Trump to Democrats : Attack America and You Will Answer to Me; Trump to UN and Palestinians : Attack Israel and You Will Answer to Me

WHILE PRESIDENT TRUMP RALLIES AMERICANS BEFORE THE MID-TERMS, HE AND HIS TEAM ARE ALSO BUSY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. • • • TRUMP RALLIES AMERICA. President Trump continued his series of mid-term rallies on Monday, traveling to Tennessee to support Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn who is running for retiring Bob Corker's Senate seat. Epoch Times said the Trump rally at the Freedom Hall Civic Center "amassed over 92,000 ticket requests, the highest number for a rally so far." Blackburn will face off against Democrat former Governor Phil Bredesen in what is being called a tight race, even though in 2016, Trump won the state by 26 percentage points, garnering 1,522,925 votes in total. At the rally, the President told the crowd : “Phil was a major financial supporter of president Barack Obama and crooked Hillary Clinton. If Phil is elected Chuck Schumer will be majority leader.” Trump again criticized the Democrat Party's policies and urged supporters to come out and vote to stop the “destruction and chaos....A Democrat-controlled senate will always be raising your taxes, opening your borders....They are going to flood your streets with criminal aliens....They want to replace freedom with socialism. The Democrats want to turn America into Venezuela -- we are not going to let it happen....Phil is only running because Chuck Schumer begged him to run. If you want to stop Chuck Schumer from becoming majority leader...then you must vote against Bredesen....We cannot allow ourselves to be pushed around.” President Trump told the audience that the mid-term election is paramount for the country’s safety and prosperity : “We’ve created over 4 million new jobs and lifted almost 4 million Americans off of food stamps. We’ve added nearly over 600,000 new manufacturing jobs.” Trump also noted that health insurance premiums have been reduced by 26% in Tennessee. • There is ample proof in the communities of Middle America that President Trump's message has struck a deep chord. The mainstream media polls keep showing a victory for the Democrats in November, but all evidence rejects those polls. One of the best examples of a reality check comes from Texas. TownHall recently reported that : "Special elections aren’t the best gauges for predicting the results of an election year, but since the liberal media touted such wins as a harbinger for the GOP apocalypse, let’s pop the champagne for the clutch win in Texas last night. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has to be happy. This special state Senate election saw a Republican win in a district that’s remained in Democratic hands for 139 years. The GOP wasn’t even supposed to be competitive in this race; they ended up winning it by 6 points. Oh, and Clinton carried this district in 2016 by 12 points. Needless to say, Democrats were a little shell-shocked." The San Antonio Express-News report said this : "A retired game warden, [Pete] Flores defeated former state and US Representative Pete Gallego for the Senate District 19 seat after receiving backing from some of the state’s most prominent politicians, including Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and US Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz....According the Secretary of State’s website, Flores won with 53% of the vote to Gallego’s 47% with 44,487 ballots cast." Flores and Gallego competed in the runoff special election to replace former Senator Carlos Uresti, the longtime lawmaker who vacated his seat in June after being convicted of 11 felony charges." Christian Archer, Gallego’s campaign strategist, said he was shocked by the results, adding that they weren’t able to generate as much excitement as the Republicans. • HOW TRUE. The only excitement being generated for these mid-terms is coming from the GOP and President Trump. Democrat hysterics over the unprovable and false allegations of sexual misconduct that have been hurled at Judge Brett Kavanaugh in an effort to derail his Supreme Court nomination were supposed to increase the Blue Wave. It hasn't happened. Republicans won in a Clinton district in Texas that had been Democrat for 139 YEARS...!!! • • • TRUMP'S FOREIGN POLICY SUCCESSES ARE PART OF THE RED WAVE. President Trump and his team have their hands full, but are doing all the right things in the Middle East. • THE PALESTINIANS. American Thinker wrote on August 29 : "The Trump administration has restored the United States to the position of honest broker -- emphasis on 'honest' -- and taken a hatchet to a series of fantasies underlying the notion of an Israeli-Palestinian 'peace process.' Twenty-five years after the Oslo Accords ushered in radical, despotic, kleptocratic Palestinian self-government, the Accords are dead. And that's good." The article notes the key to the Trump approach to the Palestinians : "The US is not neutral between Israel, America's democratic friend and ally, and the Palestinians, who are neither. Everybody has a 'narrative,' a national story. Not everyone's narrative is factual. The US will insist that there are facts, and that history -- both ancient and modern -- is real and knowable. The American government's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel is simply the acceptance of the truth of history. The city was the capital of the Jewish people and never, ever the seat of