This isn’t a break with the status quo. It’s the natural culmination of decades of American policy.
On Tuesday, President Trump released his long-gestating plan for Middle East peace, the so-called “deal of the century.” It calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza; for Jerusalem, including its Old City, to be the undivided capital of Israel; and for Israel to annex all settlements, as well as the Jordan Valley — which makes up nearly a fourth of the West Bank, including its eastern border with Jordan — creating a discontiguous Palestinian archipelago state, surrounded by a sea of Israeli territory. Mr. Trump announced that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over all the territory the plan assigns to Israel, and shortly after, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel pledged to annex all settlements and the Jordan Valley beginning on Sunday.
Members of the Israeli right and other opponents of a two-state solution celebrated the deal as the definitive end of the possibility of an independent Palestinian state. The Israeli left, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and other supporters of a two-state solution condemned the plan for the very same reasons, calling it the final nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.
So there was agreement among both supporters and detractors that the proposal marked a momentous break from decades of American and international policy. But is the plan truly the antithesis of the international community’s longstanding approach to the conflict? Or is it in fact that approach’s logical fulfillment?
For over a century, the West has supported Zionist aims in Palestine at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population. In 1917, the British government promised to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, where Jews made up less than 8 percent of the population. Thirty years later, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine: The Jews, who made up less than a third of the population and owned less than 7 percent of the land, were given the majority of the territory. During the ensuing war, Israel conquered more than half the territory allotted to the Arab state; four-fifths of the Palestinians who had lived in what became the new boundaries of Israel were prevented from returning to their homes. The international community did not force Israel to return the territory that it had seized, or to permit the return of refugees.
After the 1967 War, when Israel conquered the remaining 22 percent of Palestine, as well as the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, Israel illegally established settlements in the territories it occupied and created a regime with separate laws for different groups — Israelis and Palestinians — living in the same territory. In 1980, Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem. As with Israel’s settlement activity, there was some international finger wagging and condemnation, but American financial and military backing for Israel only strengthened.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords granted limited autonomy to Palestinians in a scattering of disconnected islets. The accords did not demand the dismantling of Israeli settlements or even a halt to settlement growth. The first American plan for Palestinian statehood was presented by President Bill Clinton in 2000. It stated that large Israeli settlements would be annexed to Israel and that all Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem would also be annexed. The Palestinian state would be demilitarized and contain Israeli military installations as well as international forces in the Jordan Valley that could be withdrawn only with Israel’s consent. As with the “deal of the century,” this plan, which formed the basis of all subsequent ones, gave the Palestinians increased autonomy and called it a state.
There are now more Palestinians than Jews living in the territory under Israel’s control, according to the Israeli military. Whether in Mr. Trump’s vision or Mr. Clinton’s, American plans have confined most of the majority ethnic group into less than a quarter of the territory, with restrictions on Palestinian sovereignty so far-reaching that the outcome should more appropriately be called a one-and-a-half-state solution.
Mr. Trump’s plan has many severe faults: It prioritizes Jewish interests over Palestinian ones. It rewards and even incentivizes settlements and further dispossession of the Palestinians. But none of these qualities represent a fundamental break from the past. The Trump plan merely puts the finishing touches on a house that American lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, spent dozens of years helping to build. During the last several decades, as Israel slowly took over the West Bank, putting more than 600,000 settlers in occupied territory, the United States provided Israel with diplomatic backing, vetoes in the United Nations Security Council, pressure on international courts and investigative bodies not to pursue Israel, and billions of dollars in annual aid.
Some of the Democrats now running for president have spoken of their disapproval of Israeli annexation, even as they propose nothing to stop it. Thus a mainstream Democrat like Senator Amy Klobuchar could declare her opposition to annexation and sign a letter criticizing the Trump plan for its “disregard [of] international law,” when she had also co-sponsored a Senate resolution “expressing grave objection” to a 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded Israel halt illegal settlement activity. Other Democrats, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, say they would be unwilling to provide American financial support for Israeli annexation. But that is little more than a slick formulation that allows them to sound tough while threatening nothing, since American assistance to Israel would not, in any event, go directly toward the bureaucratic tasks involved, such as transferring the West Bank land registry from the military to the Israeli government.
