and that prick over in Israel.

He isnt qualified, you see, to decide who gets to go on a lunch break first over at your local 711 store, let alone this.

He really , actually isnt.

1) He wants to start a war

b) He has no clue what he is doing

A Clear and Present Danger not only to the United States, but the entire planet.

25th Amendment.

But the idea of pushing the PA to do much of anything seems pointless.

They went to the IC; this, of course, triggered closure of their mission. Strictly speaking, the only way to avoid that was to have substantive talks with Israel. The law was conveniently ignored until 2017. "Expediency over compliance" was the name of the game, not "it's the law of the land."

So they terminated diplomatic contact. And then Trump didn't waive the change of US embassy location that Congress mandated in the mid '90s.

They complained more, so now he's threatening to withhold funds. That'll be interesting, because the official PA position in the past was that the US gave the Palestinians no money. It goes through a UN organization, so in a strictly technical sense that's true. But it's earmarked, so "strictly technical sense" here is a weasly way of saying "false." So the question is, will the PA say, "What funds?" or will they protest?

But what's the requirement for restoration of the yet-to-be-withheld funds?

Substantive talks with Israel. Bringing us back to the first ordered pair of events.

Perhaps the next round will start off with, "But the PA has no legitimately elected officials to negotiate with." Or perhaps they'll protest Trump by cancelling Easter celebrations in Bethlehem. Because nothing hurts Trump like cancelling the festivities of people who dislike him and hurting local tourism.

I know Trump is a deranged loon, but his no-nonsense approach to the the undemocratic intransigence of both the Palestinian Authority and Pakistan is refreshing. Prior administrations from both Parties have not seen much success from continuing "How Things Were Done," fwiw.

-app

He's not doing anything but posting on Twitter.

Southeast Amer Indians before he rounded them up and marched them a thousand miles!

What a hack. Trump is a world-class idiot who has no idea how to make a real deal.

The way he does business in a number of countries he does licensing and promotions in.

Or launders money in for his financiers.

Trump isn't the first to reward "good" behavior and punish "bad" behavior. What exactly has the benefits to the US been for the $368 million we gave to UNRWA last year? Sometimes we give money for purely humanitarian reasons (like after earthquakes, tsunamis, etc) but mostly it's not.

of military occupation forces has always been so effective in every country who tries the same tactic.

If someone said they would make your children slowly starve to death without food or water, and make sure your elderly kin would suffer for a long time without any medicare, would you see those outcomes as any less an act of cruel "violence" than killing them outright?

I don't think so, indifference and torture not the same thing.

The topic at hand is Trump, not other countries. His decision to use extortion and retaliation to get his way is motivated by his extremist views and hatred of Muslims.

If the people needing succor and humanitarian aid were earthquake victims in Italy would you be equally as "indifferent" and willing to deprive them of aid money as you are with people of Palestine?

I have big concerns here because unlike most things Trump has a plan regarding Israel.

Just after Trump became President, Papadopoulos visited Israel and told settlers in the West Bank that Trump supported their settlements.

On January 22, 2017, shortly following Trump's inauguration as President, Papadopoulos met with the head of Israel's Shomron Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, in Washington D.C. Papadopoulos was reported to have communicated to Dagan the Trump administration's desire to work closely with Israel on the question of settlements.[41]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Papadopoulos

But we don't have to support them any more then any other country has to.

support the Israeli occupation forces and their oppressive political policies of land grabbing and discriminatory apartheid tactics that makes it necessary for the subjugated people of Palestine to depend on humanitarian aid for their basic survival.

If cutting aid to Palestine is supposed to be good for peace, then stopping the billions of US dollars that we hand over to Israel should likewise motivate them to negotiate a peaceful solution as well, yeah?

Look, the US is allied with many countries that are not democracies, so you're just repeating someone else's talking points without thinking that it's not a particularly erudite argument. In the ME region, we are allied with our good pals, Saudi Arabia, hardly the poster child of democratic ideals. We also give aid and support to countries that are not exactly our friends because it has always been in our best interests to hold out the hand of friendship to block our Russian and Chinese opponents who are also competing for the hearts and minds (and the riches of untapped natural resources) of impoverished third world nations.

besides America?

How did the US become the required provider of the Palestinian people|

I see that after 6 hours, nobody has seen fit to answer it. Where are the Saudi's, the Gulf States, the EU? The US gave fully 1/4 of the entire budget for UNRWA last year. Why?

We seem to want to run the world. And be looked to as the world leader. Something goes wrong anywhere, and it was immediately Obama's problem and Obama who was not doing enough. R Presidents can't wait to get involved.

Russia wants us to be seen worldwide as the bad guy, wants us to destroy relationships & agreements so they can go in and establish themselves as the top dogs, the mover and shaker. I'm sure the decision to move the US embassy was also demanded by Putin. All of his cabinet hate this idea and tried to talk him out of it, but he's obeying his master, Putin, and doesn't give a shit about what this causes.

...until the PA seeks "aid" somewhere else.

As long as we were feeding them the carrot, they had to at least begrudgingly follow along. But with the embassy move, cut aide, etc. The US has effectively removed itself as broker.