With no diplomatic or political experience whatsoever, Friedman’s apparent qualifications for what has long been considered one of Washington’s most important diplomatic postings appear to be: (1) his having helped Trump reap tens of millions off of the multiple bankruptcies of his Atlantic City casinos; and (2) his raising of tens of millions to support one of the most right-wing religious Zionist settlements in the occupied West Bank.
...In reality, the naming of Friedman as US ambassador is the equivalent of an open US declaration of war against the Palestinian people and a signal that, under a Trump presidency, Washington will give up even the pretense of opposing the expansion of Israeli settlements and the outright annexation of the occupied West Bank. It signals open and unconditional support to every measure taken by the Israeli government to drive the Palestinians from their land, destroy their homes, deprive them of even minimal democratic rights and brutally suppress every manifestation of resistance.
In response to the nomination, Friedman issued a statement saying that he looked forward to doing his job “from the US embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”
...Friedman is the president of a group called American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva, which funnels tens of millions of dollars to an illegal settlement established by right-wing religious Zionists on stolen Palestinian private land near Ramallah.
Among those providing funding for this group are the parents of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who reportedly will play a significant role in the incoming administration. Jared Kushner is a member of the board of his parents’ foundation that has donated to American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva. The Kushner foundation has also provided funding for the Gush Etzion, a complex of 14 Zionist settlements, whose expansion has been formally condemned by the US State Department as threatening to upend any possibility of a peace settlement based on the so-called “two-state solution.”
...The Israeli right has hailed Friedman’s nomination. Likud Party Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely “welcomed” his appointment on her Facebook page, calling it “good news for Israel.”
“His positions encapsulate the desire to strengthen the status of Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, and the understanding that settlements have never been the real problem in the region,” Hotovely said.
[source : Trump taps right-wing supporter of settlers as ambassador to Israel, WSWS, http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/17/fried-d17.html, 17th December 2016]
Just a few things to remember:
1. Trump, even after Netanyahu murdered 520 children in Gaza in 2014, calls Netanyahu "a great guy";
2. Trump states that nobody loves Israel more than him;
3. Trump believes that Iran is the troublemaker in the Middle East, not the unholy alliance of the Zionists and the demented Sunni fake monarchies;
4. Trump wants to quickly build up the US military and place it at the disposal of Israel;
5. Trump wants to quickly move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Now, this moving the embassy to Jerusalem could have been made decades ago by previous presidents, but has not been made because of the trouble it would cause.
From the same WSWS report:
Meanwhile, Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, warned that the policies advocated by Friedman “will be the destruction of the peace process.”
“I look David Friedman and Trump in the eye and tell them—if you were to take these steps of moving the embassy and annexing settlements in the West Bank, you are sending this region down the path of something that I call chaos, lawlessness and extremism,” he said.
The former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem calls the move "a declaraion of war".
“If this promise is realized, then it means that America considers the city of Jerusalem the capital for the Jews, and therefore America has declared a new war against the people of Palestine as well as all Arabs and Muslims,” he said, reports London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
[source : US Moving Embassy To Jerusalem ‘A Declaration Of War,’ Claims Holy City’s Former Top Islamic Cleric, International Business Times, http://www.ibtimes.com/us-moving-embassy-jerusalem-declaration-war-claims-holy-citys-former-top-islamic-2461761, 16th December 2016]
So with over a month before his inauguration, Trump is provoking the Palestinians and China.
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