Trump's Full Foreign Affairs Plate -- the Palestinians, Turkey, the Kurds, Venezuela and South America

Now that we are past the First 100 Days game, we can focus on key issues facing President Trump as he begins the rest of his presidency. • • • WHEN HAMAS AND FATAH ARE AT WAR, THEIR COVERING TACTIC IS TO ATTACK ISRAEL. The Guardian reported on Monday that Hamas has presented new charter accepting a Palestine based on 1967 borders that aims to heal divisions within Palestinian movement and ease the Pallestinina- Israel peace process. But, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu says : "Hamas is attempting to fool the world." • Hamas says its new charter could be the last chance "to put Gaza on a sensible path," a diplomatic source told the Guardian. Hamas's new political program allegedly "softens its stance on Israel by accepting the idea of a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in the six-day war of 1967," according to the Guardian. But, to be clear, while Hamas says the new document states that hee Hamas islamist movement it is not seeking war with the Jewish people -- only with Zionism that pushes the occupation of Palestine, and while the new document also insists that Hamas is a not a revolutionary force that seeks to intervene in other countries, and while the new charter also abandons past references claiming Hamas is part of a pan-national Moslem Brotherhood, to which it was closely linked when formed -- a position that could improve the currently difficult relations with the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief overthrew his islamist Moslem Brotherhood predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013 and has since led a bloody crackdown on the Brotherhood; while all this may be true -- time will tell -- there are fundamental Hamas positions in the document that are unchanged and that make Israel a non-entity. The policy platform was announced by the head of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Meshal, at a press conference in Doha, Qatar. Meshal said : “Hamas advocates the liberation of all of Palestine but is ready to support the state on 1967 borders without recognising Israel or ceding any rights." So, no recognition of Israel's right to exist, and further, although the new document states that Hamas “considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state," it states that "Jerusalem will be its capital along the lines of 4 June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.” Thus, no recognition of Israel, Jerusalme ceded to Hamas, the "return" of all Palestinians to Israel, and nothing agreed about the future boundaries of any future Palestinian state. • We can understand why Netanyahu was not thrilled with the new Hamas charter. A spokesman for the Prime Minister Netanyahu, said : “Hamas is attempting to fool the world, but it will not succeed....“Hamas’s document is a smokescreen. We see Hamas continuing to invest all of its resources not just in preparing for war with Israel, but also in educating the children of Gaza to want to destroy Israel. The day Hamas stops digging tunnels and diverts its resources to civilian infrastructure and stop educating children to hate Israelis, that would be real change.” • Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said : “Until Hamas recognises Israel’s right to exist, its words are meaningless. I will see to it that Hamas remains designated a terrorist organisation as long as it continues to launch rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, remains an Iranian proxy, and engages in other acts that threaten the US and Israel.” That will be the correct Israel position for as long as Hamas -- as it does in this latest document -- rejects the Oslo accords, and asserts that resistance for the liberation of Palestine will remain “a legitimate right, a duty and an honor”, adding “armed resistance is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and rights of the Palesinian people.” • • • ABBAS GOES TO WASHINGTON. This week, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and US President Donald Trump will sit down together to talk. This is the first such meeting since the US presidential election, and it comes at a time when, in addition ot the newly proposed Hamas charter, the Palestinian scene is showing mounting internal tensions, fighting and divisiveness. The Gatestone Institute published an article on Monday that states : "The disarray among the Palestinians, where everyone seems to be fighting everyone else, casts serious doubt on Abbas's ability to lead the Palestinians towards a better future. The chaos also raises the question whether Abbas has the authority to speak on behalf of a majority of Palestinians, let alone sign a peace agreement with Israel that would be acceptable to enough of his people. Abbas, however, seems rather oblivious to the state of bedlam among the Palestinians, and appears determined to forge ahead despite the radical instability he is facing. He is travelling to Washington to tell Trump that he and his PA leadership seek a 'just and comprehensive' peace with Israel through the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem." Undoubtedly, Abbas will continue to accuse Israel of 'sabotaging' any prospect for