Aside from vague references to using aid as a lever, no presidential candidate except Senator Bernie Sanders has put forth proposals that would begin to reduce American complicity in Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights. Declarations of opposition to annexation ring hollow when they are not accompanied by plans to prevent or reverse it: banning settlement products; reducing financial assistance to Israel by the amount it spends in the occupied territories; divesting federal and state pension funds from companies operating in illegal settlements; and suspending military aid until Israel ends the collective punishment of two million people confined in Gaza and provides Palestinians in the West Bank the same civil rights given to Jews living beside them.
The Trump plan, much like the decades-long peace process that it crowns, gives Israel cover to perpetuate what is known as the status quo: Israel as the sole sovereign controlling the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,
- depriving millions of stateless people of basic civil rights,
- restricting their movement, criminalizing speech that may harm “public order,”
- jailing them in indefinite “administrative detention” without trial or charge, and
- dispossessing them of their land —
all while congressional leaders, the European Union and much of the rest of the world applaud and encourage this charade, solemnly expressing their commitment to the resumption of “meaningful negotiations.”
Israel’s defenders like to say that Israel is being singled out, and they are right. Israel is the only state perpetuating a permanent military occupation, with discriminatory laws for separate groups living in the same territory, that self-identified liberals around the world go out of their way to justify, defend and even fund. In the absence of advocating policies with actual teeth, the Democratic critics of the Trump plan are not much better than the president. They are, not in words but in deeds, supporters of annexation and subjugation, too.
Why Narcissists Are So Cruel To You But Kind To Everyone Else
Rough Transcript
welcome to thriver TV the place to breakfree from narcissistic abuse withquantum tools and understandings so thisweek’s thriver TV show is an importantone because narcissists are very verygood at making people like them most ofthem are very high-functioning andthey’re brilliant at appearing normalcordial and decent and this can spelldisaster for anyone else when their viewstarts and people look at you likeyou’ve got two heads when you’re tryingto explain it to them and people outsideof your relationship say that he’s sucha good guy and you can see them thinkingwhy is she so ungrateful and of coursehis is not gender-specificmany people outside of the family homelove the narcissistic woman becauseshe’s so accommodating hospitable andcharming and she’s always there to helpanyone in need plus she’s a marveloushostess usually so how can they believeyou when you are bearing the brunt ofnarcissistic torment behind closed doorsand I know that you might feel so aloneand powerless in regard to how thenarcissist is hoodwinkingeveryone else and no one but you seesthe truth but I promise you just as Idid there is a way to heal all of thisand then be validated and supported bylife and people beyond measure and thisall comes about as a result of howyou’re able to turn this around insideyourself for yourself first but beforewe do this the trauma of the streetangel home devil persona at thenarcissist is intense for people beingabused because not only do you feelisolated and misunderstood you alsoseriously start to doubt yourself and ofcourse you’re going to question whetherit is you in fact who is the cause ofall the problemsand you may even start to feel like Imust be imagining it and am I losing mymindyet we are certainly experiencing abuseand trauma at levels we thought we wouldnever go through which leaves us anxioustraumatized and intensely depressed andstruggling to function in everyday lifeso how do we get people to see what ishappening to us the truth is for awhilewe don’t how do we get people to realizewho the narcissist is we can’t becauseby trying to do this well we will infact only incriminate ourselves withpeople further which by the way is vitalto understand if you’re trying to warnyour kids you’ll get your kids tounderstand who the other parent is howdo we get people to support us and helpus heal we can’t and we don’t and ratherthan think this makes it all hopelessand you totally helpless it is in factthe exact opposite and I want you torealize that all of this is imperfect indivine order and as I go through thisdeep dive into this topic with youyou’ll understand why so I wanted firstof all talk about how and why thenarcissist is such a great actor andthen as always which is what I do I wantto bring the power and a healing backsquarely to ourselves the NASA’s earthis a false self which means that he orshe is a consummate actor a charadebeing whoever is required at the time toget narcissistic supply in the mostefficient and effective way I’m from avery early age narcissus know that toget attention and stuff which meansresources time accolades contacts wellsex whatever it is that’s required tofill the deep black hole inside themwhich no matter what it gets will