Another Opportunity for Democrats to Trash the President

President Trump and Jared Kushner (Arutz Sheva)

Dissappointing. That is the least I can say about the 100 congressional Democrats that slammed the President’s Middle East Peace Plan between Palestinians and Israelis.

Equally disappointing is that former Israeli  Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert will be joining PA President Mahmoud Abbas in condemning it as well. It is a sorry state of affairs when politics overwhelms one’s judgment. Especially when it favors a narrative where terrorism rules the day. Which is  the case in the territories under dispute.

It is one thing to question the wisdom of that plan. It is another to side with people that support terrorizing innocent men, women, and children as a legitimate means of obtaining their objective. 

Legitimate though their objective may otherwise be, purposely murdering innocent people towards that goal delegitimizes that objective. There should be no doubt that this is exactly the tactic of Hamas whose leaders control Gaza. Nor is a secret that the so-call moderate PA that controls the West bank not only condones it, but considers people caught and killed in that attempt to be martyrs!

And that a former Prime Minister has joined Abbas, a man who honors terrorists by declaring them martyrs, names streets after them, and rewards their families with money given to them by the US for purposes of bettering conditions for people - is shameful! (Thankfully, the President has ordered our government to stop giving them that money.)

It is equally shameful that American politicians hate the President so much that they are willing to show solidarity with terrorist supporters. It is no mere coincidence Ilhan Omar – one of the most overt Israel hating member of congress is one of the signatories to that condemnation.

(This is not the only issue I have with these Democrats. I have to wonder how in good conscience they can have practically the same narrative about issues facing the middle east as do America hating – Israel hating Iranians leaders. You would think they honor Iran’s Supreme Leader more than they do their own President.  Who knows? Perhaps they hate the President so much that that they would rather the Supreme leader be President than the current one!)

To say I am disillusioned by these Democrats – many of whom are Jewish by virtue of their birth -  is a gross understatement. 

As I recently said,  the Trump peace deal is not the panacea for all the problems facing Israeli and the Palestinians. It is likely the same exercise in futility that all past such plans have been. It may even be laughable to imagine this plan being accepted by a people that rejected far more generous plans in the past. Plans that good people – experts in the field - worked on incessantly for decades in order to find that elusive path to peace.  

But that is not a reason to condemn it. While this pan may not be as favorable to Palestinian leaders as past plans, if they were to accept it, they would in the end have their own state. And the lives of their people would be improved immeasurably.  

That their leaders will only settle for complete surrender to their version of a peace plan has gotten them decades of Israeli rule over their lives and decades of despair for their people.  And as I have also recently pointed out, this plan is a starting point. Let them come to the table and negotiate something more favorable to them. The price of peace might be worth additional compromise to Israel. 

What have they gain by rejecting the plan sight unseen -  even before it was even released?  It is not for nothing that a major Arab country like Egypt has called upon their Arab brothers living under Israeli rule not to reject the plan outright.

Instead of those Democrats condemning the plan as soon as it came out, they would have done much better to not saying anything. Or at worst expressing their doubts without condemning it. But that would mean losing yet another opportunity to trash the President. Which is far more important to them, I suppose.

What about Olmert? I guess he still clings to the hope that his plan will be accepted whereas the current one will only push Palestinians further away.  

But even if that’s true, wouldn’t now be a good time for Palestinian leaders to say they are willing to accept what Olmert has in the past offered them? They haven’t. Instead they continue to condone murder and mayhem against the Jewish people while a willing world looks on with tacit approval - by virtue of doing little more than paying lip-service disapproval of those tactics while asserting the  narrative of the PA as the only just solution to the conflict.

My own view is that the entire attempt by any party at forging a viable peace deal is a waste of time. Israel will never surrender to the PA’s demands. And the PA knows it. Which is why they continue to insist on it. And thereby continue to condone all the murder and mayhem against Israel whom they blame for all their problems. 

It would not surprise me one bit if Palestinian leaders actually prefer the status quo because it enriches them. Much of the money sent to the PA by foreign countries for purposes of relief  is pocketed by them.

This – in my view – will sadly remain the status quo until a Palestinian leader arises that finally decides to help his people in realistic and concrete ways. By actually compromising with Israel in a plan for peace. But if past is prologue, Moshaich will be here sooner. And then we will get all of Eretz Yisroel back anyway.