government for any other. In this assertion, the President was joined by many members of the US House and Senate, irrespective of party -- although some had more trouble saying so than others. The US will not pay for fraud, mismanagement, or support of terrorism by the Palestinians or the United Nations. Neither will we fund two Palestinian governments simply because it is easier than figuring out what to do with Hamas and Fatah, who are fighting a civil war and agree on little besides the need for Israel's ultimate demise. In the new game, the Palestinians have something to lose -- the sine qua non of successful negotiations." Because, according to American Thinker, the Trump policy rejects the notion that "refugee" status can be handed down from generation to generation of Palestinians, it follows that the descendants of Palestinian refugees have no "right" to go and settle in places their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents claim to have lived : "This will make the Palestinians just like every other refugee population. Time moves forward only. Israel is here, Israel will remain, and Israel can determine who lives within its borders." • PAY-FOR-SLAY. The American Taylor Force Act -- passed and signed -- authorizes the United States to withhold money from the PA in the amount of the stipends the PA pays to terrorists and their families. The Palestinian Authority paid out approximately $350 million in 2017....Palestinians who feel hopeless and for one or another reason figure that they can best provide for their families by killing Jews are encouraged by their own government....If PA strongman Mahmoud Abbas doesn't spend the money on terror stipends, he can replace the American shortage and spend the money on other things." • The UK Spectator reported in March that : "In 2017, the amount paid by the PA to terrorists and their families equated to about 50% of total foreign aid received. The unit payments are relatively enormous. According to Palestinian Media Watch, convicted terrorists in prison can receive 12,000 shekels per month plus bonuses of 300 shekels per wife, 50 shekels per child and extra for being resident in Israel and Jerusalem. This can amount to about US$3,500 per month. By contrast, a teacher employed by the PA receives roughly $615 per month. • UNHRC IS UNDER TRUMP PRESSURE. The Trump administration has also announced that it will stop the flow of US taxpayer funds to the UN Human Rights Council -- a nest of anti-Israel sentiment. Trump's national security advisor John Bolton says : "We'll calculate 22% of the Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner's budget, and our remittances to the UN for this budget year will be less 22% of those costs -- and we'll say specifically that's what we're doing. We expect that impact to occur on the Human Rights Council." • Some of the UNHRC funds go to terrorists. The Canadian National Post reported in August, 2017, that : "On July 21, a Palestinian terrorist entered the home of a Jewish family in the West Bank settlement of Halamish and killed Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya, 46, and son Elad, 36. As a result of his attack, the assailant, 19-year-old Omar al-Abed will now be paid more than US$3,120 a month by the Palestinian government. Learning of this egregious arrangement will likely shock and sicken many of you. But for Israelis, these 'pay-for-slay' stipends are nothing new. The Palestinian government has made terrorism the most lucrative job in the West Bank. If the international community continues to turn a blind eye to Palestinian terror payments and the role international aid plays in fuelling this cycle of violence, the conflict will only get worse. • For over 50 years, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been making financial payments to Palestinian terrorists, prisoners and their families. These payments started in 1965 when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat established the Society for the Care of the Families of Martyrs (SAMED) in an official capacity. Originally called the Palestine Mujahidin and Martyrs Fund in 1964, the fund was created to provide financial compensation for families of deceased terrorists, as well as maimed or captured terrorists. In 1965-1966, it was transferred over from Fatah to the PLO, and renamed SAMED. According to Yezid Sayigh, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, within 15 years of its establishment, this fund was providing pension payments and social assistance payments to more than 20,000 Palestinian families. Today, the PA is responsible for administering the disbursement of these funds, which are funnelled through the National Palestinian Fund (NPF). The NPF, along with the Institute for Care for the Families of Martyrs, co-ordinates these payments to prisoners, released convicts and deceased terrorists. Actual Palestinian law requires financial support for prisoners and the families of martyrs in Laws No. 14 and No. 19 of 2004, and Law No. 1 of 2013. Described as "a fighting sector and an integral part of the weave of Arab Palestinian society," these laws guarantee "the financial rights of the prisoner and his family." They specifically state that the PA must provide prisoners with a monthly allowance throughout the entirety of their incarceration, as well as salaries and/or jobs upon their release....The minimum wage in the Palestinian territories is approximately US$397 a month, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). But, nearly 