Trump Puts an End to the Charade That America Is an Honest Broker

Rasa - The idea that America’s role in the Middle East “peace process” is as an “honest broker” is one the international civil society has opposed for decades.

News ID: 435536

Date: 28 December 2017 - 00:11

RNA - The phrase connotes someone who is between two adversaries. The problem is America stands not between Israel and Palestine, but behind Israel. Had that position not been abandoned, an agreement, if one can be had at all, would have been had by now.

Following a vote last week by the United Nations General Assembly to declare "null and void" the Trump administration's decision to recognize Jerusalem Al-Quds as the Israeli capital and relocate the American embassy, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said “the US has disqualified itself as an honest mediator in efforts to resolve the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.” In his words, "The United States is no longer an honest mediator in the peace process. We will not accept any plan from the US because of its bias and violation of the international law."

For those who can’t remember, the last round of US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed amid acrimony in April 2014. On that note:

- One visual element caught the eye when US President Donald Trump announced his dangerous decision to recognize the Holy City as Israel’s capital. It was the presence over his shoulder of Vice President Mike Pence. Pence, an Evangelical Christian, is an unabashed, unapologetic supporter of Israel who ascribes religious meaning to the rebirth of the Jewish state. Three years ago in Jerusalem Al-Quds, and a town hall event put together by Republicans Abroad Israel, Pence – then the governor of Indiana and a possible 2016 presidential candidate – said that “America should not aspire to be an honest broker in the Middle East, but rather communicate to the world that while it wants an honest and fair solution to the conflict. We are on the side of Israel.”

- Trump did exactly that with his declaration. He made it absolutely clear that the US can deal honestly with people on all sides of the equation, while making clear what side of the table it is on! Interestingly, His proclamation was only one of two significant developments in Washington last week touching upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

- Another significant development took place last week when the House of Representatives passed the Taylor Force Act, named after the US citizen stabbed to death in Tel Aviv in 2016. That bill, which is likely to pass easily in the Senate and be signed into law by Trump, would significantly cut the annual $280 million in US assistance to the Palestinian Authority unless it stops paying subsidies to jailed Palestinians and their families. Unlike Trump’s proclamation on Al-Quds – which at its core is symbolic – this bill could substantially change things on the ground, cutting the PA off from significant Washington funding.

- The Palestinians and many of their supporters in the Arab and Islamic world should be thanking Trump. He has finally put an end to the charade and made it clear to the world that the US was never an honest broker mediating between Israel and the Palestinians. It will never advance international resolutions that run counter to Israel’s interests, and will never strive to end the occupation and grant Palestinians the right to self-determination.

That’s the reality and that’s the truth. Trump’s recognition of Al-Quds as the capital of Israel, which also proves beyond any doubt that America is not an honest broker, will not change the day-to-day reality of Palestinians living in the Holy City or across the West Bank, in Gaza or in refugee camps. They all wake up to the same feeling that has accompanied them every day since 1967: life under US-backed Israeli occupation and terror.

The ones who will feel a change, though, are the leaders in Europe, the Arab world and the PA, who have been parroting Washington’s words “peace process” and “two-state solution” for the past three decades. This is the message the Trump White House is broadcasting to its allies around the world: Just as ISIL, Al-Qaeda and other terror proxy forces – including the War party’s moderate terrorists - had to learn the consequences of an unholy alliance with the US in Iraq and Syria, it is now the turn of the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas.

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