By SJ Otto
When it comes to US foreign policy, it seems there is no such thing as justice or fair play. President Donald Trump does whatever he wants and the entire congress, with the acception of Representative Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, just goes along, especially when it comes to Israel. That country is an abomination, a nation that continues to elect leaders who are bent on fighting wars with their neighbors, such as Iran and shooting unarmed Palestinian protesters. While its supporters like to point out that Israel has been a stable “democracy” for its entire history that is about the only thing that keeps that country from being an outright fascist dictatorship.
Even the most liberal Democrats seem to turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses committed by the Israeli government. Omar is one of the first congress person to actually call Israel on its abuses of Palestinians and in return she has been ridiculed by Trump, she has been labeled “ignorant” and “anti-Semitic” by other congress people and some of them have called on her to resign, some from her holding office and others want her to resign from the Foreign Affairs Committee she sits on. All of this over her criticism of Israel. Many of those congress people ignore the fact that many US citizens, including myself, have serious criticism of Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been running for re-election and he has said that he will annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected. The building of settlements on Palestinian land is nothing more than stealing from those people. Since the election of both Trump and Netanyahu there has been absolutely no effort put in to a peace process. If anything, the peace process seems to be moving backwards away from the “two state solution” that many people have been supporting for the Jews and Palestinians.
Trump has been openly supporting Netanyahu against his main opponent, Benny Gantz, who is also a right-wing political figure, although he might be slightly less obnoxious than Netanyahu. One thing Trump did to help Netanyahu was to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, a powerful arm of the Iranian military as a foreign terrorist organization. This will cause some confusion for neutral countries or adversaries who already aren’t happy with the sanctions Trump has placed on Iran.
Trump has had it out for Iran since he got elected. He pulled out of an agreement that was meant to keep Iran from building nuclear weapons. He has also sanctioned Iran, which will cause hardship for that counties people. As in Venezuela, Trump is willing to use sanctions, which are part of the reason that country has so many shortages. Trump and his supporters are willing to use the hardship of other people as a weapon to get the foreign policy outcomes they want. Those kinds of tactics have become common place for US foreign policy, And NO ONE—no other country can do anything about US policies. Our leaders do what they want and the rest of the world just has to go along and put up with it.
Another out-right lie by Trump!