Trump’s bizarre and un-American visit to Saudi Arabia Before he moves on to Israel and then to Europe, before we are consumed by the next scandal and forget, here is a list, for the record, of just a few of the ways in which President Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia was bizarre, unseemly, unethical and un-American. It was a very strange choice for a first trip abroad. The past four American presidents, two Republicans and two Democrats, made their first trips to either Mexico and Canada, countries that are close trading partners, close allies, compatible democracies and of course neighbors. Trump chose, instead, to make his first presidential visit to an oligarchic kleptocracy which forces women to hide their faces and forbids them to travel without a male guardian’s permission. It was a very strange place to speak out against Islamist extremism. Although Saudi Arabia is afraid of some forms of Islamist extremism, it supports others. Saudi Arabia sponsors extremist Wahabi mosques and imams all over the world; Osama bin Laden was a Saudi citizen, as were 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers. The sword dance. Every American president has met with his Saudi counterparts, and of course the stability of Saudi Arabia, as well as its oil, is an important U.S. security concern. But until now American presidents made it clear that, while we have to deal with Saudi leaders, we don’t endorse their culture. Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and others in the delegation did exactly that, by participating in this sinister all-male dance. Ivanka Trump’s “outreach” to women entrepreneuers. Saudi women must cover their heads and often their faces. They cannot drive cars, cannot (see above) travel without the permission of male guardians and are deprived of legal rights and education. In that context, Ivanka Trump’s promotion of female “entrepreneurs” looked like a cynical public relations gambit, which of course it was. The announcement that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will donate money to her fund was a “pay to play” far more blatant than anything Hillary Clinton ever dreamed of. Tillerson talking about human rights in Iran. Yes, Americans are often hypocritical about where and when they promote human rights. But to denounce human rights in Iran while standing in Saudi Arabia, a place where there is no political freedom and no religious freedom, brought hypocrisy to a whole new level. Better not to have said anything at all. Tillerson holding a news conference for foreign press only. The U.S. press corps was not invited. Presumably this was because the White House doesn’t want Americans to find out what the president was doing in Saudi Arabia? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...visit-to-saudi-arabia/?utm_term=.11778981e579
Tell me that's not a hit piece. If the guy arranges peace between palestine and israel, how are they going to spin it?
Sure, Denny, Trump is going to arrange peace between Palestinians and Israel. Hey, I have a bridge I'd like to sell. Please explain how the person with no knowledge or experience in foreign policy, a 3-minute attention span and no care for anything aside from his ego and wealth will arrange that miracle? Oh, I see National Enquirer has said Trump will bring world peace, because the best brains will work on it. Apparently the only reason the world has wars and simmering conflicts is that smart people just did not think enough! You know, like in Music Man when you just had to think about playing an instrument...
This is how it starts. Not "National Enquirer." https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-rare-overture-palestinians-trump-request-072019761.html Israel in rare overture to Palestinians 'at Trump request' Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli ministers have approved measures aimed at improving the Palestinian economy and facilitating crossings, rare moves said to be at Donald Trump's request hours ahead of the US president's arrival. An Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity that ministers were responding to a Trump request to present him with "confidence-building measures" ahead of his talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday. In a statement, Trump's administration welcomed the moves, saying he "has been encouraging both sides to take steps that improve the environment for peace making." "He has expressed particular interest in taking steps to improve the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip." In what the Israeli official described as a "gesture for Trump's visit, which does not harm Israel's interests", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet on Sunday approved the enlargement of a Palestinian industrial zone on the edge of the southern West Bank.
NBC News. Not National Enquirer. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/tr...rrives-israel-will-push-peace-process-n762816 Donald Trump Arrives in Israel, Will Push Peace Process by ALI VITALI and ABIGAIL WILLIAMS TEL AVIV, Israel — President Donald Trump arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday, hoping to help push forward what he's described as the "ultimate deal" — peace between Israelis and Palestinians. ... Trump later said he was "very, very honored" to be visiting the country, highlighting that he came "to this sacred and ancient land to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between the United States and the state of Israel." He added: "We have before us a rare opportunity to bring stability, security and peace to this region and its people — defeating terrorism." Trump's two-day visit will include separate meetings with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Trump also plans to visit the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and the Western Wall, an important key Jewish holy site. "I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians," he told Reuters a week before meeting with Abbas at the White House. "There is no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians — none whatsoever." White House aides have played down expectations for significant progress on the peace process during Trump's stop, casting it as more symbolic than substantive. The last round of peace talks, led by then-President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, fell apart in 2014.
After criticising opponents for not saying 'radical Islamic terrorism' Donald Trump rules it out of Saudi Arabia speech http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...rism-speech-saudi-arabia-riyadh-a7747651.html
First lady Melania Trump slaps at President Trump's hand on Tel Aviv tarmac in Israel https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...t-trump-hand-tel-aviv-tarmac-israel/22103237/ :MARIS61:
Off to a better start than the previous incompetent administration. Judging from the current situation, I think peace may be attainable.
At first I thought Sly's post was a joke. Then I looked at the people who liked it, and realized that it was supposed to be serious.
