Showing posts with label King Abdullah II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label King Abdullah II. Show all posts

Monday, January 27, 2025

Trump wants Arab nations to take on more Gaza Arabs


President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he wants to resettle residents of the Gaza Strip in Arab countries, shaking up Middle East diplomacy in his unique way.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had asked King Abdullah II of Jordan in a phone call earlier in the day to "take people" from war-torn Gaza and planned to make a similar request to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a phone call on Sunday. Trump suggested that mass emigration from the strip, whether "temporarily" or "long term," could help resolve "centuries" of conflict.

"You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know over the centuries it has had many, many conflicts, and I don’t know, something has to happen," Trump said. "But it's literally a demolition site right now, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there. So I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where [Gazans] can maybe live in peace for a change."

The response from Israel was notably muted, and even politicians who have advocated Gazan emigration told media outlet Washington Free Beacon that Egypt and Jordan were unlikely to agree to Trump’s requests. However, some right-wing politicians hailed the proposal as a chance to break away from the traditional U.S. call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"For years, politicians have proposed impractical solutions like dividing the land and establishing a Palestinian state, which endangered the existence and security of the world’s only Jewish state, leading only to bloodshed and suffering for many. Only out-of-the-box thinking and new solutions will bring about peace and security," Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement. "I will work closely with the prime minister and the cabinet to ensure that there is an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible."

Ohad Tal, a member of Israel’s parliamentary defense committee from Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, told the Free Beacon that Trump’s remarks had given a major boost to the "only logical and just solution" to the conflict.

"It will allow the Palestinians who leave to build a better future for themselves somewhere else, and it will minimize the conflict here, which is good for everyone," said Tal, who has advocated Gazan emigration to Trump associates. "It’s good for Israel, it’s good for the region, and it’s good for the Americans, who don’t want to have to be bothered by the Palestinians starting a war every couple years."

Palestinian, Jordanian, and Egyptian leaders on Sunday reaffirmed their opposition to any large-scale resettlement of Palestinians.

"We call on the U.S. administration to cease these proposals, which align with Israeli plans and directly contradict the rights and free will of our people," Hamas, the dominant Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza, said in a statement. "We also call on Arab and Islamic countries, especially our brothers in Egypt and Jordan, to reaffirm their steadfast positions in rejecting displacement and expulsion."

President Mahmoud Abbas of the West Bank Palestinian Authority "expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects aimed at displacing our people from the Gaza Strip," according to a statement from his office that did not specifically refer to Trump.

Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said in a statement, "Our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians."

While Egypt did not publicly comment, Saudi news station Al Hadath reported on Sunday that Sisi remained firmly opposed to accepting any Gazans into his country.

Despite the rejections of the Arab leaders, Tal voiced confidence that ordinary Gazans would be ready to leave the strip and that Trump—who has often used bold threats to win concessions from foreign interlocutors—could find countries willing to take them.

"It takes courage to execute new ideas," Tal said. "But I think Trump is someone who has proven he can implement these kinds of ideas."

Amit Halevi, another member of the defense committee from the ruling Likud party, told the Free Beacon that Israel should work with Trump to enable and encourage hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave Gaza, particularly young adults.

"They have no future under the Hamas regime," he said. "They want to get out. Let them get out."

Once considered mostly by Israel’s far right, the idea of facilitating Gazan emigration went mainstream after the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists and ordinary Palestinians conducted a massacre and mass abduction in southern Israel, starting a war that left much of Gaza in ruins.

That November, Ram Ben Barack of the centrist Yesh Atid party and Danny Danon, then a Likud lawmaker and now Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, co-wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling on "countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate."

The following month, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu told a Likud faction meeting, "Our problem is [finding] countries that are willing to absorb Gazans, and we are working on it."

However, in January, several Israeli officials, facing U.S. and European criticism, spoke out against their colleagues' calls for Gazan immigration, saying the idea was unrealistic and damaging to Israel’s international standing.

"It’s clear that there is nobody in Israel who wouldn’t be happy if Gazans decided to emigrate voluntarily if they were happy to leave," but that is not going to happen and public discussion of the issue is unhelpful, Likud Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar told Israel’s Ynet news site at the time. "We see the repercussions, we see what happened with the Americans."

Gilad Kariv, from the left-wing Democrats party, was one of the few Israeli officials to publicly oppose Trump’s proposal on Sunday.

"Israel has no interest in this happening," Kariv told Israel’s 103FM radio, "certainly not in relation to Jordan because the stability of the Hashemite Kingdom is a clear security interest of Israel."


Saturday, October 24, 2015

Kerry goes behind Obama's back re: leadership

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Amman, Jordan and met with King Abdullah II and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Kerry claims that Israel and Jordan have agreed on methods to reduce the anger and bloodshed at the Jerusalem holy site that Muslims are using as an excuse to kill Jews.

Kerry didn't say that, I did.

"All the violence and the incitement to violence must stop," Kerry ordered. "Leaders must lead," he said to reporters, not taking into consideration how his own so-called leader might fall short in that area. Perhaps Kerry bought into the idea that one can lead from behind.

Kerry, a former communist sympathizer and current leftist, outlined the steps that would allegedly reduce the violence. 

For example, 24/7 video monitoring (like we did in Benghazi) would help reduce violence. This was suggested by King Abdullah II and was accepted by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister.

