Israel to delay West Bank annexation plans for now in deal to discuss normalizing ties with UAE

 https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-08-13/uae-israel-normalize-diplomatic-ties-annexation-called-off

 The United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to work toward establishing full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt, for now, Israel’s controversial plans to annex occupied West Bank land sought by Palestinians for their future state.

If the UAE establishes formal ties with Israel, it would be only the third Arab country — after Jordan and Egypt — to recognize Israel, and the first Gulf nation to do so.

 Thursday’s declaration, the officials involved said, was a prelude to delegations from Israel and the UAE meeting in the coming weeks to forge bilateral agreements in an array of sectors, including tourism, security, telecommunications, technology, energy and healthcare.

Direct flights would be established as well as reciprocal embassies — although it was likely the UAE would go to Tel Aviv and not the disputed holy city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians and controversially recognized as Israeli by Trump, the only world leader to do so.

 

Israel, UAE to launch diplomatic ties in return for halt to annexation

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SkKHL0GzP

 Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the day-to-day ruler of the UAE, confirmed Thursday that the Gulf state had reached an agreement that would end Israel's annexation plans.

While the deal halts Israeli annexation plans, the Palestinians have repeatedly urged Arab governments not to normalize relations with Israel until a peace agreement establishing an independent Palestinian state is reached.

 

 

Minister Katz: Sovereignty was frozen before UAE agreement

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285336

In an interview with Kan Bet Sunday morning, Minister Katz explained that the application of sovereignty was frozen even before the agreement with the United Arab Emirates, and that "presenting the agreement as related to it is more convenient for all the Arab nations."

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash was interviewed over the weekend by La Figaro newspaper and said the agreement was intended first and foremost to remove from the agenda for good Israeli sovereignty moves in Judea and Samaria.

 

 

Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize Moment | The Ben Shapiro Show Ep. 1074

Shaked: We believe Trump, there will be no sovereignty

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285332

"When Netanyahu decided to form a coalition with Blue and White and throw out Yamina, I told everyone who asked me that there would probably be no sovereignty," Shaked said in an interview with Kan Bet Sunday morning.

 I believe the president of the United States and his son-in-law who said sovereignty was off the table," she added.

"The prime minister has chosen to give up sovereignty in exchange for normalizing relations with the Emirates. It should be put on the table - with the pros and the cons.

In Shaked's opinion, Netanyahu should have gone ahead with applying sovereignty even if it meant a deal with the UAE would not have been reached at this time. "Applying sovereignty, certainly with the support of American government - could have been a one-time opportunity."

Trump’s Win Is a Loss for the Middle East

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/14/trump-mideast-israel-uae-deal-395567

The Trump administration announced a deal this week between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which was immediately hailed as “an historic day for peace in the Middle East” by Mike Pompeo’s State Department. A flurry of similar analyses framed the deal as “a big win for Trump,” and a “geopolitical earthquake.”

But that was exactly the point of this deal: a lot of publicity for the deal-makers, but not much substance to the deal. In fact, this “breakthrough” is mostly a PR boost for the three leaders involved: President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohamed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, the costs will be borne by the one party not involved in the arrangement, the Palestinians.

 

 

Israel-UAE agreement a meek version of the historic Mideast deal Trump pledged

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/14/middleeast/israel-uae-agreement-trump-intl/index.html

 This is not THE Middle East peace deal that has beguiled a generation of American presidents, the one President Donald Trump commissioned his son-in-law and special advisor Jared Kushner to conclude.

At its most optimistic read, the agreement announced Thursday by Trump between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations between their two states is a poor man's facsimile for the, as yet, unachieved grand bargain between Israelis and Palestinians to quell their decades of conflict.

Yes, it is historic, but it is only an illusion of the peace President Trump vowed he'd deliver.

Back in January this year Trump announced the contours of what he called his Vision for Peace -- officially known as Peace for Prosperity. Palestinians boycotted it denouncing it as money for land, in their view giving up territory in return for promises of improved business prospects, while Israel threatened to take the land regardless.

 

 

Kushner asked to apologize for Trump spreading birther lie. See his response

Rabbi YY Jacobson: A Tribute to a Giant - Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz ob"m

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell MSNBC | August 14, 2020 | Hana Reaction

Unprecedented

Michael Cohen Releases Forward To New Memoir, ‘Disloyal’ | All In | MSNBC

Michael Cohen offers a glimpse of upcoming Trump book

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/13/politics/michael-cohen-book-cover/index.html

 Michael Cohen released the foreword of his upcoming book on Thursday, teasing what he claims is a behind-the-scenes exposé of his acts as President Donald Trump's fixer -- from stiffing contractors on a business deal to lying about extra-marital affairs to the President's attempts to "insinuate himself into the world of President Vladimir Putin."

"I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them," Cohen wrote in the foreword, which was published Thursday on a website for his tell-all book "Disloyal: A Memoir. The true story of the former personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump."

"In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man," Cohen wrote in the 3,700-word release.

 

 

'Soulmates': Michael Cohen describes his life as Trump's fixer in new book

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/13/michael-cohen-book-donald-trump-disloyal

A teaser for Michael Cohen’s book about his time as Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer and his fall from grace was released on Thursday, after the US justice department had issued a gag order to stop the book’s publication that was later dropped.

The book, entitled Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J Trump, is slated to be released sometime in September, ahead of the presidential election in November.

Cohen ginned up pre-sales and tweeted about it on Thursday.