This past Sunday, Salon ran a piece titled: “Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem is a bad idea for everyone — except Israeli hard-liners and their American friends,” in which the author focused on three main points in an attempt to craft an argument for not moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
The author does this by way of creating a hypothetical meeting between two Arab leaders. The King of Saudi Arabia and the King of the UAE.
“When the two most influential leaders in the Arab world, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, get together to discuss how Washington can demonstrate its renewed commitment to regional allies, it is a safe bet that moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is not on their list.”
The author uses the above “pretend meeting” to set up a false narrative where a move of the US embassy to Jerusalem reignites the “Israeli-Palestinian” conflict as well as tearing apart the “normally quiet” Middle East.
The move he insists, is being pushed by Trump to soothe his “radical base” as well as supported by Israel’s “hardliners.”
The above could not be further from the truth.
Let’s set the record straight: President Donald Trump does not view the Two State Solution or the splitting of Jerusalem as necessities in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The fact is, most Israelis support an Israel with a united Jerusalem as its capital. Given these facts, why does it matter if the Palestinians are erked? Why are their grievences necessarily assumed to be equal to Israel’s?
Furthermore, the author wants to make the case that the Middle East will fall into chaos if the US moves its embassy to Jerusalem. Perhaps the author has forgotten about the chaos that flows from Iraq to Syria to Yemen. Let’s face it, the Middle East is about as chaotic as it can get.
As for his assertion that Saudi Arabia or the UAE would care? So what. They are not going to do anything about it. They both need the USA and Israel to hold off Iran. The most they will do is throw a public fit in order to appease their wound up street, which deep down inside doesn’t care anyway.
Here are some facts:
- Jews have been the majority in Jerusalem since the 1880s
- Jews are the nationality to have a continuous presence in Jerusalem for 3000 years
- Jews are the only people to have an established capital in Jerusalem 3 times
In light of these, why wouldn’t the US move its embassy to Jerusalem? In fact, if one truly wants to make a point of ending the conflict once and for all, taking Jerusalem off the table will bring the “Palestinians” to their knees and yes bring peace faster than leaving the conflict simmering the way it is now.
President Trump and the majority of supporters of Israel as well as the US Congress are completely justified and correct in wanting to move the US embassy to the historical and political capital of the only Jewish State.
The author ends his article with this:
“Rather than demonstrating American resolve and commitment, moving the embassy to Jerusalem actually has the potential to strengthen Iran, weaken Israel’s ties to the Arab world, and sow violence between Palestinians and Israelis. This should all be abundantly clear, but when it comes to U.S. policy in the Middle East, illogical arguments often reign.”
This final statement is the hubris which Middle East policy has been driven through for the last 5 decades. It is the author who has made a series of illogical arguments. These arguments and mentality are about to be bulldozed into the dustbin of moral relativism and Arabist apologetics by the 45th President.