Trump’s big no to the PLO

The Trump administration announced Monday that it is closing the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington, DC, amid concerns that it is trying to trigger an International Criminal Court probe of Israel.

The State Department claims the PLO “has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” and accuses Palestinian leaders of condemning a yet-to-be-released Trump administration plan to forge peace .

Palestinian leaders have called for Israeli officials to be prosecuted at the ICC for alleged human-rights violations.

“The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel,” said National Security Adviser John Bolton. “We will not allow the ICC, or any other organization, to constrain Israel’s right to self-defense.”

He added that the US would slap financial sanctions and criminal charges on judges and officials of the court if they proceed against any Americans.

“We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States,” Bolton said. “We will sanction their funds in the US financial system, and we will prosecute them in the US criminal system.

“We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans.”

Israel welcomed the move and accused the Palestinians of seeing the court as a way of sidestepping USsponsored bilateral talks. Those contacts stalled in 2014.

But Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said, “We reiterate that the rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale, that we will not succumb to US threats and bullying.”