A Conversation with Ramzy Baroud

By David Kattenburg

Late last January, after over a year of suggestive leaks and teasing talk, US President Donald Trump finally announced his so-called “Deal of the Century,” ostensibly aimed at resolving what is commonly referred to as the Israel-Palestine “conflict.”

Predictably, Trump’s deal has been widely referred to in the mainstream media as a “peace plan.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Largely cooked up by his son-in-law Jared Kushner and a handful of advisors with friendly ties to Israel’s settlement enterprise, in consultation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump’s Big Deal grants Israel leave to annex thirty percent of the occupied/colonized Palestinian territories, including the fertile Jordan Valley and most of its 240 Jewish-only settlements.

Kiryat Arbat colony, on the edge of Palestinian Hebron (David Kattenburg)

Although Israel’s settlement enterprise is flagrantly illegal under international law, the US, European Union and Canada routinely shield it from anything worse than mild censure, while engaging in trade and other forms of economic cooperation with the colonies.

Trump’s Big Deal has been condemned within the human rights and international legal community. Read this and this and this and this.

I discussed Trump’s Big Deal with Ramzy Baroud. Baroud is a Palestinian writer, journalist and academic, and the founder/publisher of the online Palestine Chronicle. Listen to our conversation here: