Thread: "Opportunity of the Century"?

Kushner disposes two-state solution amid controversial Bahrain summit



The two-state solution is an unattainable ideal, US President Donald Trump’s security adviser has said.
Jared Kushner, who has tried to persuade Palestinians to accept the controversial Deal of the Century plan as the new solution to the Palestine-Israeli conflict, has said the internationally recognised two-state solution is dead.

“I think we all have to recognise that if there ever is a deal, it’s not going to be along the lines of the Arab Peace Initiative,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview.

Kushner confirmed longstanding rumours that the new deal will not allow Palestinians to keep all of the West Bank, allowing for the annexation illegal Israeli settlements.

“If that was where a deal was going to be made, a deal would have been made a long time ago,” he said, speaking about the two-state solution.

Kushner is notorious for his justification of the Israeli occupation and is spearheading the so-called Deal of the Century plan, which is being unveiled in part in Bahrain on Monday on Tuesday.

He branded it as the "Opportunity of the Century" and said it will pump $50 billion into a stagnant economy but told them they must agree to it first if they want an eventual peace deal.

"To be clear, economic growth and prosperity for the Palestinian people are not possible without an enduring and fair political solution to the conflict - one that guarantees Israel's security and respects the dignity of the Palestinian people," he said.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, however, says the Trump administration has given up on Palestinian statehood.

"The Trump Administration haven't only given up on Palestine, but on peace, justice and basic principles of humanity," the veteran Palestinian negotiator tweeted.

Erekat earlier said that the Peace to Prosperity plan was "doomed to fail" and was based on the idea "that they know what is best for the Palestinian people".

Trump is an unabashed supporter of Netanyahu and has taken landmark steps to back Israel, including recognising bitterly divided Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital.

The administration has hinted that its political proposals to come later this year will not call for the creation of a Palestinian state, the goal of decades of US diplomacy, and that it could accept Netanyahu annexing parts of the West Bank for Israel.

Accusing the United States of trying to buy them off, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets to denounce the Bahrain conference.

In the Gaza Strip, controlled by Islamist militants Hamas, a general strike shuttered most shops and restaurants, while protesters in Hebron earlier burned pictures of Trump and the king of Bahrain.

In unprecedented scenes, Bahrain welcomed dozens of Israelis including academics and journalists despite the lack of diplomatic relations.

The United States has hailed the "workshop" as bringing together the Israelis with Gulf Arabs, due largely to their mutual hostility towards Iran.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/ne...bahrain-summit

The usual Anglo-American project for the region.

why is lebanon even a country ?

like the majority of countries around the world that only exist to allow criminals to profit from the labour of their inhabitants , most borders should be absolved

the sooner governments spending is automatically written on blockchains where it is immutable and freely readable the better

Originally Posted by baldrick

why is lebanon even a country ?

like the majority of countries around the world that only exist to allow criminals to profit from the labour of their inhabitants , most borders should be absolved

the sooner governments spending is automatically written on blockchains where it is immutable and freely readable the better

Boarders are only good for white countries such as the UK and US to keep brown people to a minimum.
I get it, if I stole a bunch of things from the brown people, and made myself rich, I would also want to build a nice wall around my loot .

the majority of people in uk , us , italy , netherlands , belguim , france , germany spain would have no idea what their countries elites did to their colonies and in some cases are still doing

Some folks would lose a lot of $$$ if peace suddenly became trendy in the M.E.

It's a golden goose.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

and Jared need to go back to his NY penthouse and play with toys he understands..

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson describes Jared Kushner’s secret diplomacy
27 June 2019



In a remarkable glimpse into President Trump’s unconventional way of running the White House and foreign policy, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has described a string of secret meetings, hidden dinners and undisclosed conversations with world leaders conducted by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner — and concealed from America’s top diplomat.

The secret diplomacy often caught Tillerson unawares as important policy issues favored by Trump and Kushner were being decided, and created a sense of chaos within the White House to observers on the outside.

Tillerson’s comments were contained in a transcript released Thursday of testimony he gave to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May.
Trump fired Tillerson, via Twitter, on March 13, 2018, and replaced him with then-CIA Director Michael R. Pompeo. Trump described the former Kansas lawmaker as being more on his same “wavelength.”

It has long been known that Tillerson had a prickly relationship with Trump. He frequently found himself contradicted publicly by Trump, often within minutes of making a policy statement.

But the level of dysfunction has rarely been so starkly illustrated as in Tillerson’s under-oath testimony.

In one embarrassing episode, Tillerson said he didn’t even know his Mexican counterpart was in Washington until he walked into a restaurant and discovered Luis Videgaray dining with Kushner. It came during a delicate time in U.S.-Mexican relations, when Videgaray often went around the State Department to capitalize on his friendship with Kushner.

“I walked back,” Tillerson said. “I could see the color go out of the face of the foreign secretary of Mexico.

“I smiled big, and I said: ‘Welcome to Washington.’ And I said: ‘I don’t want to interrupt what y’all are doing.’ I said: ‘Give me a call next time you're coming to town.’ And I left it at that.”

Tillerson said the foreign minister later said he was shocked that the issues that Kushner raised with him had not already been cleared at the State Department.

Tillerson, a former CEO of ExxonMobil, said then-Defense Secretary James N. Mattis was also often cut out of policy discussions, with former advisor Steve Bannon acting alongside Kushner.

In another meeting concealed from the secretary of State, Kushner and Bannon at a private dinner in May 2017 discussed with leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates their plans to place a blockade on neighboring Qatar.

Tillerson, surprised when Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced the blockade some time later, indicated the U.S. would remain neutral, since Qatar is also an important ally. Barely had Tillerson spoken when Trump threw his full support behind Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The tense Persian Gulf standoff continues to this day.

Tillerson told the lawmakers that unclear lines of authority and responsibility in the White House “made it challenging for everyone.”
“When you first came on board,” Tillerson was asked, “what was Mr. Kushner’s role described to you as?”
“No one really described what he was going to be doing,” Tillerson responded.

Tillerson recalled a 1½-inch-thick study Kushner had prepared outlining a complete overhaul of the U.S.-Saudi economic, business and political relationship, with little or no input from, or knowledge of, State Department diplomats.

“It’s the president’s prerogative” to have special advisors, Tillerson testified. “But … it presents special challenges to everyone if others who are trying to effect foreign policy with a country and move the agenda forward are not fully aware of other conversations that are going on that might be causing your counter-party in that country to take certain actions or behave a certain way, and you're not clear as to why, why did they do that.”

Kushner, though his title is senior advisor to the president, was a real estate businessman in his mid-30s with no political or diplomatic experience when he entered the White House.

He is known to have a close personal relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and has shown a willingness to brush aside some of the prince’s most egregious acts, including the bombing of civilians in Yemen and an alleged role in the murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Under the Trump administration, and thanks in part to that friendship with Kushner, U.S. ties to Saudi Arabia are closer now than they have been in years.
Trump also put Kushner in charge of drafting a peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians, which has yet to materialize. No State Department personnel have been involved in a significant way in the proposal’s drafting.

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na...627-story.html

Originally Posted by baldrick

the majority of people in uk , us , italy , netherlands , belguim , france , germany spain would have no idea what their countries elites did to their colonies and in some cases are still doing

In most cases, they don't even know what they did to their own countries.

It's coming back around.
Be prepared.

Originally Posted by baldrick

why is lebanon even a country ?

like the majority of countries around the world that only exist to allow criminals to profit from the labour of their inhabitants , most borders should be absolved

Umm...wtf are you on about?

^Borders are no hindrance to criminals and corporations. Don't see how eliminating them would change their operation.