The Trump administration tells lies for itself and for Israel

Israel is giving consideration to worsening the conditions for Palestinian political prisoners in its jails. They have been accused of terrorism while, in reality, they were fighting for freedom from Israel’s occupation, state terrorism and war crimes against the people of Palestine, including women and children.

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan formed a committee four months ago to explore ways to downgrade the quality of life for Palestinian prisoners to the bare minimum stipulated by international treaties. This disregards the Palestinian and global reactions to Israel’s old and new terrorist practices.

The committee is on the verge of recommending a reduction in the number of family visits; preventing prisoners from buying meat, fish and vegetables from sources outside the prison; banning them from cooking their own food; and confiscating their cooking utensils.

According to Erdan, many Palestinians commit crimes in order to be imprisoned and thus relieved of family problems. Where did his family come to Palestine from? Russia? Eastern Europe? The United States? Or hell? Who would deliberately seek to be put behind bars?

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wants the whole Middle East to be like Israel. He delivered a speech last week at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America in which he said that Israel is “democratic and prosperous. It desires peace. And it is a home to a free press and a thriving free market economy.” Pompeo added that Israel “is everything we want the entire Middle East to look like going forward.” Lies and half-lies.

To the supporters of Israel and its terrorism, I say that it is not a democratic state. It oppresses the Palestinians who escaped the 1948 ethnic cleansing and became Israeli citizens, and yet the state has just introduced a law that says it is the homeland of the Jewish people, who alone have the right to sovereignty. Its economic prosperity is based on looting Palestinian resources and taxes paid by American citizens. It does not want peace, but the total surrender of the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims; this will never happen. Israel’s media is only free to serve Israelis and accuses every Palestinian freedom fighter of being a terrorist; all of this while Israel is both the mother and father of unbridled state terrorism.

Pompeo wants other Middle Eastern countries to be like Israel. Does he want these countries to be settled by immigrants from different parts of the world who expel the indigenous population and steal their land and live in their homes? To this I say that Pompeo is more Israeli than the Israelis themselves.

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Pompeo is his master Donald Trump’s voice, promoting lies. The US President claims that he has made the most tax cuts in US history despite the fact that his taxes rank the eighth highest in the history of tax increases. He also claims that he has built the greatest economy in US history, and this is another lie.

Trump was truthful in his election campaign promises to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to establish a terrorist alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu against the Palestinians, while preparing for an unprecedented peace “deal” between the two parties. He also promised to crush Daesh, and perhaps he succeeded in Syria, but the supporters of Daesh are all over the world and some still kill people openly. He has pushed the Supreme Court to the far right and prevented refugees from entering the US, and he still considers this to be an achievement.

His only real achievement in government is lying to his citizens and allies alike; and his administration lies on behalf of Israel.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Arabi21 on 19 October 2018

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.