One of the least impressive remarks I heard this morning was from a commentator on Sky News (UK). He said if Trump’s proposals go through it means the end of the 2 state solution. I have always been amazed at how so many countries still cling to that idea, and try to blame Israel for not implementing it. It should be obvious that Hamas (and other Arabs of similar ideology) not only reject the idea, they actively oppose it. How do you get a compromise like that when one side doesn’t recognize the right of the other to even exist? Hamas won’t even engage in any form of face to face negotiations with Israel!
King Abdullah of Jordan neatly sidestepped a problem in his meeting with US President Trump in Washington. He “generously” offered to allow 2000 Gazan children suffering from cancer to be taken to Jordan for treatment. Adult Gaza refugees, however, are still not welcome. A British court ruled that Gazan (and, by extension, Ukranian) refugees must be granted asylum in the UK. I’m sure we haven’t heard the end of that event yet. I’m also looking forward to an upcoming Arab summit, where the idea that force won’t be used to get Gazans to emigrate might make the idea of their resettlement acceptable.
Meanwhile, Hamas threatened to delay releasing some hostages. That prompted Trump to demand release of ALL Hamas hostages by Sunday. In turn, Netanyahu made a smaller demand. He only wants all 9 living male hostages that were to be freed this week to be returned by Saturday. But he backed up his statement by mobilizing additional troops on the Gaza border and ordering them to prepare to return to inside the Gaza Strip from which they had just exited. We still have a few days to see how that ends.
The head of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (reported to be Jew who is anti-Israel) was treated to some serious questioning in an open meeting devoted to “antisemitism”. It looked to me like he came out on the losing side of that confrontation (both with regard to content and behavior).
Wetherhorn 