Trump Administration Shuts Down the Washington, DC Office of the PLO, Stating That the PLO Is Not Making Any Efforts Towards Peace

Can't wait for the NeverTrumpers to pirouette on this issue as well, citing their endlessly mutating MuhPrinciples.

There are a lot of encouraging signs that under the Trump administration that this gravy train is ending. In the past eighteen months, the administration has green-lighted increasing the population density in some Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Jerusalem has been recognized as the capital of Israel, the US has just cut some $300 million from the UNRWA--the UN agency that funds anti-Semitic propaganda and discourages Palestinian "refugees" from assimilating in their host nations--and, last week, our ambassador said he could not imagine a situation under which Israel would relinquish the Golan Heights, clearly implying that US recognition of Israel’s conquest of that area was being considered. Today, however, the hammer came down.

In 1994, as a bit of baksheesh for participating in the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, aka the Palestinian Authority, was allowed to open what amounted to an embassy in Washington, DC. The idea was that recognizing the PLO with some trappings of statehood would result in the PLO leadership acting like the leaders of an actual nation. That certainly worked well. While numerous members of Congress have criticized this decision over a quarter of a century, the stupidity of rewarding Palestinian intransigence acquired a life of its own. Until today:

The Administration has determined after careful review that the office of the General Delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington should close. We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November 2017. However, the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel. To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise. As such, and reflecting Congressional concerns, the Administration has decided that the PLO office in Washington will close at this point. This decision is also consistent with Administration and Congressional concerns with Palestinian attempts to prompt an investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court.

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:16 PM

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