Unconscionable: Extortion of Jehovah’s “Covenant Nation”

Extortion – exercising influence and fear of reprisal against a sovereign nation and proven ally is gamesmanship at its worst.

Final Thought:

To extort is to wrench something out of someone by use of force and/or threats. Extortion is a mainstay of organized crime. Just as the school bully extorts lunch money from the smaller kids in exchange for not beating them up, thugs extort “protection” money from business owners with threats of violence. But that’s only one kind of extortion; a mobster might extort favors from a politician with threats of revealing some dark secret, just as you might extort a favor from a brother or sister by promising not to tell on them.

Some may debate the word extort; others may feel extortion does not relay the altruistic intent of the Kushner/Greenblatt Israeli peace plan. Leaked by the press, the consequences to Israel, our closest and most trusted ally in the Middle East, is confounding. If the Israelis do not accept the terms and conditions negotiated in the “Deal of the Century”:

The United States would cease its annual financial support, which has been given to the nation for the last seventy years. Currently, the United States currently provides $3.8 billion a year of which $3.3 billion is for military aid.   https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/total-u-s-foreign-aid-to-israel-1949-present

Extortion – exercising influence and fear of reprisal (withholding foreign aid for their military) against a sovereign nation and proven ally is gamesmanship at its worst. For the Trump envoys, this is not a business deal for a downtown Manhattan project but coercion plain and simple. Threatening the ability of Israel to defend its citizens from terrorist groups and nations that have sworn to annihilate (wipe off the face of the map) Israel is ludicrous. We hope and pray this leak by the press is erroneous and completely without merit.

The second point or consequences to “any Palestinian bodies” or “Hamas” and the “Palestinian Islamic Jihad” that refuse the deal are simply ludicrous and improbable.

If Hamas or any Palestinian bodies refuse this deal, the United States will cancel all of its financial support to the Palestinians and pressure other countries to do the same.

Historically both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have received billions of dollars in financial aid from nations throughout the world. As the “War Council” pointed out in our eight-part series, these funds have not improved the lives of the Palestinian people but have lined the pockets of corrupt leaders. These are the same “governmental” bodies that use American taxpayer dollars to pay stipends to families of martyrs (those that have died in the process of killing innocent citizens) and incarcerated terrorist. Until their behavior (terrorism) and Jihad (destruction of Israel) changes, why would the United States continue to provide financial aid (taxpayer dollars) to corrupt and deceitful leaders?

The third point or consequence is the most naive and odious of those involving the Palestinians.

Assuming Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signs TIPP but Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not agree; a war would be waged on the Gaza Strip with the full backing of the United States.

While we agree the terrorist proxies of Iran (Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad) should be eradicated, “war” waged in the Gaza Strip would be a disaster on all levels; humanitarian, destruction of homes/schools/building, financial, considerable causalities on both sides and a public relations nightmare. If this leak by a notable Israeli publication is correct, the assumption is Israeli soldiers would fight this “war” in the Gaza Strip. Oh, and with the full backing of the United States. As this defies all logic or statesmanship, this point of the consequences does not merit a critique of the aforementioned. Needless to say, the outrage and worldwide repudiation of Israel and the United States would be devastating.

And now a new twist and irony in trying to save face on the now erroneously dubbed Trump Israel Peace Plan. As reported by The Times of Israel, on Monday (June 17^th) the White House confirmed that Israeli officials and ministers will not participate in an upcoming US-sponsored economic workshop in Bahrain, the first phase of the rollout of the Trump administration’s Israel-Palestinian conflict.

A United States official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “this is a workshop where we will present our economic vision for the Palestinian people. As such, we want the focus to be on the economic aspect, not the political. It will focus on directing more economic investment to the West Bank and Gaza.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership will not attend the conference nor accept its results. He and other critics have complained that the conference places economic issues ahead of reaching a political solution to the conflict. Quoting Abbas in May:

“Whoever wants to resolve the Palestinian issue should start with the political issue, then the political issue, then the political issue and then he can talk about the illusions of billions that they say they will present [to us].”

White House Special Adviser Jared Kushner has, in the past, suggested that the economic framework of the peace proposal would be debated by key stakeholders in the conflict before the resolution of core political issues, such as the question of Palestinian statehood. Ironic, in typical political parlance, Mr. Kushner has previously commented on statehood, “If you say ‘two-state,’ it means one thing to the Israelis; it means one thing to the Palestinians. We said, ‘you know, let’s just not say it. Let’s just say, let’s work on the details of what this means.’”

With the latest announcement on Monday, and the political solution off the table, who does Mr. Kushner and team consider key stakeholders? We understood the negotiations were initiated to resolve the decade’s long “Israeli – Palestinian” conflict. If neither Israeli nor Palestinian (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) officials are attending the conference in Manama, why is the “workshop” being held? As we surmised in previous statements, the result will likely be the same face saving “political” resolution of previous administrations – throw billions more of tax payer dollars at the corrupt Palestinian (Hamas) leadership and hope they become model citizens.

Finally, back to the question of extortion? As a friend of Israel, is the President really going to allow his envoys to use coercion (withholding vital military aid) to force our strongest and most venerable ally in the region to accept an economic deal that rewards terrorist (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) without one Israeli state official in attendance? And what of those pesky details of statehood for Palestine (yes, we know it can be interpreted many ways by each party Mr. Kushner)? Will the United States and President Trump force the sovereign nation of Israel to accept statehood for the Palestinians with East Jerusalem as their capital?

From the inception of the much-ballyhooed TIPP, the “War Council” has opposed the “Deal of the Century” on a scriptural basis. And for the record, let me humbly but plainly disagree with the Western Journal and their quotes from “some of the nation’s top Christian leaders” that have seemingly come out of hiding since the last photo opportunities with the President. Yes, candidate Trump enjoyed a “whopping” 81 to 16 percent advantage over Hillary R. Clinton from “born-again/evangelical Christians.” Nevertheless, consider his opponent in 2016 and trying to compare President Trump and the Evangelical, mainline Protestant and white Catholic vote to either Romney (2012) or McCain (2008) is ludicrous at best.

The brave and historic stance President took in naming Jerusalem as the legitimate capital of Jerusalem and then moving the U.S. embassy to the “Golden City” was remarkable and fostered goodwill among his base and Israeli citizens. And as staunch supporters, we believe President Trump has outperformed previous Presidents by measurable achievement in spite of organized “resistance”, betrayal and naive and/or inept advisors. As we have repeatedly stated, friends can agree to disagree on occasion and retain the relationship they both values. The “War Council” disagrees with TIPP, the infatuation with the terrorist proxies of Iran (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) and the appearance of coercion against Israel to agree to a nebulous peace treaty.

Mr. President – America first: build the “wall”, fix the porous borders, rebuild our infrastructure, continue to appoint judges who support the Constitution, build our military and keep your pledge to “MAGA” and with victory in 2020 – “Keep America Great!”

Blessings,

Joseph “Jim” Stockstill 
The Unknown Prophet in Texas
“National War Council” – Chairman, Formation Committee
Dallas Metroplex

war.council@yahoo.com
PayPal.Me/warcouncil

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God…”
II Corinthians 10:4