USA THREATENS TO CLOSE PALESTINIAN OFFICE IN WASHINGTON:

The Trump administration put the Palestine Liberation Organization on notice over the weekend that it will close the group's office in Washington if the Palestinians don't get serious about peace talks with Israel, State Department officials said. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has determined the Palestinians violated a USA law that calls for the closure of the PLO mission if they act against Israel in the International Criminal Court. In a speech to the UN General Assembly in Sept. 2017 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ran afoul of the law when he called on the ICC to investigate and prosecute Israel for war crimes against the Palestinians. The 2015 law requires shuttering the PLO mission if the Palestinians seek to "influence a determination by the ICC to initiate a judicially authorized investigation, or to actively support such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians." (CNN)