January 5, 2018

USA: America Is No Longer A Doormat To Be Used And Abused By The Palestinian Authority. Great Piece From A Longtime Democrat New York State Assemblyman! 👏

The Times of Israel
written by Dov Hikind
Thursday January 4, 2018

I'll be perfectly honest: I don’t like his tweets either. But there’s a lot more to Donald Trump’s presidency than those bombastic and often embarrassing messages on Twitter. There’s also a lot more than the timely, uplifting, feel-good commutation of Sholom Rubashkin’s unfair prison sentence. A year into the presidency of one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history, we should be a little more honest when assessing what President Trump has brought to the White House.

This week, the president addressed one of the campaign promises that he initially ran on — the Middle East peace process. President Trump decried how the Palestinian Authority was taking “hundreds of millions of dollars” in assistance from the United States while showing us zero “appreciation or respect.” In a shocking, non-surprise, far-left critics of the president are saying his criticism of the PA will likely escalate tensions in the Middle East, but I found the president’s tone fair, honest and refreshing.

“With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” the president asked. Why indeed? The US is not just here to hand out our tax dollars to foreign entities, especially when there is no benefit to our country. President Trump is keeping his eye on the ball, addressing his larger campaign promise, as well, showing that it is no longer business as usual in Washington. Aid to the Palestinians — more than $5 billion since the mid-1990s — should not come without a commitment to peace from the Palestinians. But instead of making strides towards peace, the Palestinians continue to teach their school children to hate Israelis; continue to reward terrorists and glorify terrorism. What have they done with our money? Co-sponsored two intifadas — violent uprisings that destroyed the lives of numerous men, women and children on both sides of the conflict.

The only people I can think of on the map who have been considered refugees for more than half a century are the Palestinians. This, despite foreign and US aid; despite the return of Gaza; despite every effort by neighboring Israel to help the Palestinians receive fresh water and vital electricity. The Palestinians remain “refugees” because it is politically expedient to play the victim card. If the Palestinians were to invest in social programs rather than terror tunnels, the refugee stigma would cease to exist.

President Trump’s foreign policies have been exceptional — even more so when contrasted with those of the Obama administration, which eroded our position of leadership on the world stage. Of course, we should be selling defensive weapons to the Ukrainians, who Obama all but ignored. Of course, we should be standing up to the United Nations’ disgusting, hypocritical, racist condemnations of Israel. Of course, we should be supporting political dissidents in Iran and helping that nation emerge from the totalitarian dictatorship of fanatic extremists.

Donald Trump’s first year in office may not have made America as great as it once was, nor as great as we know it can be, but foreign policy-wise, he has allowed America to show leadership and re-take a moral, pragmatic high ground. Having to suffer the embarrassment of a fountain of tweets better left untweeted is a small price to pay for such leadership.

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Dov Hikind is a New York State Assemblyman (Democrat), representing Brooklyn's Assembly district 48. He has held the position since 1983.

To reach NYS Assemblyman Dov Hikind (Democrat—Brooklyn), contact Yehudah Meth at HikindNews@gmail.com or phone: 718-853-9616

FLASHBACK to 2013
The Times of Israel
written by Elhanan Miller
January 10, 2013

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected an Israeli offer to allow Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria to enter the Palestinian territories on condition that they forgo their “right of return” to Israel proper, Abbas told the Egyptian press on Wednesday evening.

Following a meeting with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, Abbas said that he had appealed to the UN to intercede on behalf of Palestinian refugees living in Syria and demand that Israel allow them to enter the West Bank and Gaza.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Abbas that Israel agreed to the request, on the condition that the refugees sign a document in which they forgo the “right of return” to areas within Israel. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment on the report.
The so-called Palestinian President rejected Israel's offer because Islam wants to keep flooding Israel with Islamist refugees until Islam overthrows Israel government. Mahmoud Abbas has been a so-called President of the made up so-called "State" of Palestine since 2005. Do the math. That's 13 YEARS, and remember, these ARE ISLAMIST REFUGEES DEMANDING STATEHOOD. How the hell does someone who is a refugee get to DEMAND anything from anyone. How would you like a homeless person to show up to your home and DEMAND that you let them in and demand that you feed them, and DEMAND that you give them a room of their own, until they ultimately DEMAND that you give them your home or else they'll kill your household if they can't chase you out of your own home. (emphasis mine)
Abbas said he rejected that condition.

Palestinians living in the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus have been subjected to (Syrian) government bombardment following the camp’s capture by opposition forces last month. Five Palestinians were killed in the camp on Tuesday.

Syria’s southern neighbor, Jordan, has begun to turn away Palestinian refugees fleeing toward the border, Al-Jazeera reported earlier this week. Previously, Palestinians were allowed to enter the Jordanian kingdom but were kept in a separated refugee camp called Cyber City, located near the Syrian border.

Abbas had arrived in Cairo to discuss political reconciliation with his Palestinian rivals, the Hamas terror organization. On Wednesday evening, a high-ranking Fatah delegation headed by Abbas met with a Hamas delegation that included the group’s political chief Khaled Mashaal and his deputy Moussa Abu-Marzouq.

Abbas told the press that Mashaal had agreed with Fatah on four key points: The vision of two states — “Palestine on the 1967 borders living side by side with the state of Israel”; reaching that end through negotiations; the adoption of peaceful resistance [to Israel]; and the holding of elections, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Wednesday.

According to Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, Abbas said that he was prepared to visit Hamas-controlled Gaza at any time, adding that the issue “is very much on my mind, and has become more urgent.”
FLASHBACK to 2015
The Times of Israel
written by Staff
September 5, 2015

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Saturday for the absorption of Palestinian refugees fleeing war in Syria into the West Bank.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Abbas instructed the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, to cooperate with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “in taking appropriate and necessary action to absorb displaced Palestinian refugees into the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Abbas urged Mansour to work with the UN and the EU to pressure Israel to let Palestinian refugees from Syria cross into Palestinian areas.

According to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority seeks international help “to stop the Palestinians’ plight of displacement, death and dispersal in world countries due to the current difficult conditions in the region.”

“The Palestinian presidency deems this mission not just a humanitarian mission, but a right of every Palestinian living in exile and refugee camps [to return],” the statement said.

There are 13 refugee camps in Syria, with the largest being the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus. The camp was established after Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 as a community outside Damascus, but with the Syrian capital’s urban development it became part of the city.

At its peak the population of Yarmouk amounted to some 150,000 people but the camp was bombed by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad after the start of the Syrian civil war. In April this year, Islamic State fighters laid siege to the camp and then overran it. There are an estimated 18,000 people or less remaining in the camp.

The comments by Abbas came soon after Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said Israel had a moral obligation to take in some Syrian refugees. Herzog did not refer specifically to Palestinian refugees.

In January 2014, an Israeli columnist known for his usually hawkish views wrote a surprising column in which he said Israel should help the Palestinians in Yarmouk because of its indelible historical link to the Palestinian people.

“According to different reports, we’re talking about 20,000 people who are in a terrible danger of massacre and are starving. [The numbers] are not anything Israel cannot handle,” columnist Amnon Lord wrote in a column published in Ma’ariv, a Hebrew-language paper.

“Why not say this out loud: Israelis care about Palestinians more than about other population groups […] with all the accusations that Israel has against Palestinian actions, there is a closeness that can be admitted and accepted. We lived with them and in their proximity from a young age,” he wrote at the time.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 11:54 PM

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