40% of private sector employees earn less than the minimum wage in the Palestinian territories. The PCBS also states that, in 2016, nearly 20% of West Bank private sector employees earned an average of US$292. Yet, the Canadian National Post states that : "According to a new study by the Institute for Contemporary Affairs, the official 2017 PA Budget has committed to increase the salaries of imprisoned and released terrorists by 13% to US$154.4 million dollars. Moreover, the money allocated for the families of those 'martyred' in the conflict against Zionism is set to be approximately US$192 million dollars, or about 4 to 5% higher than 2016 figures. All in all, the total PA expenditures set aside in 2017 to pay terrorists and/or their families is set to be in the range of US$344-$346 million. Shockingly, this figure amounts to 49.6% of all foreign aid slated to be received by the Palestinian government in 2017....Experts such as Yigal Carmon, founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute and Yossi Kuperwasser, Project Director on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, suggest the money’s coming primarily from international aid. Of particular concern is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Many, including Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, have stated that UNRWA has direct ties to the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. While the UNRWA lost Government of Canada funding in 2010, following allegations of the organization being connected to Hamas, the Liberal Government announced in November 2016 it would restore funding to UNRWA to the tune of $25 million Canadian dollars. The United States is also a major supporter of the Palestinian Authority. It is abhorrent to think that any money from North America governments might be rewarding terrorism, yet it’s hard to conclude otherwise. The compensation of terrorists is deeply immoral and incomprehensible in and of itself. But it is most problematic because it undermines peace. In addition to directly violating the 1995 Oslo Peace Accords, paying terrorists incentivizes terrorism, which cyclically fuels conflict, erodes Israeli support for peace talks, and further entrenches Palestinian intolerance and extremism. The international community owes it to Israelis, Palestinians, the Salomon family, and the countless other victims of Palestinian violence and terrorism to raise awareness of Palestinian policies to pay terrorists. If we don’t, only time will tell how many more will suffer." • • • WHAT ABOUT UNRWA? UNRWA has been a "temporary' relief agency for 68 years. Today, 5 million Palestinians are registered with it. UNRWA, initially intended to serve as a temporary relief effort, has now become a quasi-governmental entity. For Jalal al-Husseini, a researcher with the French Institute of the Near-East (IFPO) in Jordan who has long studied UNRWA, the agency’s role was ambiguous from the get-go. In December 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194, which called for the return of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes during the creation of the state of Israel and the provision of humanitarian services to these refugees until the newly-founded United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) facilitated a peace greement. UNRWA itself only came into existence following UN Resolution 302 a year later. UNRWA was initially designed to be operational for only a year, but Arab states that hosted the majority of displaced Palestinians and did not wish to manage such a burden alone pushed for an amendment to Resolution 302 making UNRWA’s mandate renewable. The process is still implemented every two to three years. Arab states also pushed for an amendment calling UNRWA and UNCCP to work together to implement Resolution 194, al-Husseini says. However, while still officially existent, UNCCP stopped working in the mid-1950s, and the UN has arguably abdicated its role as a peace broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ever since. Al-Husseini says : “UNRWA is a real local administration, temporary, weakly structured, with a weak financial base...but with 70% of its budget going to the salaries of teachers, doctors, etc. For an international humanitarian relief agency, this is inconceivable. The high salaries of international employees, though they represent a small proportion of UNRWA’s total staff, has long been a source of criticism..." • The UK Spectator March article also stated : "UNRWA provides educational services in numerous schools in Gaza and the West Bank. David Bedein of the Center for Near East Policy Research has led the translation by Arabic experts of the content of UNRWA school books; his most recent report being 6 February 2018. The material provided to Palestinian children for their supposed education contains shocking textual paragraphs, maps, pictures and exercises. These often exhibit complete avoidance of the name ‘Israel’ and substitute demonising descriptions. Maps will be drawn in one colour and labelled ‘Palestine’. A maths exercise involves adding up the number of ‘martyrs’ killed. A terror attack on an Israeli civilian bus using Molotov cocktails is described as a ‘barbeque party’. A poem describes Jews as the devil’s aides. Jewish heritage is denied; ‘Jerusalem is an Arab city built by our Arab forefathers...a holy city for Moslems and Christians.' The prestigious Simon Wiesenthal Center has presented such evidence