Donald Trump rattles Europe by branding the NATO alliance ‘obsolete’

Classic hard nosed negotiating strategy.  Tip over the table and tell them they got nothing he wants, and then start to put things back together in a way better for us certainly, but for the hapless and confused Euros as well.

Merkel warned that the continent now had to take responsibility for itself.

“We Europeans have our fate in our own hands,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin when asked about Trump’s criticisms, adding that she will work towards getting the EU to strengthen the economy and fight terrorism.

Trump wins already against these amateurs.  He wants them to stop scamming NATO by refusing to pay their fair share of it's costs, and now that is just where the idiot Merkel is going.  With their huge social welfare bills, they simply cannot escape us, but at least, in one interview, he has gotten them to admit to themselves their responsibility and vow to begin at least to take care of business.  We'll work with them from there.

"Fetch the ball for me, Angela!"

"Arf!"

Meanwhile, the idiot John Kerry, who has about the most punchable face on earth, pathetically humiliates himself and his nation in his last days in office.

The Paris peace conference was intended to advance the international assault on Israel’s legitimacy, playing up the Palestinian narrative that settlements, not Palestinian intransigence, were mostly responsible for the lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It was expected that the final communique from the conference, which would have reiterated the “flagrant violation” language, would have been a formalized in a second UNSC resolution.

However British Prime Minister Theresa May stepped up and sent a low level delegation to the conference, which refused to sign on to the final communique. (A spokesman for the government had blasted Kerry’s post resolution speech, in which he tried to justify the abstention, saying that it was wrong to be “focusing on only one issue,” namely the settlements, in seeking peace, when “the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is so deeply complex.” The statement also took Kerry to task for “the composition of the democratically-elected government of an ally.” The statement criticizing Kerry also reiterated that bilateral negotiations were the only way to achieve peace.)

Given that Great Britain is not buying into the Paris peace conference or Kerry’s diplomacy, and that it is a permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, it is not likely that any further resolutions would pass. (Why did Great Britain vote for 2334? Apparently May was blind-sided by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s participation in the resolution. This time she took no chances and took charge.)

Given the likelihood that no resolution would pass the Security Council, Kerry’s call to Netanyahu looks more like a cynical acknowledgement of defeat than a generous reassurance of an ally.

One should also recall that over President Barack Obama’s two terms in office the administration launched two peace initiatives in 2009-10 and 2013-14. Both times it was Abbas who torpedoed those efforts to make peace.

Allowing Abbas to internationalize the conflict after he refused to make peace has rewarded him for his obstructionism. Not only does it make peace less possible but it whitewashes recent history – even by those who were involved – to reward the obstructionist Abbas and punish Israel.

Incompetence all around in this administration.  The contrast between the two couldn't be more stark.  It's time to kick ass and take names.