Trump threatens to cut US aid to Palestinians to force peace talks
President says US gets ‘no appreciation or respect’ from Palestinian Authority after it recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to threaten to cut off US aid money to the Palestinian Authority, saying they were no longer willing to negotiate.
Trump, in a pair of tweets, said the US paid “
the Palestinians HUNDRED [sic] OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue … peace treaty with Israel.”
He added: “We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but
Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”
Trump infuriated many in the Middle East when he announced late last year
the US would consider Jerusalem the capital of Israel and move its embassy there.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the announcement destroyed Trump’s credibility as a Middle East peace broker, calling the decision “a declaration of withdrawal from the role it has played in the peace process”.
Tuesday’s tweets mark a tacit admission by Trump that his decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem had thrown a wrench into his administration’s plans to restart the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Trump gave son-in-law Jared Kushner the task of restarting the effort, and brought his former attorney, Jason Greenblatt, into the White House to lead the negotiations, which he had dubbed “the ultimate deal”.
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He sounds like Zod. ‘Kneel before me!’
