Local reaction varies on Trump’s Israel stance
Rasha Mubarak was outraged when she heard President Donald Trump had defied seven decades of U.S. public policy by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“This is a dismissal of the Palestinian people,” said Mubarak, regional director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida. “It’s going to create chaos and instability and compromise any notion of peace.”
Wednesday’s announcement sparked protests in the West Bank, Ramallah and Gaza, where demonstrators Thursday burned U.S. and Israeli flags and pictures of Trump. Central Floridians opposed to the decision will gather 4:30 p.m. today at Lake Eola Park for a protest called “Hands Off Jerusalem!” that is part of an international series of demonstrations.
But the news was applauded just as heartily by others locally
and endorsed by Gov. Rick Scott, who was on a trade mission to Israel this week.
Ben Friedman, community relations director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, said the change should not stand in the way of peace.
“What we have done is tell our ally that we have your back and we respect your right of self-determination,” said Friedman, who also is director of the federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council.
“Nothing about this decision changes the borders of Jerusalem. Nothing about this limits access to Muslim holy sites, which we wholeheartedly support. Nothing about this says a two-state solution is impossible.”
The issue is incendiary, because although Israel has always considered Jerusalem its capital, the Palestinian people want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Israel captured the land in the Six-Day War with its Arab neighbors in 1967 and later annexed it. Further complicating matters: The city is holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Patricia Sohn, a University of Florida professor of political science and Jewish studies and an expert on the Middle East, said it makes sense for the U.S. to acknowledge Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital. The country’s legislature — the Knesset — its Supreme Court and government ministries all are in the city.
But if Palestinians are granted a state, its capital undoubtedly will be Jerusalem, too, said Sohn, who is affiliated with the university’s Center for Global Islamic Studies.
“I think eventually we’ll recognize both,” Sohn said. “It’s just a question of how many decades it will take for the world to get there, because that’s the capital in the hearts of both populations.”
Hakan Ozoglu, director of the University of Central Florida’s Middle Eastern Studies program, said his biggest fear is that Trump’s remarks will embolden radical elements, and that even moderate Muslims may become more hostile toward the West, especially the U.S.
Rabbi Hillel Skolnik of Southwest Orlando Jewish Center also fears a violent backlash. He said many Jews — especially liberals — find themselves in the odd position of agreeing with Trump’s declaration as they simultaneously recoil from his behavior and language.
“I’d rather have a president say nothing and have my friends and family safe than have one who says something and puts them in danger,” he said.
In his announcement, Trump promised to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, although he signed a waiver keeping it in its current spot for six months. Congress voted in 1995 to move the embassy, but presidents Clinton, G.W. Bush and Obama didn’t implement the change. No other country has an embassy in Jerusalem.
Pope Francis, several countries in the Middle East, the European Union and U.S. allies Great Britain, France and Germany issued statements disapproving of Trump’s declaration. Palestinians on Thursday heeded their leaders’ calls for “three days of rage.”
Other people and organizations take the opposite view.
In Orlando, the Liberty Counsel spoke out in favor of the new U.S. policy, lauding Israel as the United States’ only democratic friend in the region and the only country there that allows true religious freedom.
“Not recognizing Jerusalem as the capital or moving the embassy for 70 years [since Israel’s founding] … has not helped the peace process,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the conservative group that champions religious freedom and family values. “I don’t see this as anything that will impede the peace process. In fact, I think it may help.”
Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, disagreed. He said 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide will not accept Trump’s pronouncement.
“His decision, I think, will not advance peace because it’s one-sided and unilateral,” Musri said. “It didn’t come as part of some grand peace deal or anybody was really pushing for it. It was just a promise to fulfill that he made during his campaign.”