peace with the Palestinians. But, he is not likely to mention the mayhem that the PA leadership is facing at home. Nor is the fact that the Palestinians are as far as ever from achieving their goal of statehood likely to be a preeminent subject. The Gatestone Institute asks; "Why bother discussing inconvenient truths, such as the deep divisions among the Palestinians and failure to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, when you can point the finger of blame at Israel?" • Since 2007, according to the Gatestone, the reality on the ground is that the Palestinians already have two small states: one in the Gaza Strip and another in the West Bank. These two states have since been at war with each other : "The joke among Palestinians is that were it not for Israel is sitting smack in the middle, the two warring Palestinian states would be dispatching rockets and suicide bombers at each other." Abbas has cut the salaries of PA workers in Gaza by 30% and has told Israel he will no longer pay for electricity for Gaza, leaving Gazans without power for up to 20 hours per day. A top Hamas official, Mahmoud Zahar, says that Abbas has long lost his legitimacy and is no longer the president of the Palestinians. He accuses Abbas and his senior aides of laying their hands on Arab and Western funds and using them for their personal interests : "Abbas is committing crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. Abbas cut off the electricity to the Gaza Strip and salaries to the (PA) employees. He is involved in a conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian cause." There are almost daily Hamas threats to kill him. But, Abbas's senior aides are not silent in the face of the Hamas threats. One of his top advisors, Mahmoud Habbash, last week called on Palestinians to revolt against Hamas. Habbash also stated that it would be fine to destroy and burn the Gaza Strip in order to get rid of Hamas. The Gatestone Institute says that Abbas "is well aware the Palestinian house is on fire. Instead of working to extinguish the blaze, however, Abbas spends his time spreading the lie that peace in our time is possible, if only Israel would succumb to his demands. The story of Gaza -- which went straight to Hamas after Israel handed it to Abbas -- is not a tale Abbas likes to tell. The same scenario is likely to be repeated in the West Bank if Israel makes a similar move." What remains to beseen this week is whether President Trump and his new administration are aware of the anarchy swirling around the Palestinians and whether they are willing act accordingly. • • • VENEZUELA REVISITED. The Guardian, AP and Reuters reported on Tuesday that Venezuelan President Maduro has called for a new constitution amid the ongoing and more violent clashes in the streets of Caracas. Maduro told a MAy Day rally that a new constitution will restore peace, adding : "I don’t want a civil war." After hundreds of thousands took to the streets again to call for his removal, President Maduro announced that he was calling for a citizens assembly and a new constitution. He said the move was needed to restore peace and stop his political opponents from trying to carry out a coup. Maduro has already triggered an article of the constitution that allows for the reformation of all public powers, as his predecessor Hugo Chávez did in 1999 soon after winning office : “I convoke the original constituent power to achieve the peace needed by the republic, defeat the fascist coup, and let the sovereign people impose peace, harmony and true national dialogue." • Opposition leaders immediately objected, charging that Maduro was seeking to further erode Venezuela’s constitutional order. They said the controversial move was another attempt to sideline the current opposition-led National Assembly and keep the unpopular Maduro in office amid a chaotic recession and unrest that has led to 29 deaths in the last month. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said : “Faced with the dictator’s announcement of the constitutional fraud of the constituent assembly, people should go to the street and disobey such craziness.” Earlier on May Day, anti-Maduro protesters tried to march on government buildings in downtown Caracas, but police blocked their way -- just as authorities have done more than a dozen times in four weeks of near-daily protests. Officers launched teargas and chased people away from main thoroughfares as the peaceful march turned into chaos. The Guardian reports that people of all ages and class backgrounds are participating in the protests against widespread shortages of food and other basic goods, daily violence, and triple-digit inflation. Maduro accuses his opponents of conspiring to overthrow him and undermine the country’s struggling economy. Protesters, say s the Guardian, "have begun showing up for demonstrations with medical masks and bandanas to protect themselves from the clouds of teargas that police often deploy without warning. Gas masks are hard to find, and the government is limiting people bringing them in from abroad. • • • TURKISH BOMBING OF KURDISH ALLIES. Last week, the New York Times published an article about YPG fighters and Kurdish troops being bombed by Turkish airstrikes near Derik, Syria, a northeastern