Page T2From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 17 September 2026
As it ran on the front
At a UN podium on September 17, Ambassador Michael Waltz held up the Israel-Morocco relationship as the model that broke the doomsday predictions. "Everyone said that the Arab nations would walk away from Israel, that the relationship would fray," he said, "and yet, as today has proven, it's stronger and growing." The relationship he was pointing to opened in December 2020, when the United States brokered Morocco's normalization with Israel — the fourth Arab country in a matter of months — as part of a deal in which President Trump recognized "Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory" and the United States promised to open a consulate there. Five years and nine months later, that same handshake is Exhibit A for the claim that the Arab world never left.
The count is the part Waltz didn't have to answer. He didn't name a poll or a ministry that predicted collapse; he named a mood, and against a mood the Rabat photo-op holds up fine. What the Rabat photo-op does not survive is a guest list. The same week Waltz was crediting Morocco with proving the doubters wrong, the State Department extended the visa ban that keeps Mahmoud Abbas — the leader of two governing Palestinian bodies — out of the country entirely, which means out of the one room in New York where the claim would actually get tested: the UN General Assembly, gaveling in days after Waltz's remarks, with the Palestinian file on the agenda and the Palestinian leader barred from walking through the door.…
…(cont) That is not a contradiction the administration stumbled into. It is the order of operations. First the achievement is announced — ties deepening, doubters refuted, a five-year-old deal doing the talking. Then the one man positioned to test it in front of the assembly that would actually hear both sides is kept off the visa list before the gavel drops. Abbas doesn't get to stand up and say whether Ramallah reads Rabat's warmth toward Israel as regional consensus or regional exception. The State Department didn't need to rebut Waltz. It just needed to make sure nobody who might was in the building.
The receipts he cited are real: Morocco did normalize, Trump did get his Western Sahara line, the consulate was promised. What isn't real is the test. You can't claim the Arab world stayed in the room and then pull the chair out from under the one delegate who'd tell you otherwise.
“They didn't win an argument, they cleared the room of the guy who'd argue back. Call five straight years of the same one deal "proof" if you want, just don't let the man who runs the Palestinian file near a microphone while you say it. That's not diplomacy, that's a home game with the other team benched.”
“Look, the ambassador's just stating a fact — the relationship's stronger, everybody said it'd collapse and it didn't, that's just good news, that's — okay, the visa extension, that's a completely separate desk, State handles visas, Waltz handles talking points, they don't exactly coordinate — wait, why would you extend a ban the same week you're bragging about who showed up — no, forget I said "who showed up."”
The receipts
The ICJ ordered Israel to preserve evidence of alleged Gaza genocide in January 2024 ICJ provisional measures order, 26 January 2024 (via ASIL)
UN Ambassador Michael Waltz announces deal between Israel and Morocco deepening diplomatic ties“Everyone said that the Arab nations would walk away from Israel, that the relationship would fray, and yet, as today has proven, it’s stronger and growing,” Waltz said.
The move would prevent Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of two governing Palestinian groups, from traveling to the United States next week for the United Nations General Assembly.
· The United States says that Morocco will normalize diplomatic relations with Israel, becoming the fourth Arab country to do so in recent months, in an agreement mediated by the United States. U.S. Pre from the morgue, 10 Dec 2020
· Netanyahu Throws "Poison Pill" into Gaza Deal as Kushner Meets with Hamas & Israel: Mouin Rabbani from the morgue, 18 Aug 2026
· SanctionsKill! statement: Solidarity is not a crime! from the morgue, 28 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.