Sunday, July 23, 2017

Time for Tillerson to Go

One thought that the Trump foreign policy would naturally be more pro-Israeli. Compared with the Obama foreign policy it would not have been a very high bar to clear.

And, when Trump sent Jared Kushner to Ramallah to present the administration’s view, Mahmoud Abbas reacted violently to what he perceived as a pro-Israeli leaning.

Now, however, the Rex Tillerson-led State Department has issued a report blaming Israel for Palestinian terrorism. Soon thereafter a Jewish family was massacred on the West Bank.

While the world has covered the massacre, it has paid little attention to the State Department report. Caroline Glick, on Facebook, has the story:

The Solomon family was massacred Friday night as they celebrated Shabbat and the birth of their newest grandson in their home. They were massacred by a 19 year old jihadist who posted an explanation of his imminent act of barbarous murder against his Jewish neighbors on Facebook less that two hours before he stormed their home in Neve Tzuf.

The murderer used the same language as his"moderate" "pro-peace" "legitimate" leader, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas who said that Jews pollute the Temple Mount with our "filthy feet."

Ironically and appallingly, just last week the US State Department published a report blaming Israel for Palestinian terrorism and claiming that the PLO-led, and US-funded Palestinian Authority doesn't incite terrorism and violence and hatred.

The State Department also opposes the Taylor Force bill which if passed -- along the lines passed in the House of Representatives, (the Senate bill is an insult to our intelligence), would end US taxpayer subsidization of Palestinian terrorism to the tune of more than half a billion dollars a year.

The State Department -- Tillerson included, apparently, doesn't see anything wrong with the fact that the PA uses more than $300 million every year to pay people like the murderer who butchered the Solomons and their families.

One suspects that Tillerson has no real idea of what his State Department is doing. One suspects that he doesn't understand policy and simply accepts whatever the swamp is issuing. Congress ought to demand that he answer for this report. And it's time for the Trump administration to keep its word and to move the American embassy to Jerusalem. Rewarding terrorism has never worked. It's time for a more muscular response by the United States.

As for Tillerson, it’s time for him to go.

5 comments:

Ares Olympus said...

Stuart: One suspects that Tillerson has no real idea of what his State Department is doing. One suspects that he doesn't understand policy and simply accepts whatever the swamp is issuing.

Sure, that's a good starting point. But if so, why ask him to go? Who is going to replace him and do better? The world is a big place, and the State Department has a large momentum that isn't changed quickly.

Of course firing and resignations seems to be standard operating procedure in this administration - people come, people go, and no one really knows what's going on.

Trump said he likes to throw dozens of balls in their, knowing most won't go anywhere, but he can take credit for the few lucky flights that land somewhere he can say "Winning!" one more time.

trigger warning said...

"the State Department has a large momentum"

You're confusing momentum with inertia (see Newton, Isaac).

DoS has a pre-existing condition, thanks in large part to Zissrs. J. Kerry and H. Clinton. Unfortunately, extant civil service regulations make it difficult to organize proper Sati rituals for emburrowed Proglodytes.

Burrowing: "a slang term used in the United States to describe the practice in which political appointees are given civil service protection. Except for judges, political appointees are subject to losing their jobs when a new administration takes power. On the other hand, career government officials are protected from losing their jobs when a new administration takes over. Burrowing is therefore the practice of re-assigning people who do not have civil service protection into jobs that have civil service protection."

Ares Olympus said...

TW, Thanks, I consulted Newton. I see momentum being mass times velocity is zero if an object is at rest, while its inertia, being proportional to the mass is unchanged by its velocity. It takes just as much work to speed up a heavy object as slow it down.

I could still argue that momentum is more important. If you jump in front of a car at rest, you will probably be safe (for a while) while if you jump in front of moving car at high speeds, even if the driver is your mother, you'll probably be dead, or wish you were.

A State Department at rest would seem to be less dangerous than one that is moving, or one moving in the wrong direction anyway.

Sam L. said...

I'd say the State Department needs to be decimated, or duodecimated. Too many woodenheads there.

Ares Olympus said...

Sam, are you advocating 10% of the State Department be murdered? Or maybe you're being kind and offering to only support the murder every twelfth?

dec·i·mate (historical): kill one in every ten of (a group of soldiers or others) as a punishment for the whole group.
duodec·i·mate : Kill one twelfth of a group of people, especially by lot.

Anyway, I'm sure Russia will support your objectives. And it does look like the Trump administration's record rate of of firings and resignations is setting a good example.

And once you show you have a hostile work environment, no one wants to work there. I know to government haters this is the ideal - and even if it speeds up corruption, it slows down overall problematic activity.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-appointments.html