CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem is bad news for . . . Israel.
We now know what the new American and Israeli approach to the Palestinian people will be in the Trump era: Having already slammed Palestinians against the wall and grabbed them by the throat, it’s now time to grind their faces into the ground for good measure.
That’s the real meaning behind Donald Trump’s bombshell announcement on Wednesday about Jerusalem, and there is no one in the Arab world — or in any corner of any world — who will misunderstand the message. The unilateral decision by the Trump administration to favour Israel, defy the world and recognize the fiercely divided city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel not only reverses nearly seven decades of U.S. foreign policy. It does much more.
It effectively sabotages any lingering hope that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be resolved in compromise with two states living in peace and security as neighbours.
It foreshadows a dangerous new phase in the conflict that will encourage extremists on both sides to reach for the gun and engulf the region in violence.
And through the continuing oppression of Palestinians, it will inevitably lead to a “one-state solution,” with Israelis trying to act as perpetual occupiers, that will be neither majority Jewish nor truly democratic.
The world didn’t allow an apartheid South Africa to survive in the final decades of the 20th century — brusquely overriding the wishes of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher at the time — and nor will an apartheid Israel be allowed to endure in the 21st century.
If wiser heads don’t prevail in the end, we know where the currents of history will ultimately take this drama. If you kill the creation of a viable State of Palestine, you will risk killing the State of Israel in the process.
Remember which Arab states surround Israel. Think of Syria, still in the throes of civil war. Think of Lebanon, barely recovered from its own civil war. And think of Jordan, seriously vulnerable to complete collapse if the region is set on fire.
However unintended by the reckless American and Israeli leadership, the dangers ahead for Israel are enormous. That is the staggering historical irony of this action. But none of that, of course, was acknowledged by Trump in his speech. It was an odd presentation given its political importance. Fixated on his TelePrompTer, Trump breathed heavily and slurred several of his words — including his concluding “God bless the United States” — which was explained later as either due to loose dentures or a dry mouth.
Regardless, Trump forged on and said that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital because it is “the seat of the modern Israeli government” and Israel’s choice. He also said the U.S. will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation in the world to do so.
Trump made no reference to the international uproar that had been swirling since it became known he would make this announcement and he tried to minimize the significance of the move.
But it wasn’t long before Palestinian protests spilled out into the streets of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Within hours of the speech, thousands of Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in several cities, resulting in dozens of injuries. Nearly five million Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation, which has lasted for five decades. These protests were the beginning of what Palestinian leaders called “three days of rage” in opposition to the American announcement.
For historical, religious and ideological reasons, no real estate in the world has been as sensitive or contested as the ancient city of Jerusalem. With a population of 860,000, 37 per cent are Palestinians, but they are defined as “residents” not “citizens” by the Israeli government.
Israel regards the entire city as its indivisible capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Most of the world considers East Jerusalem as Israeli-occupied territory. Since 1967, Israel has built a dozen settlements in East Jerusalem, now home to about 200,000 Jews. They are considered illegal under international law.
Toward the end of his speech, Trump gave lip service to the idea of a two-state solution — “if agreed to by both sides” — without noting what everyone knows: that the Israeli government would never agree to it.
There was no apparent sophisticated strategy behind Trump’s move, beyond enthusiastically embracing the Israeli position.
As he explained in his speech, he did it because it was a major campaign promise: “Today, I am delivering.” But it was mainly his millions of evangelical Christian supporters — with their biblical obsession about Israel — who were his target.
Apart from them, this is not a popular move. A poll last week indicated that only 31 per cent of Americans supported moving the embassy to Jerusalem, while a large majority of American Jews have consistently opposed the idea in recent polling.
Also, it is beyond imagination now to think that current efforts by the Trump administration to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement will go anywhere. So where does that leave the conflict? Trump’s announcement this week certainly ended the charade that the U.S. can be an honest broker. In the interests of honesty, maybe that is a good thing. But without the Americans intervening, the options are ominous.
It eventually places the combatants on the battlefield together, face-to-face, and that is dangerous for everyone. Tony Burman is former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com.
Recognizing Jerusalem as capital may jeopardize Israeli democracy