enquirer and implicate Ted Cruz’s dad for this?

PT: Well..

RL: Sir, this is crazy. My theory is it had to be the mob or Castro but..

PT: Rush, you know the CIA admitted that it covered up the assassination and there are still missing documents.

RL: Ok, fine, but that was over 50 years ago and we all know about that.

PT: Well, you know what my buddy, Bruce Willis, said to Vanity Fair in 2007 – he was afraid of getting killed:

 

“They still haven’t caught the guy that killed Kennedy. I’ll get killed for saying this, but I’m pretty sure those guys are still in power, in some form. The entire government of the United States was co-opted. One guy did it? I don’t think so.”

RL: Ok, what does this have to do with anything? Look – I get all the Clinton conspiracies. We all know about the Clinton body count. I covered the Seth Rich murder conspiracy on my show. Sean [Hannity] laid out how he felt last October. You brought up Vince Foster during the campaign. But 9/11 being an inside job? Do you know how crazy that is?

PT: You know about the $2.3 trillion missing from the Pentagon.

RL: Yeah, whatever, that kind of stuff happens.

PT: Rush, you know there was no way those buildings were brought down by fire.

RL: Here we go.

PT: Look, I am a builder and know everything there is to know about building structures. I even said so on 9/11 during an interview that there were bombs in those buildings.

RL: Ok…

PT: Rush, you read the 28 pages right?

RL: Yeah, basically faulted elements of the Saudi government. And, why are we still friends with the Saudis anyway?

PT: Don’t you find it curious how close the Bush family is to the Saudis?

RL: Yeah, but they didn’t have anything to do with it. Why, George W. Bush is a fine man. You are not going with this Bush did 9/11 theory are you?

PT: Let’s just say the Bushes are not so innocent in all this. Just view this.

RL: Is this stuff true?

PT: Of course, these are official government documents and there is lots of circumstantial evidence. Its also plain common sense.

RL: Huh.

PT: Make sense?

RL: Yeah, I guess I finally understand why the Bushes and Clintons are such good friends. And all the new world order stuff..

PT: Yeah.

RL: I also get why you were so tough on Jeb. Wait, so why are we fighting all these wars – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. For goodness sake, I was selling Club Gitmo t-shirts!!

PT: Rush, you’re not the only one. Talk to Congressman Walter Jones. He went from calling out France, you know, the whole freedom friesthing to deeply regretting his support for the Iraq war. He even said a few years back that Dick Cheney is probably going to hell.

RL: Wait, so Ron Paul has been right all along?

PT: Ron Paul, good guy – can never be president – but very honest man.

RL: So, Sandy Hook? Pizzagate? Are they all true?

PT: Look, not all conspiracies are true. There are some crazy ones going around. I even heard of one that Jared is a Mossad agent. All the truth will come out eventually.

RL: So, what do we do?

PT: Well, don’t worry, there are plenty of us who know. Alex is one of the leaders. Until we reach a critical mass, we can’t go public yet. Information will come out in pieces. Look, we have gotten the concept of the deep state out there. Before my inauguration, barely anyone had even heard of it. So, we are making tremendous progress, tremendous. Still a lot of hate, a lot of division. We need to come together. In the future, expect more revelations. Like what my buddy Vladimir said. He just accused the CIA of planning the JFK assassination. And you remember how I hinted about not having any columns when I spoke to the CIA?

RL: Ok, I get it. So, what I am going to do?

PT: Rush, the choice is yours, I understand the risks and won’t ask you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with doing. The truth will get out, regardless of what happens to me. It’s up to you to choose which side of history you want to be on.

RL: Thank you sir. This conversation never happened.

Originally Published on News With Chai

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Burying Obama’s legacy

by Caroline Glick
written by Caroline Glick

The fact is that Trump has given Netanyahu support as he has walked away from the failed policy paradigm of the Obama years.

It may very well be that this week was the week that Israel and the US put to rest former president Barack Obama’s policies and positions on Israel and the Palestinians.

If so, the move was made despite the best efforts of Obama’s team to convince the Trump administration to maintain them.

The details of Obama’s policies and positions have been revealed in recent weeks in a series of articles published in Haaretz regarding Obama’s secretary of state John Kerry’s failed peacemaking efforts, which ended in 2014.

