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    The Trump-Kushner peace plan could be a victim of the messy Israeli election

    Dana Kennedy, DCReport @ RawStory
    September 25, 2019

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump with Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: U.S. Embassy Jerusalem)

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Dana Kennedy, DCReport @ RawStory

    Donald Trump’s much-ballyhooed bromance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu is on the rocks because Netanyahu’s Likud party failed for a second time this year to win enough votes to secure his political future, throwing Israeli politics into indefinite disarray.


    Trump—hater of non-winners—had no problem quickly throwing his one-time bestie under the bus. He reportedly didn’t bother to call Netanyahu after his initial defeat and told reporters tersely, “Look, our relationship is with Israel. We’ll see what happens.”

    Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving premier lost, but his rival, a former military general, Benny Gantz, hasn’t won yet. Because neither politician’s party won a majority of votes, the fight to form a coalition could take months and even force an unprecedented third election. It’s more likely, however, that Netanyahu and Gantz will form a rotating premiership, Reuters reported Monday night.

    Middle East experts in the United States and Israel say the plan now may never see the light of day.

    But there might be a clear winner of Israel’s murky and muddied elections—far from Jerusalem.

    First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner, the alleged mastermind of a yet-to-be-unveiled and much-mocked Israeli-Palestinian peace plan dubbed the “Deal of the Century,” may avoid certain derision if his “Vision of Peace” plan ends up shelved—temporarily or possibly permanently. Netanyahu’s initial defeat could mean Kushner’s peace plan dies with him.

    Bye-Bye, Bibi

    A top Arab lawmaker in Israel hit out at the peace plan Sunday.

    “The [election] result is a slap in the face not [just] of Netanyahu but also President Trump, who supports all the racism, all the atrocities and is preparing the most anti-Palestinian plan that has even been presented by the U.S.,” Ahmad Tibi, who heads the Arab Movement for Change party, told The Times of Israel.

    “Mr. Trump, keep your deal,” Tibi said. “Please don’t play with the rights of the Palestinian people. Palestinians are a nation that deserve to be free. Can you understand that, Mr. Trump?”

    The peace plan has already been crippled by the imminent departure of White House Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt who met with both Netanyahu and Gantz after the elections—and who was a chief architect of the peace plan along with Kushner.

    Greenblatt’s replacement is Avi Berkowitz, 30, a 2016 law school graduate who Business Insider described in 2017 as Kushner’s “right-hand man,” someone whose duties included “getting coffee” for Kushner.

    Political Solution, Not Economic Aid

    The economic portion of Kushner’s plan, 30 months in the making and revealed in June during a speech made by Kushner in Bahrain, calls for expenditures of $50 billion, with $28 billion set aside for the Palestinian economy, $9 billion for Egypt, $7.5 billion for Jordan and $6 billion for Lebanon. The plan has been rejected by Palestinian leaders and other Middle Eastern nations who say a political solution is needed before an economic plan can be successful.

    Netanyahu boasted right before last week’s elections that Trump’s peace plan would give him the go-ahead to annex the Jordan Valley, which makes up almost a quarter of the West Bank.

    Several Middle East experts in the United States and Israel told DCReport the plan may never see the light of day.

    “It’s not in their best interests to release it,” Michael Koplow, policy director of the Washington D.C.-based Israeli Policy Forum, told DCReport. “It’s going to be dead on arrival when and if they do.”

    Koplow said the proposed plan will only alienate people in both Israel and the United States—and could rile up a key segment of Trump’s base.

    “Better to keep the peace plan under wraps,” Koplow said. “American evangelicals are very distrustful of any peace plan.”

    A senior White House official told DCReport that the peace plan would still be released at the “appropriate time” but did not elaborate further.

    Netanyahu’s hard-right policies led the Joint List, a bloc of Arab parties who came in third in last week’s elections, to throw its weight behind Gantz, the first time since 1992 that an Arab political group has issued an endorsement for prime minister.

    “The Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel have chosen to reject Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his politics of fear and hate, and the inequality and division he advanced for the past decade,” Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List or predominantly Arab parties in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, wrote in a New York Times Op-ed Sunday.

    “The Israeli government has done everything in its power to reject those of us who are Arab Palestinian citizens, but our influence has only grown. We will be the cornerstone of democracy. Arab Palestinian citizens cannot change the course of Israel alone, but change is impossible without us.”

    Change is an enormous challenge in the Middle East no matter what, say experts.

    “There’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to Middle East peace,” Philip Gordon, a White House Middle East coordinator under former President Barack Obama told The New York Times.

    “When you get into these details, that’s when you come up against the strong objections of the two sides. If they don’t want it to be dead on arrival, they may wind up with vague principles, but as we’ve seen, even vague principles are beyond what the parties are willing to embrace.”