neverfeel durably hole or at peace they knowthat people need to like andthem and it’s all to do with payoff it’sall to do with agenda it has nothing todo with true unconditional giving whichis this I give for the sake of givingand at the true quantum level giving isthis by giving to another I’m actuallygiving to myself because we are all oneand that’s why it feels so genuinelygood to do this because at the quantumlevel we are giving to ourselves howevermany people don’t operate at this leveland many people may do favors and gluegestures to create a favor Bank withothers yet narcissus take it a stepfurther they do it to get attentionacclaim compliment accolades budget fornarcissistic supply they do it so thatthey can emotionally survive becausegetting energy from the outside is somuch better than the energy that theyare experiencing on the inside becausethat energy is self annihilating it’sfull of the terrible devastatingemotions of shame and being defectiveand unacceptable and attention from theoutside which has to come through peopleis required as a temporary ongoingalways necessary buffer to offset thenarcissist in a being which isconstantly threatening to eat them aliveand this is why you may be horrified torealize that the narcissist is so muchmore interested in being wonderful toall and sundry than granting their ownchildren and family decency let alonedevotion service and care the reasonbeing there isn’t enough narcissisticsupply from being able to be extractedfrom giving to one’s family it’sgenerally expected that a father motherhusband a wife or a partner will becaring responsible and contributes tohis or her loved ones and isn’t going toget a red carpet rolled out completewith a fanfare every time they dosomething for somebody elsein fact healthy people get great joyfrom giving to their familyI’m making the people they love feelsupported and special but a narcissistsimply isn’t wired that way and you maybe horrified as to how childish andentitled and demanding they are whenthey demand your recognition forsomething that you’ve done way pastdesiring your healthy gratitude and ofcourse it’s nice to say thank you withinthe family and be grateful but thenarcissist want your accolades sorry heor she wants accolades and power andyour total acknowledgment without ofcourse acknowledging any of the thingsthat you do the bottom line is there isnowhere near enough narcissistic supplyinvolved to the narcissist to engage forreal in Family Contributionhe or she will at times pull out allstops for an agenda within the familyand all of a sudden be that caringgiving wonderful person but it’s notreal and it doesn’t last these times areonly when hoovering such as we hookingwith the spouse when he or she attemptsto leave the narcissist or will be foranother agenda the bottom line is thenarcissist must exert energy for payoffit’s a delicate balance between energyexpended in order to receive thenarcissistic drug narcissistic supply ifa narcissist gets cornered to do thingsfor the family and can’t get out intothe world to hunt more appropriatenarcissistic supply the narcissist isprecariously and dangerously pulledinwards to his or her self annihilatinginner being and will become low onsupply depressed manic and seething thenhe or she will need to get narcissisticsupply another way and this is when thepeople closest to the narcissist who tryto make narcissus behave like a normalperson someone who does give contributecomply and be a part of a team will thenbe lined up and batted mercilesslynow the narcissus has swish switchedfrom hunting positive supply to strikingout the negative narcissistic supplyit’s not about the accolades adorationand acclaim now it’s about getting thefeed of I am powerful and valid becauseI can affect you this severely it makesthe narcissist feel significant and evenomnipotent the narcissist alsotemporarily feels vindicated because heor she has punished you for threateningtheir very emotional existence by tryingto force them to be normal so hopefullynow you can understand why thenarcissist is non-compliant puts thingsoff doesn’t finish things at home andget so depressed angry and nasty whenforced to do tasks for you or thechildren and in such a stark contrastwhy they derive such pleasure and energyby putting themselves out diligently andconsistently for other people outside ofyour four walls so hopefully now youknow that there is no way you’re goingto get the narcissus to change he or shewill always hunt a narcissistic supplyand unless you become a fawning fool youare not that constant source in factonce past the honeymoon you willregularly be the dump master to bebeaten up and to project wounds onto andto attack and hurt and even if you dobecome a fawning fool you it still attimes are going to be the dump masterbecause you’re having a relationshipwith somebody who’s not interested inyou and the slightest and simply nevercan be because he or she only has theenergy available to balance the delicateand necessary regulation of narcissisticsupply to themselves so this means wehave to get out if we want the hope as ahappy and a healthy life so let’s takeit back to the start when I said for awhile we’re not going to get otherpeople’s support or them realizing whothe NASAand we’re not going to get them to helpus heal and I also said that this