Trump and Jerusalem

Donald Trump can have been in no doubt that the reaction to his decision formally to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would be fiery. Anger in the Arab world has been mounting.

If Palestinians find Mr Trump’s pronouncement shocking and distressing, for the Israeli right it is a dream come true.

The president professes continued support for a twostate solution. And the final boundaries of the city will, he says, ultimately be determined as part of a future agreement. Yet there is plainly a substantive difference between working out boundaries and determining the city’s status within the parameters of a broader settlement.

For Mr Trump to argue that he is merely acknowledging ‘‘historical and current reality’’ is an outrageous simplification of the world’s thorniest territorial dispute.

What he is doing, at a stroke, is telling the Palestinians that America is firmly on one side of the argument. If the President does not understand this he is shockingly ill-informed.

If he does understand and is proceeding irrespective of the consequences, then he is something rather worse. Either way, this is an ill-judged and highly dangerous turn of events.

‘‘Kiss of death’’ sounds about right.