Strong words from an infuriated Palestinian president Abbas after years of disgrace as settlement building continued on Palestinian land. President Trump , son-in-law Kushner and a strong pro-settlement administration threw fuel on the smouldering fire of Palestinian discontent.

Jared Kushner is wreaking havoc in the Middle East | The Guardian Opinion – Dec. 9, 2017 |

he entire Middle East, from Palestine to Yemen, appears set to burst into flames after this week. The region was already teetering on the edge, but recent events have only made things worse. And while the mayhem should be apparent to any casual observer, what’s less obvious is Jared Kushner’s role in the chaos.

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Despite PA pressure, State Department refuses to commit to two-states (Credit: Jerusalem Post)

Kushner is, of course, the US president’s senior advisor and son-in-law. The 36-year-old is a Harvard graduate who seems to have a hard time filling in forms correctly.

He repeatedly failed to mention his meetings with foreign officials on his security clearance and neglected to report to US government officials that he was co-director of a foundation that raised money for Israeli settlements, considered illegal under international law. (He is also said to have told Michael Flynn last December to call UN security council members to get a resolution condemning Israeli settlements quashed. Flynn called Russia.)

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In his role as the president’s special advisor, Kushner seems to have decided he can remake the entire Middle East, and he is wreaking his havoc with his new best friend, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old who burst on to the international scene by jailing many members of his country’s ruling elite, including from his own family, on corruption charges.

Days before bin Salman’s unprecedented move, Kushner was with the crown prince in Riyadh on an unannounced trip. The men are reported to have stayed up late, planning strategy while swapping stories. We don’t know what exactly the two were plotting, but Donald Trump later tweeted his “great confidence” in bin Salman.

○ Trump’s Israel First!
○ Jerusalem: Trumpian Clarity On US Bias for Israel

Palestinian leaders urge Abbas to withdraw recognition of Israel | The National | and | Ynet News |

Palestinian leaders called on president Mahmoud Abbas on Monday to withdraw recognition of Israel and break off security cooperation, in a move that follows the US government naming Jerusalem the Israeli capital.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) central council declared it should no longer be bound by the 1993 Oslo peace accords and that its leaders will never recognise Israel as a Jewish state, according to a statement released at the end of a two-day conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

It said Palestinians will again seek full statehood recognition from the United Nations.

“The immediate goal is the independence of the state of Palestine, which requires moving from the status of an authority with self-rule to the status of sovereignty”. Palestinians will restore their recognition of Israel when Israel accepts Palestine as a state, it said.

Mr Abbas has cut off diplomatic contact with the US since president Donald Trump said last month that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and that he intends to move the American embassy there from Tel Aviv.

Palestinians regard East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and have long appealed to the US and other nations to resist Israel’s claim to the entire city.

Palestinians meet to respond to Trump’s `slap of the century’ | Jordan Times |

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Palestinian leaders met to plan a response to what they see as US President Donald Trump’s attack on their long bid for statehood, after President Mahmoud Abbas denounced White House peace efforts as the “slap of the century”.

The rare meeting of the Palestinian Central Council — a high-ranking arm of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) — was called after Trump’s controversial December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Palestinians want the annexed eastern sector of the city as the capital of their future state, and president Abbas has said Trump’s stance means the US can no longer be the mediator in peace talks with Israel.

The US president has sought to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, with talks stalled since 2014 [?? Talks never got underway during the eight Obama years. Bush had promised a peace deal by the end of 2005. – Oui].

Speaking late Sunday at the opening of the council, which brings together Palestinians from multiple political parties, Abbas told delegates: “We said ‘no’ to Trump, ‘we will not accept your project.'”

“The deal of the century is the slap of the century and we will not accept it,” the 82-year-old leader added, referring to Trump’s pledge to reach the “ultimate deal”.

He instead called for an internationally mediated peace process.

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