wasall imperfect and divine order and thereason for this is because the reasonthat we were attracted to and attractiveto and hooked into narcissus even whentheir mouth dropped is because we wereat that time under developed emotionallywe did not have a whole solid inneridentity who could be an adult in ourown body healthily generating our ownlife we’re instead dependent sourcinglove approval survival and securitythrough others approval and theirvalidation others and if people nowafter being abused by a narcissusgoddess supporters and Baptists then theentire healing shift the massive uplevel opportunity of narcissistic abusecould never be claimed and actualizebias and we would only back at squareone again still broken still susceptiblestill dependent and still beingprecariously prone to clinging on topeople even when they’re abusive so hereis the 100% necessity to become wholeself actualized non dependent and cleanyou to people even when they hurt usunable to steer our life healthily intoself-generative life-affirmingrelationships and easily walk away fromones that don’t match up it’s this weneed to become to ourselves everythingwe want to receive from others andplease no self partnering is never aboutbecoming an island people may think if Icome home to heal myself and I don’tneed to get my wholeness from othersthen I’ll never need people ever againthat’s true and that is exactly what youwant and I know that sounds totally likea dichotomy but it is true because whenyou are no longer empty and needy andwhen you are whole people healthy goodloving people will flood into yourexperience because you’re already beingand thatto them they match who you are in yourinner identity which is always what yourouter life is going to look like and youcan accept these people and you cansustain relationships with them untilthen that is not possibleand like my previous self you are only amatch for more empty and needy peoplenarcissus being the Big Kahuna’s andthese types of people so here is thething this is about dropping the needfor people to get you get who thenarcissist is and back you and help youheal and rather it’s about you doingthat work on yourself and then I promiseyou the street angel home devil thingand your experience will collapse on itshead did in my world narcissus numberone had others so convinced that he waswonderful and I was terrible one of myfamily members used to go to his placeafter I’d escaped to do resigning forhim my own son believed that I’ve beenhaving affairs behind everybody’s backsmy best friend had joined forces withhim and turned against mevirtually every single person involvedin my world who had believed him once Iso partnered and fully committed tohealing me turned away from him and cameback to me and I didn’t do anything atall to make this happen and in fact whenit happened I didn’t even need it tohappen because I was already feeling themost organically whole way ever had inmy life as a result of finally selfpartnering and committing to releasingmy inner trauma and growing myself up tobecome a healthy whole person and thepeople who were in his world asacquaintances he was still convincedthat he was wonderful I couldn’t careless about them I was already at thestage of knowing that he was merely andmagnificently a catalyst delivering mefinally home to myself and my healingactually had nothing to do with himanywayso of course in realities other than theone with me of course he’s going tocontinue on being the same being thisstorm of trauma that will hopefullyawaken others as well and my life nowawakened started to fill with morevalidation love and approval that I’veever known was possible tons more thaneven before I was abused because as thetotal key to make it happen I finallybecome that to myself so I hope thatthis episode has really helped if you’vebeen suffering the street angel homedevil stuff that we all didn’t have andplease come over to the blog and join inthe conversation with this which is blogBellini Tony Evans calm and until thenext little video that’s it for me fromsunny Darwin lots of love bye bye
Miley Cyrus’s Creepy Return to Wholesomeness
when I spoke to her in 2014 (back then, she and Hemsworth were done, she was dating a woman, and had taken to sticking her tongue out all the time), I was struck by how earnest she seemed about everything. She pulls from a seemingly bottomless font of sincerity
.. Most everybody readily acknowledges the artifice inherent to pop music—as consumers, we know and understand, to some degree, that the whole business is and always has been an aggressively managed charade. Part of the deal is that we still feign chagrin or incredulity (or both) when a pop star announces another reinvention. These shifts aren’t so interesting for what they broadcast about the state of an individual performer’s philosophical posture—in fact, I’d argue that, in that regard, they’re largely meaningless; far more compelling is what they indicate about an artist’s commercial potential, which is inextricably tied to the public’s hunger for change, and for new and flashier iterations of the same thing
.. Pop singers seeking colossal stardom tend to operate in only one of two modes:
- guileless, fresh-faced ingénue;
- or a sex-starved, lingerie-clad vixen.
(“Regular” has yet to become an especially profitable option.)