Although I can't blame the Trump team (Kushner et al) for trying but I do find it frustrating to think that after decades of dealing with the worlds greatest enemy (Islam - no offence for those wonderful Muslims who sadly comprise a small minority) we still haven't figured that out. I of course recognize that I am not privy to the details of the now infamous 'plan' nor do I know the rational for it. I do appreciate one thing though. Their attempt to buy the arabs. Perhaps the one thing they like more than killing Jews is money. That said, we have been throwing tons of money at them for decades. Billions of dollars a year that is from the US, Europe, Iran, the Gulf States and practically every Western country in the world including of course my very left leaning country (currently that is), Canada. Has it worked? Has this money helped resolve any issues or has it been used by the terrorist dictatorships like the PA, PLO and Hamas to line their pockets and to finance terror? So even this ploy won't work.
Sure it's nice to read about the Saudis, Bahrain and a few others coming to the table and supporting the plan including possibly footing the bill. But despite me agreeing with most Muslim states that this exercise is a big waste of time (probably the only time I've agreed with them on anything) I feel it's dangerous and the wrong approach. Why are we always rewarding bad behaviour? We shouldn't negotiate with terrorists. It never works out in the end. Abbas and his administration along with Hamas should be treated as the criminals they are and should be put in prison. Instead of giving criminal terrorists tons of money in the hopes to appease them, we should defund them immediately.
I'm sure you've been in this situation before; A poor guy on the street who amongst other things is an alcoholic, begs for money with a sign that says I'm hungry. If you give him some money, do you really thing he'll buy food with it or do you think he'll buy booze? This situation is no different except for the dangerous consequence it purports.
President Trump has proven that he is a tough negotiator at all levels. I would have hoped that he'd remain so with Abbas who is no less a criminal than his predecessor Arafat was. I think that Trump has been influenced by his somewhat naive son in law on this and hopefully after it becomes obvious that it in fact was a complete waste of time and effort, Trump will use another approach. A big stick comes to mind.
