By So, let me preface this by telling you a story. It is a famous story about the power of the Israeli intelligence. The story goes that the U.S. had sold Israel a bunch of weapons, but the Israelis had run out of the ammo that these weapons used. The Pentagon, when Israel asked for more of this ammo, responded, “Well, we don’t have any more of the ammo for those guns.” Israeli intelligence responded — to the Pentagon, mind you — that in fact the U.S. did have these specific weapons stored in a bunker in Hawaii, and the U.S. should send them to Israel tout suite (right now), to which the Pentagon obliged. This is reported in a famous book called They Dare To Speak Out, by Paul Findley, a former congressman, who dared to speak out about the power of AIPAC.
So I’m writing this aware that the Mossad is watching, and I’m respectfully afraid. However, to AIPAC, and to some Jewish people and Israelis, since I am “out of line” enough to even write on Israel – Palestine, which I am really too ignorant to do, I will say that I really am genuinely pro-Israel. I think Israel has a right to exist, that it is a democratic nation that I respect, just as the United States is a democratic nation I respect. I respect that I don’t totally understand, or even vaguely understand the situation in Israel right now, and probably shouldn’t say anything. May God forgive me though; I have genuinely been agonizing for the Israeli people for multiple reasons.
One is the ongoing nightmare of the Israeli elections. I have thought often with compassion for the masses of the Israeli public enduring the horrors of trying to wait for the Knesset to form, and failing. What I do know is the anxiety of watching our country’s respective elections approaching, and I cannot even imagine how painful it is to be Israeli and have to keep returning to the polls; elections with no solutions or winners. It is a horrible nightmare, and my heart genuinely goes
out to the people suffering in Israel.
So in the midst of this, we have Jared Kushner and President Trump proposing that they solve the Israel Palestine crisis with their “Deal of the Century,” that the Palestinian Authority has called the “hoax of the century.” First, last summer, Kushner and the Trump administration proposed a plan for so-called economic prosperity that would provide a needed piece of the peace process. And I basically agree with the logic. If people are prosperous, peace will be a natural state. Of course, the problem with this plan is that Trump and his administration
arguably don’t want peace at all. Kushner, in his interview with Al Jazeera last summer, said that “Peace comes from compromise,” with a calm smile, stating that he really hopes that there is a solution which allows the solution proposed by the Saudis, the Arab Peace Initiative, and Israeli ideas for what should happen in Israel.
In theory, much of what Kushner said was plausible. He stated if the Arabs had been able to broker peace, we would already be done with the conflict. They failed, and we need new ideas and new solutions. I basically agree with this statement. The lack of solution — and statehood — been disastrous for the Palestinian people. There does need to be a solution. To be at the point in which there is not even discussion happening is not a position of power. Military solutions are flawed, and will leave the Palestinians suffering worse, and perhaps the Palestinian Authority needs to realistically consider what they are capable of bargaining for, but of course, they weren’t even asked to participate in the plan at all, potentially because the plan might be deliberately designed to start a war. It might be designed to prevent peace from being possible. The Jordanian government has refused to discuss the plan with Trump, and I see this as being perhaps due to a problem with the plan that is not being honestly discussed; a plan that is not being detailed in Kushner’s interview when he talks about peace, compromise, and prosperity.
The major problem with the plan is that the Trump administration is operating in bad faith.
The solutions to conflict and war in the Middle East will have to come from someone, or somewhere, that genuinely cares about peace and prosperity, not someone who is literally trying to bring down the rapture.
Why are they operating in bad faith? Trump is completely committed to catering to his evangelical constituents and they actually don’t want peace; they want a massive war, the so-called Armageddon, because they are eagerly awaiting the return of Jesus. The assassination of Soleimani was praised by evangelicals not because they hate Soleimani per se, but because it could cause a war, and this war could bring back Jesus. Many evangelicals see a massive war in the Middle East as a necessary prerequisite for the second coming of Christ and the rapture, and thus, this idea that the Trump administration could in any way broker peace is only
another gross example of the heinous dishonesty and corruption of the Trump administration as a whole.
Trump has in recent years become more and more attached to evangelicals, especially Paula White. One of her famous lines is, “To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God.” You can see more about her here. Evangelicals want war, they think it is necessary. This is, as Mother Jones reports, “especially terrifying” because Trump is listening.
Televangelists like White, with their linking of giving money to themselves bein necessary for one to attain God’s blessings, have historically been seen as fraudulent charlatans. In fact, many evangelicals see the faction that Trump has reached out to as extremely scary. Christianity Today, a prominent
magazine, has publicly stated that Christians need to resist the urge to vote for Trump due to his extremely immoral and corrupt practices, and corrupt character.
Netanyahu and Gantz both flew to Washington to talk with Trump about his plan for “peace” in the region. They both agreed to the plan, and this alone indicates that it is overwhelmingly pro-Israel and unfavorable to the Palestinians. But the primary reason that the plan is a problem is because the United States — and the Trump administration particularly — is not qualified to
broker peace in the Middle East, or provide solutions to the conflict in Palestine. The solutions to conflict and war in the Middle East will have to come from someone, or somewhere, that genuinely cares about peace and prosperity, not someone who is literally trying to bring down the rapture.