Reality for Israel after embassy opening

On Monday, we saw how Israel can look so strong while also being so vulnerable.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the move of the American embassy from Tel Aviv. Netanyahu also has boasted recently about a strike against Iranian military operations in Syria that might have threatened Israel. He also had a cuddly meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Bloomberg News and US News rank Israel’s economy among the 10 most innovative and dynamic.

About 65 miles southwest of the embassy site, however, Israel was drawing near-worldwide condemnation for killing 60 Palestinians and wounding nearly 2,000 others during protests along the Gaza border. The protests reminded Israelis that the embassy opening cannot hold off fundamental questions about the country’s future.

As with his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, when President Trump ordered the embassy moved, he did not address the day after. The decision was more about short-term political gain than long-term strategic advantage.

Gov. Rick Scott and Florida congressman Ron DeSantis, both Republicans, were among the 800 invitees to Monday’s ceremony. Trump wants Scott to defeat Sen. Bill Nelson and for DeSantis to be governor. Not among the invitees were South Florida’s three Democratic members of Congress — Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz — all of whom are Jewish. Their statements balanced all facets of this complicated issue.

“While I join Americans and Israelis in celebrating,” Frankel said, “I remain disappointed by the absence of a serious commitment to the two-state solution. Divorced from a broader peace process, relocation risks more violence between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Deutch and Wasserman Schultz have called Jerusalem Israel’s “historic” and “undivided” capital. Like Frankel, however, they also have urged the Trump administration to engage with Israel and the Palestinians. Administration officials have promised for weeks to reveal their peace plan. By moving the embassy without extracting any concessions from Netanyahu, however, Trump may have ended America’s long role as mediator.

The current crisis in Gaza dates to 2005. Under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel withdrew from Gaza — an area the size of Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn combined — and removed all settlers. Though it shares a short southern border with Egypt, most of Gaza is surrounded by Israel.

A year later, the Palestinians held elections. Hamas faction — whose leaders have rejected Israel’s right to exist — defeated the more moderate Fatah faction. After a military conflict, Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza.

In the West Bank, which Fatah controls, Palestinians and Israelis have cooperated on security. In Gaza, Israel has fought three wars with Hamas. Each has left Gaza and its 2 million residents more decimated. Without massive investment, the water supply may run out in two years.

To Netanyahu and many Israelis, the withdrawal means that Gaza is Hamas’ problem. As commentators here and in Israel have pointed out, that’s not the reality.

Writing in The Forward, Peter Beinart said, “Israel still controls Gaza. It controls it in the way a prison guard might control a prison courtyard in which he never actually sets foot. Claiming that Israel divested itself of responsibility for Gaza when it ‘withdrew totally’ in 2005 may ease American Jewish consciences. But it’s a lie.”

Though there is little debate about Hamas’ failures in Gaza and its targeting of civilians, there also is little debate that Israel has offered no plan to resolve the Gaza crisis. Whatever the tactics of this week’s protest, the humanitarian needs will keep building. So will pressure on Israel for a better response.

Because the Sun Sentinel strongly supports long-term security for Israel, we believe President Trump and other Republicans endanger that security by making Israel such a partisan issue. The embassy move is just the latest example.

Every credible poll shows support for Israel under Netanyahu is waning among American Jews, even as it increases among Republican religious conservatives who strongly support Trump. These “Christian Zionists,” though, see Israel more as preparing the way for the Second Coming. They are aligned with the ultra-Orthodox, who dominate religious life in Israel.

Neither group seems likely to support the two-state solution that has been American policy and which Trump also claims to support. Without that solution, Israel faces more harsh reality.

As of April, the number of Jews and Arabs living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea was roughly 6.5 million each. Forecasts show Jews becoming a minority. The 40 percent of Jerusalem residents who are Palestinians don’t have full Israeli citizenship. Some Israeli leaders want to annex the West Bank without granting citizenship to the nearly 3 million Palestinians.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said the embassy move recognized “truth.” We hope that Israel can recognize other truths, and that one day all countries will move their embassies to Jerusalem for the right reason.