Mike Pompeo’s brief statement said it all: ‘As for the annexation of the West Bank, the Israelis ultimately make those decisions, so that’s an Israeli decision’
Robert Fisk
@indyvoices
17 hours ago
Michael Richard Pompeo is becoming almost as hypnotic as Donald Trump. What he lacks in lunacy, he makes up for in wilful ignorance or just good old plain hypocrisy.
You might blame Trump for mental incapacity when he hands over the Middle East to his dumbo son-in-law; Pompeo, however, knows what he’s doing. So there he was again this week, suggesting the Iranians were breaking a solemn UN resolution by launching a ballistic missile — while himself ignoring a far more historic but equally solemn UN resolution which calls for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from occupied Palestinian territory. Watching his dry-as-dust performance as chancer-in-chief, you knew Pompeo would get away with it.
Not a single journalist gave the slightest indication that there might be a little double standard in the US secretary of state’s sudden concern for adherence to UN rules within hours of blithely declaring that it’s “an Israeli decision” if it wants to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank. Besides, UN Resolution 2231, calling upon Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons, is only five years old. UN resolution 242, passed immediately after the 1967 Middle East war – in which Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and the Sinai peninsula – is well over half a century old. Dust. Cobwebs.
It’s not that Pompeo doesn’t understand the implications of all this. The worthless “deal of the century” concocted by the Trump administration permits Israel to annexe the Jordan Valley – 30 per cent of the West Bank – and accepts Israeli sovereignty over all illegal Israeli colonies built on Arab land in return for a bundle of cash for the Palestinians. It allows further land thefts after four years and accepts Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, vouchsafed by the moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem two years ago.
A very important article. Needs to be read in full !
What I am missing from the Arab / Palestinian side is a response and alternative suggestions. One State Solution with equal rights? Peaceful walk of three million Palestinians to their old homes Ghandi style ? Come up with ideas ! Come up with plans ! Just complaining will not solve anything. Take action! Arab League. Organization for Islamic Cooperation: come up with ideas or close down your offices.