to UN Secretary-General Guterrez and to US Congressional leaders. It is likely this is one reason Trump has announced substantial reductions in UNRWA funding." • The French edition of Business Insider reported in January that UN aid group UNRWA alleges that US aid money pledged to the organization was specifically earmarked for refugee services in certain areas and could not be used for services in Syria and Lebanon. BI says : "This marks the first time the US has specifically exempted their funds from being used in those countries, according to Elizabeth Campbell, Director at UNRWA, which is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states. The United States has historically provided about one-third of UNRWA's humanitarian budget, Campbell told Business Insider. Last week, the US announced it would cut its aid to UNRWA by half, and pledged $60 million to the group. The US State Department said it was withholding another $65 million from the group until it made 'unspecified reforms.' State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a press briefing that the $60 million the US has pledged to the group would be used to 'sustain schools and health services' and ensure that 'teachers and also health care providers can be paid their salaries.' The Department did not go into specifics about the services set to benefit by their aid contribution, but added that the US would like to 'take a look at UNRWA, trying to make sure that the money is best spent.' " • American Thinker points out : "The administration has cut $300 million from UNRWA, leading to the expected wails about starving babies. UNRWA has, for almost seven decades, been the prison guard of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as running shanty towns for Palestinians in Jordan, where many hold both citizenship and refugee status. It has also hired Hamas and Hezbollah operatives and shielded their weapons in UNRWA schools. Babies won't starve unless the Palestinians want them to for a photo op....it was Gaza leader Yaya Sinwar who praised 'the sacrifice of' Palestinian children 'as an offering for Jerusalem and the right of return.'....If 'peace' is a bridge too far, a long-term stabilization process is not out of reach based on President Trump's new foundations for American policy. At a minimum, the United States can be sure that the policies that it pursues are consonant with American interests and American allies. President Trump has done that." • • • PALESTINIANS ATTACK UNRWA STAFF. PAlestinians even attack UNRWA. The Times of Israel reported on Wednesday that : "The emergency evacuation of nine foreign employees of UNRWA from Gaza to Israel on Monday was necessitated after Palestinian protesters surrounded and blocked a car containing UNRWA officials for an hour that day in a 'threatening' and 'dangerous' confrontation, the head of the agency’s operations in the coastal enclave told The Times of Israel. Furthermore, he said, a crowd of Gazans mobilized by the UNRWA employees’ union have prevented some 300 employees of the Palestinian refugee agency from accessing their offices at the organization’s Gaza headquarters for eight of the last ten days, and have made 'serious' threats against senior staffers. Matthias Schmale described what had become an untenable situation for many employees of the UNRWA, the UN body tasked with aiding Palestinian refugees, in a telephone interview late Tuesday from Gaza, where he and a reduced overseas team remain for the time being. Schmale said : "The UNRWA employees’ union in Gaza has been protesting the dismissals and other changes we made last month by blocking our access to our offices. We have only been able to enter them two out of the past ten days. I understand the frustration of the people who have lost jobs or been moved from full to part-time work, but we need to be able to function and do our jobs.” Schmale said employees were only able to enter their offices on those two days because the union “gave some breathing space to see if there was any possibility of starting a dialogue” with agency officials. • UNRWA has been facing a major funding shortfall in large part because US President Trump’s administration has given it far less money than previous American administrations. Since the start of 2018, the US government has only sent $60 million to the agency; in 2017, the US gave $364 million. In late August, the US administration announced it would stop funding the UN body altogether, calling it 'irredeemably flawed.' The UNRWA employees’ union in Gaza has firmly opposed the UN agency’s decisions to lay off some of its workers and move others to part-time jobs. It has also organized a number of rallies and called for strikes in UNRWA institutions in the Hamas-run coastal enclave. • Schmale said that while the protesters blocking the entrance to UNRWA’s headquarters was unacceptable for him, it was a “dangerous” incident at the Al Deira Hotel adjacent to Gaza’s coast on Monday that led to the evacuation of the nine foreign UNRWA employees. Israeli authorities opened the Erez crossing point into Israel, which was closed for the Sukkot holiday, especially for them. Schmale told the Times of Israel : “I was meeting with some of my female managers at a hotel in Gaza City when my security people informed me a group of protesters from the union had been gathering outside. We immediately collected our belongings and left the hotel. All of our cars made it out the hotel’s premises except for one, with five of our employees, which the protesters surrounded. The [Hamas] police later arrived and after an hour opened a pathway for the car to leave. This was a threatening and serious situation. It triggered us to do what we had been thinking about, which was basically to send non-essential staff to another safer location and give the authorities here, if I can say that, a clear message that they need to protect a UN organization and ensure we can access our office space and not be chased around Gaza.'