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Enjoy good journalism?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

    We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

    Value Raw Story?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.

    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    Should Trump be allowed back on social media?

    Ted Nugent tests positive for coronavirus he called fake: 'I thought I was dying'

    Travis Gettys
    April 20, 2021

    Rocker and COVID-19 denier Ted Nugent has tested positive for the coronavirus.

    The right-wing rock musician revealed in a Facebook video that he is seriously ill with the potentially deadly virus he has insisted is fake or not very serious, reported Consequence of Sound.

    "Everybody told me that I should not announce this," Nugent says in the video. "I have had flu symptoms for the last 10 days. I thought I was dying -- just a clusterf*ck."

    "I was tested positive today, I got the Chinese shit," Nugent added. "I've got a stuffed-up head, body aches. My God, what a pain in the ass. I literally could hardly crawl out of bed the last few days… So I was officially tested positive for COVID-19 today."

    Nugent downplayed the pandemic and various mitigation efforts as recently as last week, and even after his infection questions the safety and necessity of the COVID-19 vaccines.

    Yet, even after his own infection, Nugent isn't about to change his stance on COVID-19, especially when it comes to vaccines," Nugent says. "Nobody knows what's in it. If you can't even honestly answer our questions of exactly what's in it and why are you testing it on human beings and forcing it on people in such a short period of time."

    Ted Nugent on Facebook Watch



    Ted Nugent was live.

    Lin Wood says he's working 20-hour days to put Trump back in the White House

    Brad Reed
    April 20, 2021

    President Joe Biden has been in office for three months now, but Trump-loving attorney Lin Wood says that he's not giving up trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    Newsweek reports that Wood on Monday told the Anderson County Republican Party Convention in South Carolina that his quest to return former President Donald Trump to the White House is still ongoing and he predicted that he would succeed at some undetermined point in the future.

    "Since November the 3rd, 2020, I've spent sometimes 20 hours a day fighting to reverse the election that was stolen from Donald Trump," Wood said. "And I'm not going to quit until the truth comes out and Donald Trump is recognized as president of the United States."

    Wood, who became infamous in the aftermath of the 2020 election for supporting wild conspiracy theories about the election being "stolen" from Trump, has in the last week explicitly endorsed the thoroughly discredited QAnon conspiracy theory and claimed Democrats were murdering children.

    "Every lie will be revealed," Lin said during a speech in Oklahoma over the weekend. "They are killing our children, send them to jail. Put them in front of the firing squad. They are committing acts against humanity. The penalty for an act against humanity is death. Take them out!"

    Morrissey slams Simpsons over unflattering parody

    Agence France-Presse
    April 20, 2021

    Morrissey has accused The Simpsons of "hatred" and "ignorance" after the show's latest episode featured an unflattering parody of a moody British singer in part inspired by the former Smiths frontman.

    In the episode, first aired Sunday in the United States, the precociously intelligent Lisa Simpson makes a new imaginary friend: a depressed but charismatic indie rocker from 1980s Britain with an uncanny resemblance to Morrissey.

    The character, named Quilloughby and voiced by Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch, is a devoted vegan -- like Morrissey and Lisa -- who inspires her with his music and acidic social commentary.

    But when Lisa attends a concert by Quilloughby's band The Snuffs in the present day, she is shocked and disappointed to see that instead of the imaginary dashing singer, he is an overweight, grumpy and anti-immigrant meat-eater.

    Morrissey was less than impressed with the portrayal.

    "The hatred shown towards me from the creators of The Simpsons is obviously a taunting lawsuit, but one that requires more funding than I could possibly muster in order to make a challenge," the rocker wrote Tuesday in a lengthy post on the Morrissey Central website.

    "Writing for The Simpsons... evidently requires only complete ignorance."

    Morrissey, 61, found fame as the quiffed frontman of The Smiths, one of the most acclaimed and influential bands of the 1980s. He has had a solo career since the band split in 1987, but has been plagued by controversy.

    Morrissey became an alienating figure as he faced accusations of racism over his rhetoric on immigration and support for Britain's far right. He has forcefully denied that he is racist.

    The title of the Simpsons episode, "Panic on the Streets of Springfield", is a play on lyrics from the Smiths song "Panic" using the name of the fictional city in the show.

    It also included parody songs with spoof Smiths titles such as "Hamburger is Homicide".

    The episode's writer Tim Long insisted in an interview with Variety that Quilloughby was a mix of various British artists that he grew up with.

    "And I'm sticking by that!" Long said.

    "Having said that, the character is definitely Morrissey-esque, with maybe a small dash of Robert Smith from the Cure, Ian Curtis from Joy Division, and a bunch of other people."

     
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