On Jan 14th there was a meeting of the Palestinian Authority governing body in Ramallah. The Palestinians have been upset with the US for a while. On the surface, the reason they would like us to believe is the recognition by President Trump of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But it goes deeper than that. The speech by Palestinian President Abbas took a page out of the playbook of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Abba used some really nasty language when he referred to Trump. Most media reports omitted mentioning his use of the phrase “Ihrab Betak”. The words translate, almost literally, to “a plague be on your house”. But that’s being very generous. Others could translate it euphemistically as “Go to Hell”. The defiant tone he used was not diplomatic, either. He openly stated that NO American brokered plan for an Arab Israeli solution was acceptable. This is the way he has approached the idea during his entire term of office. The only deal he’s ready to make is when everyone agrees to give him everything he wants, and in return, he will temporarily accept the existence of a Jewish state (until he can manage to destroy it). The US, meanwhile, is considering cutting back payments to support UNRWA. I think that action has some merit, despite the position of the Israeli government that UNRWA should continue to be funded. I’ll discuss this in a future post about UNRWA after things (hopefully) calm down a bit.
Wetherhorn 