Trump Admin Middle East Plan To Slash Humanitarian Funds As Tensions Rise

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo/AP



By MATTHEW LEE | May 19, 2018 11:03 am

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is aiming to roll out its much-hyped but long-delayed Middle East peace plan next month amid signs it may further alienate the Palestinians by slashing millions of dollars in funding for humanitarian and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

Five U.S. officials and a congressional aide say the administration intends to release the peace plan in mid- to late-June, shortly after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, although they cautioned that the timing could slip depending on developments in the region. They say the plan’s main authors — President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Trump’s special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt — have already begun quietly briefing select allies and partners on elements of the proposal.

Yet any Palestinian willingness to even consider the plan would require conditions to improve and anger to subside considerably in the coming weeks, an unlikely scenario as the Palestinians say evidence of one-sided Trump giveaways to Israel continues to pile up. U.S. allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf also have felt compelled to criticize the administration for its approach. Ostensibly, Trump would need buy-in from those same countries to build enough momentum for any peace plan to succeed.

The administration has been resisting congressional demands to fully close the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington because Greenblatt and Kushner want to keep that channel open in case the Palestinians are open to re-entering negotiations with Israel based on the plan. The office was ordered closed by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last November, but has been allowed to stay open for limited purposes under the administration’s interpretation of the law requiring it to be shut down in the absence of peace talks.


Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-admin-middle-east-plan-slash-humanitarian-funds

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. "Humanitarian" is not a word that exists in Trump's vocabulary.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Trump only knows bullying. Ask Melania. . . . nt

[dembotoz]

3. so the slum landlard kushner has been hired to evict the palistinians from their homes

Israel wants to convert gaza into condos

[mountain grammy]

4. So will he also cut back the $3 billion+ a year to Israel?

Ha, that'll be the day. Enjoy your universal health care, Israelis. We're sucking wind here.

[louis-t]

5. Well, the Palestinians can always live in the

Mediterranean Sea. Or starve to death in the desert. 'Choices' and 'flexibility'... Repugs love those terms.

[JCMach1]

8. When I visited Lebanon in 2007

There were still people living in UN marked refugee tents from the 1970s.

[uppityperson]

6. Words fail me so k&r

[lark]

7. They don't want and will not have a peace plan, not one bit of it.

They want a slavery pact where Palestinians give up any and all rights, Israel takes all their homes and land, they work as slaves for the Israelis during the day then go to live in tents with no facilities at night. That is the only thing they will accept, Kushner is a stone Zionist and so is Adelson and his billions.

[Takket]

9. Any cuts to the billions in military aide Israel gets?