Trump declares Jerusalem Israel’s capital, delays moving embassy
President Trump today declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, though the move of the U.S. embassy to that city will be delayed for several more years.
Since the 1990s, when Congress passed a law that said the embassy should move but allowed presidents to waive that move repeatedly, every president issued a waiver because it was thought such a move would hurt the so-called peace process. Trump’s comments addressed this.
The President repeatedly addressed concerns about a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians being hindered as a result of the recognition. He argued failing to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as verified by law and Congress through the Jerusalem Embassy Act, has done nothing to move the region closer to a peace deal. “We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions and repeating the same failed strategies of the past. Old challenges demand new approaches,” Trump said. “The record is in, after two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a peace agreement.” [emphasis mine]
Trump is correct. We are no closer to Middle East peace now than we were in the 1990s. And I think the reason is illustrated by how the Palestinians (and their enablers) have responded to today’s announcement, with their usual grace and good will:
- Palestinians: Three days of rage over Trump’s decision on Jerusalem
- Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital TODAY despite international fury from the Pope, the UK, Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Palestinians who say ‘he’s declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims’
- EU urges caution in US Jerusalem decision
Gee, doesn’t the Palestinian response now kind of remind you of the gentle response of the Islamic community to some cartoons that were critical of Mohammad?
As I have written repeatedly, you can’t negotiate with someone who wants to kill you. When the Palestinians finally accept the fact that an Israeli state exists and will continue to exist, we will finally have peace. Not before, no matter how many deals get brokered by politicians.
I should also add that this announcement today does not fulfill Trump’s promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. It only makes believe that it does. Only when that embassy actually moves will Trump have done what he (and every previous Republican president or candidate since the 1990s) has promised.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
President Trump today declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, though the move of the U.S. embassy to that city will be delayed for several more years.
Since the 1990s, when Congress passed a law that said the embassy should move but allowed presidents to waive that move repeatedly, every president issued a waiver because it was thought such a move would hurt the so-called peace process. Trump’s comments addressed this.
The President repeatedly addressed concerns about a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians being hindered as a result of the recognition. He argued failing to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as verified by law and Congress through the Jerusalem Embassy Act, has done nothing to move the region closer to a peace deal. “We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions and repeating the same failed strategies of the past. Old challenges demand new approaches,” Trump said. “The record is in, after two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a peace agreement.” [emphasis mine]
Trump is correct. We are no closer to Middle East peace now than we were in the 1990s. And I think the reason is illustrated by how the Palestinians (and their enablers) have responded to today’s announcement, with their usual grace and good will:
- Palestinians: Three days of rage over Trump’s decision on Jerusalem
- Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital TODAY despite international fury from the Pope, the UK, Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Palestinians who say ‘he’s declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims’
- EU urges caution in US Jerusalem decision
Gee, doesn’t the Palestinian response now kind of remind you of the gentle response of the Islamic community to some cartoons that were critical of Mohammad?
As I have written repeatedly, you can’t negotiate with someone who wants to kill you. When the Palestinians finally accept the fact that an Israeli state exists and will continue to exist, we will finally have peace. Not before, no matter how many deals get brokered by politicians.
I should also add that this announcement today does not fulfill Trump’s promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. It only makes believe that it does. Only when that embassy actually moves will Trump have done what he (and every previous Republican president or candidate since the 1990s) has promised.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
And what is it that Trump has accomplished?
He has created a bargaining chip and some kind of leverage out of status quo nothing. Very transparent and very Trumpian.
“Trump has disrupted the peace process!”. Really? Trump has thrown a monkey wrench in the corruption and extortion that is called the peace process.
Sweden’s foreign minister calls for an extra session of the UN Security Counsel (where she unfortunately is member now), to protest this embassy relocation. Oh, beware Donald, beware! :-) “The moral super power” will speak. Ouch, Haley will hurt the UN badly this time. Who decides where Israel and the US locate their mutual embassies, if not Israel and the US? Good luck making a case for the global super state! Very popular these days.
The key here is the desire of multiculturalism’s advocates to find a strong participant in the worldwide networks of industrial society (the people of Israel) to be abusive of an anti-industrial group (the “Palestinians”). As long as we refuse to stand squarely in favor of industrial society, and the freedoms of action needed to build and maintain the networks it consists of, then we will be faced with such entirely artificial dilemmas repeatedly. As long as advocates of various anti-industrial groupings get a hearing, they will be encouraged to use violence, whether in support of Caliphate revivalists or in support of some other reactionary cause that reduces the freedoms of action of some other group to participate in the networks of industrial society around the world.
The “Peace process” is an utterly bankrupt immoral attempt at creating permanent war.
When neither side is allowed to win, it becomes a perpetual meat grinder, and a permanent propaganda tool for both sides.
The “peace process” has caused more bloodshed and more harm than would have happened had one side been allowed to achieve victory in the only real way victory is achieved, and that is by putting the heel of an infantryman’s boot on the throat of the leader of the opposition.
Where does Israel’s parliament (government) operate from? Is it not Jerusalem? Why should the UN have any say where one country puts it’s embassy?
Sure, we know the Muslim backlash will be significant, but when has it ever not been significant; over nothing?
There is not now, and never has been, any such thing as a “Middle East Peace Process.” There have just been various war processes.
I think the more accurate term is organized extortion process.
We pay off the Palestinian mafia which perpetuates the process that financially benefits them. This will go on until they acquire enough military equipment and treasure to do the job right. Why not, it works. Do what works, don’t do what does not work. Trump throws the monkey wrench in the status quo, causes disruption and the potential for a new direction.
The only real “solution” to these kinds of situations no longer really is allowed to happen, conflict, conquest and submission / negotiated terms. Instead its eternal political welfare which in the long term leads to an ever sicker situation.
I can’t help but wonder whether Trump’s idea is to shake up things enough to make both sides get serious about peace talks rather than one side using them as a distraction. As Dick Eagleson says, it isn’t a “Middle East Peace Process;” there is only an illusion of one, which makes politicians think that they look good, but it makes the rest of us realize just how futile it is to send in the politicians. How many decades has this “Middle East Peace Process” gotten us nowhere?