There is truth to the old adage, Birds of a feather flock together.
But I cling to another old saying, There is no honor among thieves.
And one that my mother constantly preached, You are known by the
company you keep.
All are qualities possessed by Donald Trump. He admires and hangs out
with Dictators, he has demonstrated both by word and deed that he has
no honor, and the company he keeps looks, talks, and is just like him.
If anyone still wonders where Donald Trump is steering our Ship of
State, just remember the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is a microcosm of
the once proud USA.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/16/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Deceptive Trump, UAE-Israel 'Peace Deal'
August 14, 2020
Among the most brutal realities for Palestinians is loss of support from
Arab states, who pay lip service to their own populations, while drawing
closer to Israel with economic interests and Iran in mind, write Medea
Benjamin and Ariel Gold.
Kalandia checkpoint from West Bank into Jerusalem. (Joe Lauria)
By Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold
"HUGE breakthrough today," crowed Donald Trump on twitter as he announced
the new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The
deal makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation,
after Egypt and Jordan, to have diplomatic ties with Israel. But the new
Israel-UAE partnership should fool no one.
Though it will supposedly stave off Israeli annexation of the West Bank and
encourage tourism and trade between both countries, in reality, it is
nothing more than a scheme to give an Arab stamp of approval to Israel's
status quo of land theft, home demolitions, arbitrary extrajudicial
killings, apartheid laws, and other abuses of Palestinian rights.
The deal should be seen in the context of over three years of Trump
administration policies that have tightened Israel's grip on the
Palestinians: moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and creating a
so-called
peace plan with no Palestinian participation or input.
While no U.S. administration has successfully brokered a resolution to
Israel's now 53-year-long occupation, the Trump years have been especially
detrimental to the Palestinian cause. Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi
wrote
on Twitter that with this deal, "Israel got rewarded for not declaring
openly what it's been doing to Palestine illegally & persistently since the
beginning of the occupation."
Indeed, with Donald Trump at the helm and son-in-law Jared Kushner as the
primary strategist, even concessions for Palestinians have been done away
with. To add insult to injury, while the deal had been couched in terms of
a
commitment by Israel to suspend annexation of Palestinian territories, in
his Israeli press conference announcing the deal, Netanyahu said annexation
was "still on the table" and that it was something he is "committed to."
UAE in 'Enemy Camp'
Among the most brutal aspects of this period for Palestinians have been the
loss of support for their cause in neighboring Arab states. The Arab
political party in Israel, Balad, said that by signing this pact, "the UAE
has officially joined Israel against Palestine, and placed itself in the
camp of the enemies of the Palestinian people."
The UAE has previously held a position consistent with public opinion in
Gulf and Middle East countries that the acceptance of formal diplomatic
relations with Israel should only take place in exchange for a just peace
and in accordance with international law. Back in June, Emirati ambassador
to the U.S. Yousef al-Otaiba penned an an op-ed in the Yediot Ahronot
newspaper, the Israeli equivalent to USA Today, appealing directly in
Hebrew
for Israel not to annex the West Bank.
However, by working out an agreement with Trump and Netanyahu to normalize
relations, the country has now made itself Israel's partner in cementing de
facto annexation and ongoing apartheid.
The UAE's change from supporting Palestinian dignity and freedom to
supporting Israel's never-ending occupation is a calculated move by UAE
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, a shrewd Middle East dictator who uses his
country's military and financial resources to thwart moves towards
democracy
and respect for human rights under the guise of fighting Islamic terrorism.
His support for Israel cements his relationship with the Trump
administration.
Trump has already gone out of his way to push billions of dollars in arms
sales to the UAE, despite opposition from Congress because of high number
of
civilian casualties associated with the use of those weapons in Yemen.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also defended the UAE from credible
reports that U.S. weapons sold to the UAE have been transferred in Yemen to
groups linked to Al Qaeda, hardline Salafi militias and Yemeni separatists.
The UAE was also stung by revelations of secret prisons it had been
operating in Yemen where prisoners were subjected to horrific forms of
torture, including "the grill," where victims were "tied to a spit like a
roast and spun in a circle of fire."
In Libya, the UAE has been criticized for violating a 2011 UN Security
Council arms embargo by supplying combat equipment to the LAAF, the armed
group commanded by General Khalifa Haftar with a well-established record of
human right abuses. So this deal with Israel gives the UAE a much-needed
veneer of respectability.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed
bin
Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 12, 2019. (State
Department photo/ Public Domain)
But it is impossible to understand the impetus for this deal without
putting
it in the context of the ongoing hostilities between all three countries
and
Iran. Following the old adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," in
recent years Israel has been negotiating with various Gulf states,
including
the UAE, to push back against Iran's growing influence in the region.
As the communique announcing the Israeli-UAE deal asserted, the U.S.,
Israel
and the UAE "share a similar outlook regarding threats in the region." This
dovetails with Trump's anti-Iran obsession, which includes withdrawal from
the Iran nuclear deal and his "maximum pressure" campaign designed to force
Iran back to the negotiating table to make a "better deal."
In announcing the UAE-Israeli pact, Trump declared with ridiculous bravado
that if he wins the elections, he'll have a new deal with Iran within 30
days. Anyone who believes this must be almost as delusional as Trump.
Biden Boasts
The fact that this agreement between two Middle East countries was first
announced thousands of miles away in Washington DC shows how it is more
about shoring up Trump's slumping electoral campaign and improving
Netanyahu's battered image in Israel than bringing peace to the Middle
East.
It also shows that Netanyahu and bin Zayed have a stake in seeing Trump win
a second term in the White House.
Instead of pointing out the hollowness of the pact, Joe Biden's response
was
unfortunately to congratulate Israel and the UAE and try to take credit for
the deal. "I personally spent time with leaders of both Israel and the
U.A.E. during our administration, building the case for cooperation and
broader engagement," he said. "I am gratified by today's announcement."
The normalization of relations between the UAE and Israel, facilitated by
the U.S., serves to prop up three repressive leaders - Trump, Netanyahu,
and
bin Zayed - and will cause further harm to Palestinians. It is both a shame
and a sham.
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and author of several
books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
Ariel Gold is the national co-director and Senior Middle East Policy
Analyst
with CODEPINK for Peace.