In addition, Israel's must reaffirm Jordan's historical and special role as custodian of the site, known to Jews since before the birth of Christ as the Temple Mount, and to Muslims since 637 CE (after they killed and conquered the Jews in Jerusalem) as the Dome of the Rock where they built the Al-Aqsa Mosque after the mount was abandoned.

Some very quick history on mosques and other houses of worship. If you would like to read more about triumphant  mosques go here.

After the capture of Jerusalem, it was believed that Umar, an Islamic caliph and big cheese among the faithful fighters, refused to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre fearing, that by doing so, Muslims would later convert the church into a mosque, in spite of an agreement to leave it as a Christian house of prayer. 

Even Umar didn't trust his own people.
Jewish man killed while praying

So Umar initially built a small prayer house which later laid the foundation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

In another case, the church of Job in Ash Shaykh Sa'd in Syria was taken from the Christians and converted into a mosque. Only Muslims were allowed in thereafter.

The second most holy site for the Jews was the Herodian shrine of Cave of the Patriarchs. It had been converted (against its will) into a church during the Crusades but eventually turned into a mosque in 1266. Jews and Christians were banned from entering it thereafter. It was restored to its original use by Israel as a synagogue after the 1967 war.

This is an example of how a 'triumphant mosque' returned to its original form. It is a rare occurrence.

Back to Kerry. He said that Israel has pledged to maintain the rules of worship at the site and Jordan will meet with Israeli authorities do discuss security matters. 

"I hope that based on these conversations we can finally put to rest some of the false assumptions, perceptions, about the holy site," Kerry said. "Those perceptions are stoking the tensions and fueling the violence and it is important for us to end the provocative rhetoric and start to change the public narrative that comes out of those false perceptions."

What Kerry was politically correctly referring to was how Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials were putting out a false narrative (a freaking lie, that is) that the Jews want to take control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was executed for stabbing a 13-year-old Jewish boy and a Jewish man. 

The boy is in an Israeli hospital recovering nicely, and the Jews had no intention of taking over the mosque.

So Kerry outlined the understandings saying a) Israel "fully respects" Jordan's "special role" as custodian of the site; b) Israel will continue to enforce its current policy of religious worship, including "the fundamental fact" that it is Muslims who pray there and non-Muslims who visit; c) Israel has no intention of dividing the site and rejects any attempt to suggest otherwise; and d) Israel welcomes greater coordination between Israeli and Jordanian authorities to ensure visitors and worshipers "demonstrate respect and restraint." 

If these recommendations actually work, it would be a miracle on The Temple Mount. For centuries Islam has hated the Jews, didn't feel the love for Christians, and outright killed infidels. It isn't only in their DNA, it's in their scripture.

Let's hope this works, but I wouldn't bet on it. 

If these steps actually work and the violence ends in Israel (and I am proven wrong, which I honestly hope happens)  then Kerry deserves some of the credit.



Sunday, February 8, 2015

Strategic Patience or "Be Real Quiet and They'll Leave You Alone"

"An army of sheep led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a sheep" --Alexander the Great

Now the Obama administration has a new strategy in the war against "violent extremists," (who may or may not be Muslims) and it goes by the term: "Strategic Patience."
His only ball

Strategic patience is one way to say what Obama's strategy is, but there are other ways of saying the same thing. How about the "Passive, Non-Aggressive" strategy or "Be Smart and Do Nothing "strategy? They seem to echo the same idea of patiently waiting and the bullies will see that you don't want to fight and will walk away, just like your teacher told you to do, but they attacked you in the schoolyard anyway.

I like the: "Be Real Quiet and They Will Go Away" strategy--it's so totally, like, progressive and all.

Susan Rice warns us that "alarmism is something we can't afford," while the Islamic State is immolating people, killing, torturing and destroying as if the world is made of wood and ISIS are the termites. Action is not "alarmism," Susan, but the alarm has gone off and we need to do something. Strategic patience, two words that remind me of the word "Islamophobia." Both terms are used to prevent action. In the first case, to prevent an actual military strategy to be implemented. In the second case, to shame people and keep them from talking about the reality of Islamic jihad that stares us in the face. Even conservative leaders are afraid to be honest about the situation.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines "Strategic" thus:
1. a) necessary or important in the initiation, conduct or completion of a strategic plan.
    b) of great importance within an integrated whole or to a planned effect.

2. designed or trained to strike an enemy at the sources of its military, economic or political power.

In other words, a strategy involves ACTION!!


So while Obama and his administration us strategic patience (which is a make-believe term like Islamophobia), the UK has stepped up to the plate and set up a unit of highly skilled pilots and staff to prevent another coalition pilot from being captured and killed by ISIS. 

The Joint Personnel Recovery (JPR) units will consist of 12 man teams aboard Chinook choppers and will be accompanied by jet fighters providing "above cover."


This is what a leader looks like
Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah will be donning his flight suit, the same one he wore as a Chinook pilot for the Jordanian Air Force, while President Obama will be donning his golf shoes and Mom's jeans, patiently playing another round, knowing that this is the best way to treat a crazy organization of Islamic terrorists.

Obama mentioned how Christians killed in the name of Christ, but he forgot to mention that today, not 900 years ago, people are killing in the name of Mohammad.

Do you really believe he's a Christian?



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