Kurdish town. The intense Turkish operation presents a new complication for the United States’ military campaign against the Islamic State. The Turkish military’s targets included Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia that is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces that has played an important role in the American-backed operations in Syria against ISIS. According to Kurdish officials, one Turkish airstrike also mistakenly struck Kurdish Peshmerga troops on Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq, killing at least five and wounding more, some critically. The Peshmerga in Iraq’s autonomous region carried out the opening attacks in the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS, and they have been a key American ally in operations against the militants. • American officials said Turkey had informed the United States less than an hour in advance that it intended to carry out the bombing raids in the crowded airspace over northern Syria and Iraq. American officials said they had asked Turkey not to proceed without proper coordination, but that the request was ignored. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States was “deeply concerned” about the Turkish airstrikes, which were “not approved” by the US-led coalition that is fighting ISIS. • Masrour Barzani, a top Kurdish security official in the Iraqi autonomous region, told the NYT : “It was a surprise. This was the first time they have been bombing there. They had been mostly bombing border areas. We asked for some clarification but have not received any answers yet. I hope on the Turkish side it was a mistake.” • Iraq’s Foreign Ministry denounced the attacks in the Sinjar area as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. • The Turkish strikes highlight the continuing deep tensions between the United States and Turkey over how to carry out the campaign against ISIS. The US and Turkey disagree about the YPG militia. American military officials regard the YPG as an essential partner in the operation to isolate and retake Raqqa, Syria, ISIS’s self-proclaimed capital, and they want to arm its fighters for that mission. Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townsend, who commands the American-led task force fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, told reporters during a February trip to Syria that Turkey had no reason to fear the YPG, which is a crucial part of the Syrian Democratic Forces : “The Turkish government is not really crazy that we are operating with the Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly because of their Kurdish and YPG components. But the Kurdish fighters tell us they are not a threat to Turkey, and I believe that.” • The Turkish government, however, insists that the YPG is closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group known as the PKK, listed by Turkey, the United States and Europe as a terrorist organization, that has waged an insurgency since 1984 inside Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead. American officials hoped that Turkey would soften its stance after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a referendum in April that greatly increased his executive powers, a victory that brought a congratulatory phone call from President Trump. But, the NYT says that "any hope that Mr. Erdogan’s position might reflect posturing before the vote appeared to vanish with the airstrikes." • A statement issued by Ridor Kahlil, a spokesman for the YPG, said 20 fighters were killed in the Turkish airstrikes -- the death toll was later raised to 25. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said the targets included a radio station east of Hasaka owned by the YPG. The Turkish airstrikes on Mount Sinjar began around 2 a.m. and lasted about an hour, Captain Falah Abu Zeid, an officer with the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, said in an NYT telephone interview. The bombing, he added, struck four YPG and PKK headquarters in the area. Zeid said : “If there were any fighters in those headquarters, it would have been impossible for them to survive because of the force of the shelling.” But one of the missiles, he added, struck communications towers near a Peshmerga headquarters, killing and wounding Peshmerga fighters. • The NYT says : "[The] Kurdish autonomous government in Iraq has long had a poor relationship with the YPG and PKK, which, like Turkey, it regards as the same entity. The Peshmerga offensive to retake Sinjar from ISIS in 2015 was delayed by tensions between the Peshmerga and the PKK, who competed to take the lead in the battle. And it was noteworthy that Mr. Barzani, the Kurdish security official, did not call on Turkey to cease its airstrikes in Iraq but instead pointed the finger of blame at the PKK : 'The PKK is the reason for all of these problems. They are the reason the Turks are bombing. It is not a matter of whether we like it or not. The PKK is dragging the Turks in.' ” • • • THE US REACTS. American military vehicles and Kurdish fighters from the YPG began last weekend to patrol along the Turkey-Syria border for the first time, after the Turkish airstrikes in the area that killed allied Kurdish fighters. The UK Telegraph reported on Monday that : "The