....On days that UNRWA employees have not been able to access their offices in the UN agency’s headquarters in Gaza, they have been working remotely and holding staff meetings in various locations around the Strip like the Al Deira Hotel." • Schmale said after the incident on Monday he called the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the branch of the [Israeli] Defense Ministry responsible for liaising with the Palestinians and international organizations in Gaza, and asked for special permission to evacuate the nine UNRWA employees. “We actually have good pragmatic working relationships with COGAT and they swiftly approved our request to send the employees out of Gaza,” he said. On Monday, the Erez crossing, where the UNRWA employees exited Gaza, was closed except for what COGAT calls “humanitarian cases” as Israel observed the Sukkot holiday. Most of the employees who were evacuated started working from UNRWA’s offices in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Schmale said." • Perhaps most shocking about this Times of Israel report is its statement that : "UNRWA employs some 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who provide health, education, welfare and other services to 1.3 million Palestinians it has registered as refugees. Before Monday, there were approximately 19 international UNRWA employees based in the Strip....Asked if UNRWA could rehire the workers it laid off and provide more work for the employees it transferred to part time jobs, Schmale said that the organization would first need to raise funds to make up for its budget shortfall and then gather additional money to pay for new staff. He said if that is achieved, UNRWA would be able to rehire employees who were laid off or moved to part-time jobs, if they meet the qualifications for jobs the UN agency needs filled. At a meeting on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly last Thursday, several international parties collectively pledged to send an additional $118 million to UNRWA. The remaining shortfall in UNRWA’s budget for 2018 stands at $68 million, according to Pierre Krahenbuhl, the UNRWA commissioner-general." • • • ABBAS IS THE BAD GUY WHO CRIES WOLF. UNRWA must be the largest employer in Gaza. Why is a "temporary" refugee agency employing thousands of Palestinians??? Because Hamas has created a cycle of poverty and dependence in Gaza that the UN and its UHRWA is helping to perpetuate. And, at the beginning of the Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) biblical holiday, numerous fires destroyed agricultural land an nature reserves across southern Israel. The fires were caused by flaming kites and balloons carrying incendiary devices launched by Palestinian Arabs in the adjacent Gaza Strip, whose Hamas rulers declared that indirect ceasefire talks with Israel had stalled, and that the terror group would in response escalate the unrest along the Gaza security fence. Palestinian rioters gathered at the fence on Monday and hurled stones, Molotov cocktails and explosive devices at Israeli soldiers stationed there. A number of attempts were made to breach the barrier and enter southern Israel. Israeli forces responded with both live fire and crowd dispersal techniques. Hamas sources claimed that at least one Palestinian rioter had been killed, and dozens more wounded. • In the light of UN workers being driven out of Gaza by angry mobs, a rather macabre joke was reported earlier by the Gatestone Institute's Bassam Tawil on August 21 when he wrote that : "In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Mahmoud Abbas's Foreign Ministry accused Israel of committing 'crimes' against Palestinians civilians, especially in the Gaza Strip, and renewed the call for providing 'international protection' for the Palestinians." In a prescient comment, the Gatestone Institute said : "This is the same Abbas whose sanctions have triggered the recent violence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. If anyone needs 'international protection,' it is those protesters who are being targeted by Abbas's security forces in the West Bank....What exactly does Abbas want? He wants the people of the Gaza Strip to continue protesting so that he will be able to continue to demonize Israel....On the one hand, President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA leadership continue inciting against Israel by holding it solely responsible for the humanitarian and economic crisis in the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, Abbas and his Ramallah-based government continue to impose strict economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip....In March 2018, Abbas and his government decided to impose a series of punitive measures against his own people : the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The measures include, among other things, halting payments to thousands of civil servants and forcing thousands of others into early retirement. He also decided to stop paying Israel