ABBAS/TRUMP AND THE END OF A FREE PALESTINE

May 7, 2017 at 13:12 (Associate Post, Complicity, Corrupt Politics, Palestine)

Oppressors and enablers of oppressors use the same language. Clinton used
it 20 years ago for Arafat. This is the usual carrot and stick approach.
                                        Images by Carlos Latuff

Trump praises Abbas following White House meeting

ABBAS, TRUMP AND MORE

By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Donald Trump and Mahmoud Abbas both accomplished what they wanted to
accomplish from the meeting at the White House. I could only think of the
statements of Martin Luther King Jr and of Edward Said as I watched the
theater unfold in DC. Just a reminder of what MLK Jr said 50 years ago as
leaders of South Vietnam trashed leaders of North Vietnam: Their questions
hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the
violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken
clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own
government.  This was one of his most analytical and important speeches
which should still be read carefully today (full text at). 

Little changed in those 50 years since then and Trump (like Obama and
other presidents before him) gave green light to his military to bomb poor
neighborhoods around the world (killing hundreds of civilians mostly
children in Mosul alone) while hosting compliant leaders and speaking of
“peace” (like fucking for virginity!?). Excuse my language. Let me step
back into analytical mode. In meeting with Abbas, Trump wanted to get the
aura of working for a peace process so that when he goes to Saudi Arabia
and Israel later this month they can be more comfortable increasing the
wars on Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran (the remaining axis of rebel states
in an otherwise US/Israel dominated Middle East). This public relations
ploy worked historically. Trump and his advisors praised Abbas for the
continued close security cooperation with Israel (the main function for
keeping the Palestinian Authority in the past 24 years). Trump said that
cooperation between “Palestinians” (the PA) and Israel is “working
beautifully” and encouraged further emasculation of any potential future
leverage for the Palestinians (I cringe when I hear terms like “incitement”
used for native people who want their rights back).

Oppressors and enablers of oppressors use the same language. Clinton used
it 20 years ago for Arafat. This is the usual carrot and stick approach.
Trump asked Abbas to stop the verbal acrobatics of appearing to support
“terrorists” (resistance) pushing him strongly in private and nudging him
gently in public. Husam Zomlot (PLO representative in Washington) tried his
best to facilitate and get some productive outcome but the decks are
stacked and the PLO has long been stripped by the PA of its original role
as a “Palestine Liberation Organization” (it neither reflects all of
Palestine nor Liberation and no longer an organization but a club). It
cannot apply any pressure since it has been stripped of all such cards and
there is little prospect of democratizing it now (I hope I am wrong).
Abbas got what he came for: appearing “presidential” and relevant to the
future, international visibility, and most importantly continuation of the
status quo that guarantees continued “financial support” that allows the
system to go on.

When u r fighting a brutal occupation, u don’t beg your oppressors to recognize a tiny state 4 you on your own land.