Donald Trump has just cut-off Sheldon Adelson’s chief proxy in Washington: John Bolton. But will it change US policy on Palestine, or Iran?
This week, two important events just collided. First was the announcement by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that he plans to annex Palestine’s West Bank. But the second event threatens to nullify the first, after President Trump sacked his arch-Zionist National Security Advisor John Bolton. Onlookers are guessing whether the second event may signal a change of foreign policy direct, albeit even temporarily, by this President.
Is Trump finally free from the grips of Israeli Lobby kingmakers like Sheldon Adelson, as Trump prepares to make some shrewd moves in order to secure a bigger tent mandate in 2020?
Philip Weiss from Mondoweiss writes…
Today in an unprecedented show of autonomy, Donald Trump fired the firebreathing national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton was gifted to the Trump administration in 2018 by Sheldon Adelson, Trump’s biggest donor, and Trump duly ended the Iran deal once Bolton came aboard.
Now Trump has fired Bolton, thereby signalling that he is open to renegotiating the Iran deal. And Trump’s Defense Department has all but criticized Israel for its drone war in Iraq and Syria that is threatening Americans and American proxies.
Trump is showing more independence of the rightwing Israel lobby than he has his entire administration. After three years of doing everything for Israel that the rightwing lobby wanted, from Jerusalem to the Golan to UNRWA.
The simple explanation for Trump’s conduct is that he at last has the upper hand in his relationship with Netanyahu and Sheldon Adelson.
KABUKI POWERPOINT: Another banal slide show from the beleaguered Israeli PM, revealing his plan to illegal annex what remains of native Palestinian land.
Benjamin Netanyahu desperately needs Trump to deliver on a huge deliverable, greenlighting the annexation of the Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley, a historic achievement of Zionists in completely colonizing the land of Palestine– “forever,” as Netanyahu promised today in his own desperate announcement of his intentions. In that speech, Netanyahu pleaded with Israeli voters to vote for him not Benny Gantz, because Netanyahu would be able to “recruit” Donald Trump in this plan in the weeks to come, in conjunction with Trump’s deal of the century, yet to be announced.
No one else can deal with Trump as I can, Netanyahu said. No one else can “recruit” Trump.
Netanyahu’s Hail Mary should be seen for what it looks like: a sincere moment of Flop Sweat. Now he really needs Donald Trump to come through. We have a historic opportunity here, Netanyahu said, to go forward on annexation. I.e., to kill the idea of a Palestinian state, “forever.”
(…) The deal is likely to be just what was predicted last month. Netanyahu will win on West Bank annexation. Donald Trump will do his part, signing off on apartheid forever, telling Palestinians they are subhuman. Telling Israelis that he and Netanyahu are peers. Netanyahu’s only hope to hold on to the premiereship.
Trump will deliver for Netanyahu, but he will extract a price. He will gain autonomy to deal with Iran; Netanyahu will lose on Iran…
Continue this story at Mondoweiss
READ MORE PALESTINE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Palestine Files
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