for the electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip and limited the amount of medicine shipments to the coastal enclave. Abbas has defended his sanctions against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by arguing that Hamas was refusing to hand control over the coastal Gaza enclave to his government in accordance with previous 'reconciliation' agreements signed between his ruling Fatah faction and Hamas. Subsequently, violent riots by Palestinians along the Gaza-Israel border -- organized by Hamas and labelled as the 'March of Return' -- which began in March, reached their peak when arson kites and balloons were launched into Israel. In other words, it is Abbas himself who bears full responsibility for the clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Were it not for his sanctions, the Palestinian factions would not have waged the 'March of Return' -- the primary goal of which is to protest the deteriorating conditions inside the Gaza Strip, for which they blame Israel rather than their own leaders. The blood of the more than 150 Palestinians killed in the riots is on his hands alone." The Gatestone Institute concludes : "Equally disingenuous is that Abbas, who is responsible for the current wave of violence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, is now demanding that the international community, specifically the UN, provide 'international protection' for the Palestinians against Israeli measures. In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Abbas's Foreign Ministry accused Israel of committing 'crimes'against Palestinians civilians....This is the same Abbas whose sanctions are depriving cancer patients of chemotherapy medicine in the Gaza Strip. This is the same Abbas whose sanctions have triggered the recent violence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Abbas is calling for 'international protection' for the Palestinians while he is doing everything he can to wreak havoc on his people in the Gaza Strip. He does not want a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel; he does not want to lift the sanctions he imposed on the Gaza Strip, and he does not want the international community directly to fund economic and humanitarian projects that would improve the living conditions of his people. So what exactly does Abbas want? He wants the people of the Gaza Strip to continue protesting so that he will be able to continue to demonize Israel. Worse, Abbas does not want his people to raise their voice against his sanctions. Palestinians who have been protesting against his punitive measures in the West Bank have been repeatedly beaten by Abbas's police forces. Just last week, Abbas's security officers broke up a peaceful protest in Ramallah against his sanctions. Abbas is fine with protests as long as they call for bringing down Israel or the US. But Palestinians who dare to criticize his policies often find themselves subjected to various forms of punishment, including detention and beatings." • When Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly in September, he decided to blame anyone and everyone else for his own bad acts. He began, obviously, by blaming Israel, which he notably called a "colonial" enterprise, thereby once more stating indirectly that he still does not recognize the inalienable right of the Jewish people to exercise sovereignty in their ancient homeland. Then he blamed US President Trump, whom Abbas accused of launching an unprovoked "assault" on the Palestinian Arabs by actually holding them accountable for their actions during 25 years in which the Palestinians ignored the Oslo peace process, violating the agreements they signed. And, then Abbas turned his tirade to Hamas. Hamas surely is guilty, but Abbas forgot to mention that Hamas would never have been able to militarily seize control of the Gaza Strip had Abbas' Palestinian Authority honored its commitment to disarm the various terror groups operating under its auspices. "One authority, one gun" was the promise they made, and then proceeded to systematically violate. So, Abbas is ready to cut all funding to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip -- yet he criticizes Trump for doing the same to him. But the most ludicrous moment came when Abbas challenged his audience to tell him if the Palestinians had ever "committed a single mistake in our long journey." Oh la la !!! • • • DEAR READERS, the Israel-Palestinian peace process is dead. Many have said it. What President Trump is trying to do is create an environment that will lead to a realistic settlement of the political issues that keep the two sides in an undeclared state of war. Trump knows, as we all know, that Israel is unfairly reviled and mistreated by not only the Palestinians but also by the UN and its agencies. What we are witnessing is Trump's effort to tell Abbas, Hamas, the UN and the UNRWA that if they want to play by their rules and continue to beat up on Israel instead of trying to co-exist with it as a neighbor, they will have to answer to the United States. That is the only way to create the "environment" that will bring the Palestinians to any table -- whether for peace, co-existence, or anything else. • President Trump has been doing the same thing in the US -- telling the Democrat Party and its violent mobs and moneymen that if they want to beat up on America, they will have to answer to him. It is in the entire world's best interests for President Trump to succeed on both fronts.