Supposedly, later this week President Trump will recognize something that has been a fact for decades, namely that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Let's put the diplomatic niceties aside and just point out that the Israeli parliament is located there. The Supreme Court is located there. The major government installations are located there. The only thing that is not there are the embassies of the various foreign countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel. Even Congress recognized this fact long ago and passed a law declaring Jerusalem to be the Israeli capital. Since then, successive president have delayed the implementation of that law and kept the American embassy in Tel Aviv. Trump is supposedly ending that delay.
So what is the response from the gray haired "experts"? For the most part, these gurus are lamenting that the move would be a setback for the peace process. No, seriously, they really say that.
My question is simple: what peace process? For at least the last ten years, there has been no movement between Israel and the Palestinians. Indeed, the Palestinians have not actually participated in any peace efforts. There was an election for the Palestinian government which was won by Hamas. As a result, the Palestinian president Abbas tried to oust Hamas. The Hamas people took over in Gaza, but the Fatah people of Abbas kept control in the West Bank region governed by the Palestinians. Abbas himself just put off the required presidential election and stayed in office. He is now in the twelfth year of his four year term. There was a deal about six months ago between Hamas and Fatah, but nothing seems to have actually changed. They are each more worried about the other than anything else. Neither of them will make any move towards Israel for fear of being branded as weak by the other side.
So if we have a reality in which there is no peace process and Jerusalem is the actual capital of Israel, why shouldn't the USA recognize Jerusalem rather than worrying about damaging a non-existent peace process?
So what is the response from the gray haired "experts"? For the most part, these gurus are lamenting that the move would be a setback for the peace process. No, seriously, they really say that.
My question is simple: what peace process? For at least the last ten years, there has been no movement between Israel and the Palestinians. Indeed, the Palestinians have not actually participated in any peace efforts. There was an election for the Palestinian government which was won by Hamas. As a result, the Palestinian president Abbas tried to oust Hamas. The Hamas people took over in Gaza, but the Fatah people of Abbas kept control in the West Bank region governed by the Palestinians. Abbas himself just put off the required presidential election and stayed in office. He is now in the twelfth year of his four year term. There was a deal about six months ago between Hamas and Fatah, but nothing seems to have actually changed. They are each more worried about the other than anything else. Neither of them will make any move towards Israel for fear of being branded as weak by the other side.
So if we have a reality in which there is no peace process and Jerusalem is the actual capital of Israel, why shouldn't the USA recognize Jerusalem rather than worrying about damaging a non-existent peace process?
No comments:
Post a Comment