raid, which left at least 25 fighters dead, earned the wrath of Nato ally Washington as it sees the YPG as the strongest ground force to lead the impending battle for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-held Syrian city of Raqqa." There are currently more than 500 American special forces and advisers to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group led by the YPG. The patrols of US armoured vehicles along the tense Turkey-Syria border is an unusual move Washington hopes will discourage Turkey from further strikes. The US-led joint command said : "The patrols' purpose is to discourage escalation and violence between two of our most trusted (counter-ISIS) partners and reinforce the US commitment to both Turkey and the SDF in their fight against ISIS." • But, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heightened tensions on Sunday night when he threatened a repeat : "We can come unexpectedly in the night. We are not going to tip off the terror groups and the Turkish Armed Forces could come at any moment." Erdogan said the sight of American flags in the convoy alongside YPG insignia had "seriously saddened" Turkey. Erdogan said he would bring up the issue with President Trump during his planned visit to Washington on May 16 -- and called for the coordination between the US and YPG to : "come to an end. This needs to be stopped right now. Otherwise it will continue to be a bother in the region and for us. It will also bother us as two NATO countries and strategic partners." • The International Crisis Group (ICG) that follows the Syrian civil war said in its latest report on the Syria crisis that the US had "a singular dilemma" on the future of its relationship with the YPG. The ICG said the YPG "is indispensable" to defeat ISIS but there is also "no avoiding the fact" that the US is backing a force "led by PKK-trained cadres in Syria while the PKK itself continues an insurgency against a NATO ally." The ICG added that Turkey had pressed ahead with the air strikes despite US objections and this "should serve as a warning for what could lie in store." • • • DEAR READERS, President Trump is very engaged in the North Korean nuclear problem, and he should be. He has support -- a new Fox News poll shows that a majority of American voters believe that military action may be necessary to put an end to Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons program. The national poll found that 51% of voters believe that US military action will likely be needed if we want to prevent North Korea from further nuclear weapons development, while 53% support using military force. The survey also asked voters to rate the top threat against the US : 38% said North Korea, 25% said ISIS, 18% said Russia, 5% said China, and 4% picked Iran. • But, while the public is focused in North Korea, President Trump and his administration are also dealing with Syria and its related problem areas -- Russia and Turkey. The use of US patrols on the Trukey-Syria border sends the message that Trump and his military are watching Turkey, but the patrols won't stop Turkey from flying sorties into Syria to hit the Kurdish US allies. That topic will need to be addressed when Trump meets Turkish President Erdogan later this month because this is one of those issues for which, even in time of war, negotiation is the only feasible solution. And, Trump could fit Russia's role in Syria and the larger Middle East into the Erdogan talks as well. Supporting Turkey against Russia's continued military presence in Syria, something that occurred while President Obama was leading from behind, could go some way to ending the Turkish airstrikes against Syrian Democratic Forces and Peshmerga. And, the US Turkey-Syria border patrols could also help keep the PKK terrorists from crossing the border into Turkey, in exchange for Erdogan agreeing to restore a semblance of free speech and personal liberty to Turkish citizens. • As for Venezuela, it needs major and immediate American attention -- as does all of South America. Obama's indifference has permitted the entrenchment of socialist regimes in Bolivia and Equador, as well as in Venezuela, and left Colombia to fight its drug war with little official US support. Trump could make huge strides in South America if he gave someone with clout the portfolio. This also needs to be done now, because China and Russia are quietly creeping northward into Central America -- and America's frontiers -- another leftover from Progressive Democrat Obama and his national security team who were too busy eavesdropping on innocent Trump team members to deal with the burgeoning problems in South America. • The Hamas-Fatah issue will surely be on the table when Palestinian Authority president Abbas meets President Trump in Washington. Here, Trump has a built-in and action-ready partner in Israel, and unlike Obama, Trump appears ready to work with Israel in the effort to find solutions to the seemingly endless Palestinian problem, not by attacking Netanyahu as Obama did, but by using reak politik negotiations to drive home to Hamas and Fatah -- and their sponsor Iran -- that America stands firmly with Israel and that any solution must recognize Israel's right to exist and its 3,000-year historical attachment to Jerusalem.