The articles reported segments of two drafts of a US framework for a final peace treaty between the PLO and Israel. The drafts were created in February and March 2014.

The article series is predicated on the assumption that Kerry and his team were on the precipice of a historic breakthrough between PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. But a close reading of the documents shows that the opposite was the case.

There are two reasons that Kerry had no prospects for reaching a deal.

First, he, Obama and their advisers were too hostile to Israel and its citizens to ever convince Netanyahu that Israel’s interests would be secured.

A February 2014 draft framework agreement, which was based on conversations Kerry and his team held with Netanyahu and his advisers, makes this clear. The draft includes Netanyahu’s demand that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria not annexed to Israel would remain “in place” after the implementation of a peace deal, and presumably, become towns in the future Palestinian state.

In other words, Netanyahu demanded that the Israelis in Judea and Samaria whose towns would be located in the territory of “Palestine” would enjoy the same rights and protections as Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy.

Kerry and his team would have none of it. The February draft agreement notes, “[US] negotiators need to check with PM [Netanyahu] on whether he wants to [maintain this position]… They believe that if so, he will push strongly for ‘in place.’ ‘In place’ is inconsistent with US policy and therefore unacceptable to us as well as the Palestinians.”

In other words, the position of the Obama administration was that all Israelis living in areas that would become part of the Palestinian state must be forcibly removed from their homes and communities.

Haaretz reporters Barak Ravid and Amir Tibon recalled that in previous rounds of negotiations, the Palestinians – unlike the Obama administration – had not rejected this Israeli position out of hand. That is, in demanding the mass expulsion of Israeli Jews from their homes, the administration adopted a policy more extreme than the PLO.

Then there is the problem with the PLO.

Abbas rejected Kerry’s February 2014 draft framework agreement, which was based on conversations with Netanyahu and his advisors. But he also rejected Kerry’s March 2014 agreement, which was based on the US’s conversation with him and his advisors.

The March 2014 draft was presented to Abbas by Obama himself during a meeting between the two in the White House. Not only did Abbas not accept Obama’s offer, he refused to respond to it.

This should have surprised no one. Abbas did the same thing in 2008 after then-prime minister Ehud Olmert presented Abbas with his peace proposal. Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, responded in the same way in July 2000 to then-prime minister Ehud Barak’s peace offer, and in December 2000, to then-president Bill Clinton’s peace offer.

Given the consistent track record, it is beyond foolish to believe that anyone – even Trump – will fare differently from his American and Israeli predecessors.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Haaretz series is what they tell us about Netanyahu.

Like him or hate him, the Netanyahu revealed in the articles is a brilliant statesman. In difficult diplomatic conditions, with the US openly siding with the PLO against him, Netanyahu managed to parry and duck. Although Haaretz tries to present Netanyahu as weak and compliant, the text shows that the opposite was the case.

In the face of massive pressure from Obama, Netanyahu refused to commit to anything. His only recorded position was that all Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria remain in place in perpetuity.

Rather than confront Kerry directly, Netanyahu stood aside and watched as the Americans drafted their anti-Israel proposals. He nodded. He smiled. He refused to commit to anything.

And he waited patiently for Abbas to walk away from the table.

Until this week, much to the dismay of many of his supporters, Netanyahu appeared unwilling to move beyond the defensive position he maintained throughout the Obama presidency. This week he took three great big steps forward.

First, Netanyahu announced that he supports amending Israel’s NGO law to ban foreign governments from funding political nonprofits registered in Israel.

For the past 20 years, Israel has been subjected to ever-escalating subversive campaigns funded and often directed by foreign governments and carried out by Israeli-registered NGOs. The purpose of these campaigns is to legitimize political and economic warfare against the Jewish state by European and other Western governments. The campaigns legitimize political and economic warfare against Israel by demonizing the Jewish state, its citizens and its soldiers.

In recent years, lawmakers have tried repeatedly to block the funding. But due to US pressure, Netanyahu scuttled all their attempts. Proposed reform bills were watered down until they were limited to instituting weak reporting requirements. Foreign government funds continue streaming into the coffers of NGOs whose positions are supported by no significant domestic constituencies.

