The Trump Administration's New Middle East Strategy

The media is abuzz today over the New York Times story about how President Trump used infelicitous language in speaking about certain racial and ethnic groups. This counts as a thought crime and you know, if you read the media, that there is nothing worse in this world than thought crimes.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media, despite some occasional good stories, has so completely compromised its reputation for objective journalism that no one will believe the new allegations about Trump.

Anyway, the great investigative reporters in the mainstream media have missed the story about the administration’s new policy toward the Palestinian Authority. It is a momentous story and therefore likely to be ignored—roughly as the Obama administration’s efforts to shield Hezbollah agents from being prosecuted for drug running.

It’s amazing what the media fails to report. Anyway, the Israeli website, Debkafile has the latest about the new Middle East policy. Apparently, the Trump White House is washing its hands of the Palestinian Authority. It’s about time:

The White House has decided to quietly withdraw from all its ties with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas. DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report that the Trump administration has resolved to scrap all ties with the Palestinian leadership in retaliation for its campaign against US President Donald Trump and his Jerusalem policy. Several warnings to Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) of what was in store if he did not desist from castigating the US president fell on death ears. 

It continues by referring to consultations that Abbas had last week with the Crown Princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Now, Debkafile reports that the ruler of Qatar communicated the same message to Abbas:

Last week, two Arab crown princes, Saudi Muhammed bin Salman and UAE Sheikh Muhammed bin Zayed, summoned Abbas to their capitals and urged him strongly to back away from his attacks on President Trump. He got the same advice from the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, who conferred with Washington on the subject – all to no avail. 

Debkafile outlines the new policy toward the Palestinians. For your edification:

The Trump administration has therefore set out an eight-point program of sanctions, which is first revealed here:

• The Israeli-Palestinian peace plan under preparation in Washington will not be submitted to Ramallah – only to Israel and the relevant Arab governments.
• US-Palestinian interaction is to be suspended – not just at the senior levels but in day-to-day interchanges. The administration has notified Palestinian and other Arab parties to stop addressing queries on political and economic matters to the US consulate in Jerusalem, because they will not receive answers.
• The status of the PLO office in Washington will be reevaluated with a view to shutting it down.
• Palestinian officials will no longer be invited to Washington by the US government, including the State Department and Department of Treasury.
• Above all, they will not be welcome at the White House or the National Security Council where US Middle East policy is designed. Senior US officials congratulated the senior Palestinian negotiator Saab Erekat, who also holds the PA’s American portfolio, on his recovery from illness, at the same time warning him that he would no longer be received at the White House.
• The Trump administration will not make any public announcement of the cutoff of financial aid to the Palestinians. Since the funds are mostly earmarked for specific economic projects, each allocation will simply be held back on the pretext of the need for a “reappraisal.”
• The US will halt its contributions to the UN Work and Relief Organization, an estimated one billion dollars per annum.
• The US administration moreover intervened with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar with a request that they freeze or slow their economic aid to the Palestinian Authority.

According DEBKAfile’s sources, Palestinian officials in Ramallah were devastated by news of the sudden cutoff of the main sources of the PA’s revenue. Even the Qatar ruler, whom Abbas visited last week as a last resort to save the PA from economic meltdown, refused to release any more funding.

Hopefully, the story is true.