The bar has been set so low for Trump if he can give a speech without shitting his diapers we hear he is "presidential". He could have talked about extremism being a worldwide problem, that in the US there are home grown terrorists, but no, all terrorists are Muslim (and all Muslims terrorists?) Besides, he would have trouble denouncing murder of Black worshipers in church or bombings/shootings at Planned Parenthood because they probably don't bother him much. His campaign statements to totally ban Muslims and "Islam hates us" are surely not forgotten. He ignored any social/economic conditions that drive people to despair, like extreme inequality, lack of opportunity, destruction of resources, political repressions, all of which his policies will worsen, and instead posed terrorism as just "evil" people who apparently only exist in the Muslim world. And he delivered his speech in one of the most repressive countries in the world before an all-male audience. How do you settle the world's problems while excluding half the world's population? And he is saying "make peace, Israel and Palestinians" while ignoring the causes of decades of conflict, which he, I am willing to bet, knows absolutely nothing about. He has the biggest brain! He is the leader! He is the only one who can save us! All he has to do is command and a century of conflict goes away pouf!
Looks like the Israelis don't think much of Trump. In Israel, Trump Fits Right in - if Only He Would Stop Talking About Peace Trump is the most 'Israeli' U.S. president in history, but not in a good way There were plenty of hitches, glitches and embarrassments from both sides on the first day of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Israel but, surprisingly, most of them weren’t his fault. Other than his bizarre and unsolicited claim “I didn’t mention Israel,” in connection with the intelligence he gave the Russians – which was reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman” – Trump stuck to his script. He said all the right words. He was bigheaded and boastful but still gracious to his hosts. He blasted Iran as the root of all evil. And he made Jewish hearts around the world flutter as he fondled the Western Wall in Jerusalem while his Jewish daughter Ivanka shed a tear nearby. ... With Trump, of course, things can change dramatically, even as you’re reading this. One arrogant tweet, one unfounded accusation or one outrageous assertion – all inevitable over time, of course – and Trump’s magic moment will be over. But so far he’s doing well, from his point of view. He’s made no major mistakes. He’s being presidential. He’s projecting an image of popularity and even statesmanship that belies his dismal standing at home. And whether or not he cares, he’s winning Israeli hearts and minds. Unlike most Israelis, Trump probably wasn’t bothered or humiliated by the fact that MK Oren Hazan (Likud), whose depiction as a pimp was ruled reasonable by a court of law, broke through at the reception ceremony at Ben-Gurion International Airport to force the president to have a selfie. He didn’t even notice that Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told him of a terrorist attack that had been ruled a traffic accident two hours earlier. And though he may have been out of earshot, Trump would have absolutely embraced Sara Netanyahu’s self-pitying effort to find common ground with Melania Trump by whining that both the Netanyahus and Trumps are “hated by the media but loved by the people.” ... Trump constantly rebuked Iran and is trying to isolate it, unlike Obama, who signed a nuclear deal with Tehran and tried to bring it back into the fold. Trump talks tough on terror, but, like Netanyahu and unlike Obama, doesn’t care or even recognize that in some cases it might have underlying causes. Trump doesn’t think much of other peoples’ freedoms and rights – it’s not clear he cares for America’s either, but that’s another story. And he’s certainly not preachy, like Obama – a trait that most Israelis dislike. Not to mention that he’s not black, has no Muslim ancestors and his middle name is John, like John Wayne, not Hussein, like Saddam Hussein. But even without the Obama reference, Trump, in some not necessarily complimentary ways, is more “Israeli” than any of his predecessors. He’s brash and abrasive and arrogant. He often talks before thinking; is insensitive to others; doesn’t care for political correctness or for the sensitivities of minorities; believes that might makes right; detests international organizations and multilateralism, and doesn’t think much of Europe either. Like Sara Netanyahu, her husband and many other Israelis, he thinks he’s God’s gift to mankind, is consumed by a sense of victimhood, and has no doubt that the liberal media and establishment are out to get him. Of course, Israelis aren’t New York billionaires who married a striking model and got elected U.S. president against all odds, but I’m sure a surprising number of them think they could or should be. ... The only trait Trump is showing that might jar with Israelis is his repeated insistence, amplified in Jerusalem, that peace is attainable and that he is the agent of its achievement. It is a declaration that was seen as naive and messianic and vaguely anti-Israeli when Obama dared make it, so it perplexes Israelis to hear Trump promote peace as a realistic option. If Israelis, especially those on the right, are still hesitant to embrace Trump, it is out of concern that his pretension to be a peacemaker is like “Chekhov’s gun”: It will show up somewhere down the line, pointed at their heads. ... It’s hard to imagine that Trump, who reportedly has an attention span like Pixar’s Dory, has any long-term peace strategy laid out. ... One of the main complaints against Obama was that he was aloof, perhaps even condescending. He did not go out of his way to make Israelis love him or trust him. Trump, on the other hand, is anything but aloof. He may be a billionaire born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he’s a steak-eating, foulmouthed commoner in his behavior – much like the unbearable Hazan, in fact, who lurched at him for a selfie. If a prerequisite to achieving peace is making Israelis trust you to the extent that they will find it hard to say no when you eventually lower the boom with a peace plan that they find indigestible, then Trump is on the right track. His picture at the Western Wall, with Ivanka dressed like a dutiful frum wife in the women’s section. ... This is all based, of course, on a series of unlikely assumptions: That Trump isn’t full of hot air; that he won’t put his foot in his mouth in the next few hours; that he has the stamina to invest in the peace process; that he won’t give up at the first sign of difficulty; and that he won’t turn around and put a gun to Israel’s head before it’s absolutely necessary. Oh yeah, and that he won’t be impeached. read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.791088
