President Donald Trump has ordered the 82nd Airborne Division to escort Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an olive grove near the West Bank village of Abu Falah, where the Israeli leader will personally harvest the entire Palestinian olive crop under American military guard, the White House announced Sunday.
«The president felt a Complete and Total Endorsement should be something you can see from space,» a senior administration official said. «So we are putting the prime minister in a basket, handing him a rake, and having paratroopers form a human corridor from the grove to the nearest settlement gate. It is a gesture of tremendous support.»
Netanyahu, who thanked Trump for the «joint work,» is scheduled to spend eleven hours a day picking olives while a military band plays both national anthems on a loop. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked about the arrangement, said the administration remains «very disturbed» by settler violence but believes the harvest will «crack down on that stuff by example.»
Ambassador Mike Huckabee has been assigned to personally inspect each olive for signs of extremism before it is placed in a ceremonial crate bound for Jerusalem. The first crate is expected to arrive by armored convoy on Tuesday, with the remaining crop to follow on foot, one paratrooper per olive.