By announcing that he now supports passing legislation that will bar foreign government funding of nonprofits, Netanyahu is striking a strategic blow at the political and economic war being waged against Israel by the EU and by the international Left.

This war, waged in the name of the Palestinians, has harmed Israel’s relations with the Palestinians by discouraging them from living peacefully with their Israeli neighbors.

Then there is UNRWA. The UN’s refugee agency dedicated to the Palestinians is arguably one of the central reasons for the perpetuation of the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Indeed, UNRWA was formed by the Arab governments to specifically block all prospect of peace between Israel and its neighbors.

UNRWA prevents the permanent resettlement of the Arabs who left Israel in 1948 and 1949 as well as their descendants. It has doomed five generations of “refugees” to live in the squalor of its camps, blocked from receiving citizenship in the countries of their birth and prevented from being resettled in other countries.

After Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, then-secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni decided that the best way to respond to the move was by massively increasing UNRWA’s budget. They were unmoved by the fact that UNRWA employs Hamas terrorists. They ignored the fact that UNRWA schools in Gaza and elsewhere indoctrinate their students to embrace jihad and the cause of Israel’s annihilation.

Under Obama, the US increased its payments to UNRWA even as UNRWA schools, clinics and other facilities have been used as missile launching pads and storage depots in Hamas’s war against Israel.

This week, Netanyahu finally put to rest the dangerous folly that UNRWA is a foil to Hamas and a positive force in the region. He called for UNRWA to be dismantled and for the Palestinians and their descendants to be treated like every other refugee group in the world and be resettled by the UN’s high commissioner for refugees.

If Netanyahu’s move against UNRWA is translated into actual Israeli and US policy, it will mark the beginning of the end of one of the primary causes of the Palestinian conflict with Israel.

Finally, there is incitement. Palestinian terrorism would vastly diminish were it not for constant incitement that encourages terrorism and rewards and celebrates terrorists.

Since it was established by the Qatari regime in 1996, Al Jazeera has been a central engine of antisemitic and jihadist indoctrination of the Palestinians. And yet, Israel has never moved to close Al Jazeera’s bureau in Israel.

Israel has given the terrorist network a pass largely because it hasn’t wanted to deal with the Western outcry that such a move would provoke.

This week, for the first time, Netanyahu, along with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, announced they support Al Jazeera’s closure and have directed their staff to consider the best way to do so.

In so doing, Netanyahu and Liberman are making the most of the opportunity afforded Israel by the Arab states’ open cleavage with Qatar. Last week, Saudi Arabia and Jordan closed Al Jazeera’s bureaus in Riyadh and Amman. Egypt, which closed Al Jazeera’s offices in 2013, blocked its website.

Taken both separately and together, Netanyahu’s moves this week strike strategic blows at three central components of the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Incitement, political warfare and the eternalization of Palestinian refugee status all render the conflict intractable and prevent peaceful Palestinian leaders from emerging.

Notably, whereas the Obama administration would have subjected Israel to hysterical condemnations if Netanyahu had dared to take the steps he took this week, the Trump administration has taken no position on Netanyahu’s announcements.

The real reason that Trump appears to be burying Obama’s legacy is because unlike the ideologically- driven Obama, Trump is willing to consider evidence and facts when determining his opinions.

In May, Abbas came to the White House and told Trump that he abjured terrorism. Israel then presented Trump with evidence that Abbas publicly incites terrorism and uses the Palestinian Authority budget to support terrorists and their families.

Trump took in the information and upbraided Abbas for lying to him.

True, this week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson falsely told Congress that Abbas had cut off the payments. And true, Tillerson doubled down on his assertion after both the Palestinians and Israel said the payments have not been cut off.

True as well that Trump continues to believe that he can make “the deal” that his predecessors failed to secure.

But the fact is that Trump has given Netanyahu support as he has walked away from the failed policy paradigm of the Obama years.

In other words, Netanyahu’s moves this week, and the fact that the Trump administration has left him alone to make them without being second-guessed or condemned by Washington, indicates that we have finally moved past Obama’s legacy.

Where we are going is still unknown. But what is certain is that by going after the sources of the continued malignancy of the conflict and pushing back against the lies that informed Obama’s policies, both Israel and the US have abandoned them.

Originally published in Jerusalem Post

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