Israel’s Enemies Offer the Typical Reactions to the Trump-Netanyahu Meeting

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, D.C., earlier this week has prompted the same, worn-out responses from the Jewish state’s enemies.

Here’s a little recap:

• Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah declared President Donald Trump’s Middle East policy “confused” and said “the two-state basis for peace is now over.” The Lebanese militant leader, who has waged war against Israel twice in the past two decades, said the comments made by Trump and Netanyahu at their joint press conference signaled the end of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and threatened a terrorist attack against the nuclear facilities at Dimona.
• The Palestinian Liberation Organization, which is supposedly the “moderate” government front of the Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank, said Trump’s refusal to back the so-called two-state solution would lead to “painful bloodshed.” PLO spokesman Nasser al-Kidwa held a press conference in Ramallah and said: “This will not lead to the disappearance of a Palestinian state and will not lead to the crushing of the prospect of a Palestinian state.”
• Hamas, the other “legitimate” governing body in the PA, which controls the Gaza Strip, accused the Trump administration of disregarding Palestinians, and called for “struggle” against the “challenges facing them.” Those are usually code words for launching terrorist attacks against Israelis.
• Iran is once again warning that Israel is the “biggest threat to world peace” because of its alleged nuclear weapons stockpile. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency as saying, “The bitter truth is that these unjust claims are being repeated by the Zionist regime that doesn’t abide by any international laws and has hundreds of warheads in its atomic arsenal.”

New reports out of Lebanon state Iran has used the funds it received as part of the nuclear deal with the Obama administration to provide “game-changing weapons” to Hezbollah. According to the pro-terrorist Al-Akhbar newspaper, the group is planning “harsh retaliatory measures, up to and including readiness to enter an all-out confrontation.”

Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian Civil War has led to the receipt of “a vast supply of advanced, state-of-the art weapons of various kinds, including weapons provided by Iran, to flow into Hezbollah’s depots,” the report states. It adds: “Moreover, the enemy [Israel] sees that Hezbollah, whose activity was once confined to the front along the Lebanese border, is now present along the [entire] northern front of occupied Palestine [i.e., also along the Syrian border], and has more room to maneuver than it had before.”

If that’s the reaction to a simple press conference, it’s not hard to imagine how Israel’s enemies will react to new reports about the deal-making that was held behind closed doors. Reuters is reporting that Netanyahu asked Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, an area it has occupied since 1981 and which was seized during the Six Day War in 1967.

The report states:

During a briefing with Israeli and foreign media after meeting Trump at the White House, Netanyahu was asked whether he had raised the Golan issue. “Yes,” he replied.

Asked how the U.S. president had responded, he said: “I wouldn’t say that he was surprised by my request.” Netanyahu did not elaborate.

A similar request was made of President Barack Obama in 2015, but it was rejected. It is very likely that approving such a request would severely damage any plans Trump may have to work with Russia in ending the war in Syria and taking out ISIS once and for all. {eoa}