Star’s view Pouring oil on the fire,
Donald Trump has decided to bring his delicate touch to the most inflammatory region of the world, the Middle East. What could possibly go wrong?
Plenty, is the answer. The president’s declaration that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move its embassy there is one of the most reckless moves of his administration.
There’s a good reason why 86 countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel (including Canada) have their embassies in Tel Aviv. Exactly none has an embassy in Jerusalem.
The final status of Jerusalem is the trickiest issue that must be resolved in any eventual peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, however remote that possibility seems now.
Both sides insist that Jerusalem must be their capital. Somehow, they must figure out a way to share it if their perpetual state of semi-warfare is ever to give way to true peace. The most common proposal is that West Jerusalem be the capital of Israel, and East Jerusalem the capital of a Palestinian state.
But to get anywhere near that point will involve reviving the moribund peace process, despite all the failures of past decades. By putting the United States firmly on the Israeli side in this intractable dispute, Trump is making it all the more difficult for Washington to act as a useful partner in figuring out a path toward co-existence.
True, he did hedge his words on Wednesday by saying that the U.S. was not taking a position on any “final status” issues, including “the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.” But that is a slender reed; overall, his actions amount to a ringing endorsement of the policies of the Israeli government and a hard slap to the Palestinians.
Canada has stepped into this tangled thicket before. Back in 1979, then-prime minister Joe Clark promised to move our embassy to Jerusalem, only to back off quickly once the incendiary implications became clear.
Since then, Canadian governments of all stripes (including even the most pro-Israeli one of them all, under Stephen Harper) have maintained the policy of keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv. The Trudeau government, quite correctly, reiterated that stance in the face of Trump’s announcement by saying the status of Jerusalem “can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute.”
None of this takes away from the obvious fact that Jerusalem is, in reality, the capital of Israel — home to its parliament, Supreme Court, government ministries and the residences of its president and prime minister.
Nor does it contradict the fact that Jews have a sacred connection to the city that goes back some 3,000 years and has continued through the ages in the face of occupation, war and exile.
It’s not clear why Trump is doing this now, other than to fulfil a campaign promise and to curry favour with his base, including Christian evangelicals who are determinedly pro-Israel.
His announcement on Jerusalem was not linked to any wider peace initiative. All he did was repeat, in general terms, Washington’s traditional support for a two-state solution.
But if he does eventually propose some new formulation for peace, his actions on Wednesday will only serve to push that elusive goal even farther from reach.
Donald Trump has decided to bring his delicate touch to the most inflammatory region of the world, the Middle East. What could possibly go wrong?