From The
Idiot Factor:
There are a lot of reason to fear the
people President-elect Donald Trump is naming to his cabinet. Some are people
determined to destroy the very agencies they have been appointed to oversee-
such as the EPA, Department of Education, etc. Perhaps one of the worst
appointments include New
York bankruptcy lawyer David M. Friedman to be
ambassador to Israel . This
man has no real experience in Middle East politics
directly.
According to an article in The Atlantic, Friedman has not "worked on
Middle East policy," does not have "any diplomatic experience,"
but he has spent time in Israel and has strong opinions on the
country. As the articles states "But that’s true of many American Jews,
especially in the Orthodox community."
So far we know he has less interest in
a peace agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestinians, than the
present government of Benjamin Netanyahu (בִּנְיָמִין
"בִּיבִּי" נְתַנְיָהוּ) the
current Prime Minister of Israel. The
Atlantic article goes on to
say,
"In an interview last summer with
the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, he (Friedman) said Trump would support Israeli
annexation of parts of the West Bank . He has called liberal Jews supporting a
two-state solution with the Palestinians “worse than kapos,” a reference to
Jews in World War II concentration camps who were assigned by Nazi guards to
supervise forced labor and camp administration."
So we have a guy who wants to dump
support for a two-state solution. He supports the Jewish settlements
being built in the present West Bank, a territory designated as a Palestinian
state or at least an autonomous Palestinian controlled area. At present the
building of these settlements is leading Netanyahu to re-assess Israeli ties with the United Nations.
The Atlantic Article questions
Friedman's actual knowledge of the region and the issues he has to deal with.
But on the face of it, these positions raise a lot of red flags. What does
Friedman believe the Palestinian are going to do when they are told that the
peace agreements and negotiations that have gone one for the last 16 years or
more have been scrapped? Has Trump considered the kind of war he invites by
taking such a position? Friedman has also talked about move the U.S. embassy
to Jerusalem . Has Trump considered the affect of
moving the embassy to Jerusalem ? Does he
realize he may put the US army
in a position of fighting ISIS almost
completely alone?
From a humanitarian view point, this is
a recipe for disaster. Even from the standpoint of being a US imperialist, this is not good. These positions put what little gains
have been made in the peace negotiations to a position of all out war.
Something has to be done with the Palestinians. They can't be expected to
simply invite their own extermination. And moving the embassy to Jerusalem is a slap in the face to all Arabs and
Muslims. Jerusalem is
supposed to be an international city, so that the three major
religions tied to that place can come and go freely. To take that away will
encourage US allies, such as Saudi Arabia to
move away from the US . They may
not come right out and break diplomatic ties to the US but that doesn't mean they won't find
ways to display their lack of enthusiasm for US support in military actions,
such as the fight against ISIS .
For those who tell me we should just
wait and see what Trump is going to do- I say we can already see what he plans
to do by the people he is appointing to cabinet positions. Some of these people
are a disaster waiting to happen. Friedman is such a disaster. Let's not wait
and see what happens. Let's try and stop him now.
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