Biden, Blinken, Obama, Abbas & the Farce of a Two-State Solution - Top 3 Takeaways – November 6th, 2023
- The farce of a two-state solution. It was just a couple of weeks ago I spoke of the fallacy of a two-state solution. Ignorance is a powerful thing and it's a weapon that’s regularly leveraged over a certain, large, segment of our country’s population. It’s been on full display over the past few days. First, a couple of weeks ago, it was President Biden. Over the weekend it was former President Barack Obama and current Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Quoting Obama: All of this is taking place against the backdrop of decades of failure to achieve a durable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. One that is based on genuine security for Israel, a recognition of its right to exist, and a peace that is based on an end of the occupation and the creation of a viable state and self-determination for the Palestinian people. Those are warm and fluffy words that seem to project perfect sense for people who don’t know stuff. And as for Antony Blinken, he took it two steps further. Over the weekend he met in the West Bank with the PLO’s leader Mahmoud Abbas which is first alarming for granting the PLO the legitimacy of an official US state visit and second because, well, it’s the PLO. Quoting a US diplomat speaking on behalf of Blinken from what went down in the meeting: (he) expressed the commitment of the United States to working toward the realization of the Palestinians’ legitimate aspirations for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Again, nice enough sounding for woefully ill-informed. Rather than reinventing the wheel on this one I’ll take you back to what I said a couple of weeks ago on this note... The fallacy of a two-state solution. On Wednesday, during an ever-rare presser in which he fielded a grand total of only a few questions, President Biden, was asked about the Israel-Hamas war and what comes next. His answer: There’s no going back to the status quo as it stood on Oct. 6, that means Hamas can no longer terrorize Israel and use Palestinians as human shields... It also means, when this crisis is over there has to be a vision of what comes next, and, in our view, it has to be a two-state solution. That statement proves two things. First, that it is seemingly impossible for Joe Biden to ever articulate two consecutive intelligent sentences. Second, that Dementia Joe has evidently once again forgotten his history. In 1948, under terms agreed to under the United Nations General Assembly, the lands that comprise modern day Israel and the current Palestinian territories were designated to create an Arab territory and a Jewish state. On May 15th of 1948, Israel was officially recognized by the United Nations as a state. The Palestinian territories were governed by two nearby Arab governments – Egypt and Jordan. That continued until June of 1967 when Israel’s influence expanded in the region including holding influence over what then became known as the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli occupation in disputed Palestinian territories continued until 1993 when the Israeli military withdrew from much of the territory and recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO through the Oslo Accord. At that point, the goal by many world leaders, including Israel’s government at the time, became a stated two-state solution. However, almost immediately, PLO leader Yasser Arafat supported terror operations against Israeli’s. As a result, Palestine was not officially recognized as a state by the United Nations and the region continued to be viewed through the prism of territories by the west. And what political movement supplanted the terror sponsoring PLO as the leaders of the Palestinian territories? The even more radical terrorist organization Hamas – which was overwhelmingly voted into power by the Palestinian people in 2006 and which is still supported by at least 75% of the Palestinian people. So, let’s say for minute that Israel does eliminate Hamas which is a gigantic “if”. The Palestinian territories would go back under the rule of the slightly less terroristic governance of the PLO led by Mahmoud Abbas. And with three-quarters of the Palestinian population supportive of sharia law, which means no Jews, well back to you Mr. President. The only way there can be a two-state solution is if the Palestinian territories are replaced with non-Palestinian people. It’s kind of hard to have “two states” together when one’s bent on killing the people in the other one. Biden articulating the concept in a presser is one thing. Blinken meeting with the leader of a terroristic organization which was in power in the Palestinian territories the last time a “two-state solution” was attempted is a whole other.
- It’s almost stunning just how wrong this administration, and the prior (rise of ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood etc.), could be regarding addressing Islamic terror for what it is. In fact, think back, Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda came to rise during Bill Clinton’s administration (including carrying out numerous attacks against Americans with inaction by Clinton). Before Clinton, the previous Democrat president Jimmy Carter's ineptitude led to the Iranian hostage crisis. Notice a pattern here? And speaking of here, did you see what the “pro-Palestinian” contingency did in Washington over the weekend? Including the graffiti on and around the Israeli embassy? If Americans gathering in Washington spray “death to Israel” and “Glory 2 the martyrs”, what exactly do you think that looks like with Palestinian people in and around Gaza? Increasingly it's becoming hard to look around this country and to feel good about what you see. Hate and depravity are running rampant, and we’re led by someone who's wrong on every major policy decision. If you’re doing what the terrorists want you to do, it’s the wrong thing. This isn’t the least bit complicated. Hamas must be destroyed and what’s left from a governance standpoint should be marginalized. You don’t legitimize Islamic terrorists.
- The farce of a jobs report. Last month I offered this on the back of the jobs report which seemed to be too good to be true when first reported. Friday’s job’s report not only showed much stronger than expected jobs growth for the month with 336,000 jobs added during the month, but also came with positive revisions from prior months totaling an additional 119,000 jobs. That’s a blockbuster type of number. That said for those who might be skeptical about a suddenly great jobs report after months of weakening employment trends, there might be reason to be. The report stands in direct contrast to the ADP private sector jobs report which suggests there might be massive negative revisions in future months. Once again, I’ve not made a career out of being wrong and my inference proved true. The jobs report reported in early October was a bit of a farce because just one month later we experienced massive negative revisions to what was reported, making Friday’s job’s report not only weak but in reality, concerning. The headline number of 150,000 jobs added was roughly in line with this month’s ADP Private Sector jobs report which doesn’t account for the change in government jobs. But the revisions to the government’s number from last month’s reporting shows just how inflated the previous reporting was. Negative revisions totaling 101,000 jobs which produced a net government jobs number of fewer than 50,000, which is the weakest since pandemic-era lock downs were still crippling the economy. It’s a total that’s also not strong enough to keep up with population growth. Investors cheered the report because they viewed it as a key sign that the Federal Reserve may not be raising interest rates. What investors wouldn’t be cheering is a recession. Friday’s jobs report was effectively as weak as it could be without going backwards. Which means if there’s any additional deterioration in the labor market it could signal the start of a recession entering next year. On that note, current economist estimates, which are worth noting have generally been off this year, suggest we’re more likely than not to enter a recession next year with a 56% probability currently.