If Trump did something right in the Middle East, Biden has to try to turn it around.
When Donald Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thereby recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he was merely implementing the long-expressed will of Congress.
American presidents came and went and engaged in a charade. Every six months, they delayed the will of Congress on the grounds that it would harm national security.
Indeed, when Trump skipped the charade and moved the embassy, the loud naysayers claimed that he would unleash a storm of violence in the Middle East.
It never happened.
The embassy was moved and the worst that followed were the expected denunciations by Palestinian leaders and a few others.
Everybody knew that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Now comes President Biden, who wants to reverse all this.
We cannot escape the conclusion that if Trump did it, Biden must reverse it — the benefits of the matter be damned.
Biden wants to coerce Israel to allow the US to open a separate American consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinians.
No matter that Palestinians (and everyone else) face no discrimination in their affairs in the American embassy in Jerusalem.
More to the point, no matter that the Trump move sent a very important message: Reality counts. Mythical dreams of the Palestinian destruction of Israel in general and of Jewish Jerusalem in particular are just that: myth.
Say what you like about the Trump presidency in general, there is no question that on the matter of Israel and the Middle East, he advanced the cause of peace. It wasn’t just the Abraham Accords per se. It wasn’t just the unprecedented diplomatic recognition of Israel by a slew of Arab countries per se. It wasn’t just the American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital per se. It was this: Israel is here to stay. Get used to it. His message to the Palestinian leaders and to the Arab world more generally was: Base your diplomatic claims on reality, not chimera.
But now comes President Biden, who cannot take yes for an answer. He must reverse this progress by insisting that Israel re-separate Jerusalem. A number of matters are clear:
• No country can coerce another country to accept a consulate in its capital or anywhere in its country. After months of equivocation, the US State Dept. finally admits this.
• The Trump transfer of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem left the question of the final borders of Jerusalem open to negotiation between the parties.
• The Biden attempt to impose this Palestinian consulate on Jerusalem is the well-worn policy of failure: the attempt to force Israel to accept Palestinian claims without negotiations.
• The Palestinian leaders want a piece of Jerusalem (and of other parts of the Land of Israel) without recognizing the existence, legitimacy and Jewish character of Israel. Along comes President Biden and his Secretary of State Blinken and says: OK. No problem. We’ll twist Israel’s arms until they give you a consulate in Jerusalem, while you have to give — nothing. This is the same old same old.
If the Biden team wants to make a constructive contribution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict, it would say to both parties: Sit down. Negotiate the Jerusalem issue, and all the other issues.
The Biden team would say to the Palestinians:
• Stop glorifying terrorists.
• Stop paying terrorists and their families.
• Throw away your hate-filled textbooks from grade school on up.
• Recognize reality.
There is a different way to put this. Everybody knows that the heart of the conflict is less between Israel and the Palestinians and more between the Palestinian leadership and Israel. Countless Israelis and Palestinians get along fine in daily interactions in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel and the territories, including in Jewish and Palestinian run businesses.
Listen to the people, or at least to many of them. Everybody knows that the century-old intransigence of the Palestinian leadership — which predates not only Israel’s control of the West Bank and of Jerusalem, but Israel’s very existence — hurts the Palestinian “person on the street” at least as much as it hurts the Jews in Israel.
Advice to President Biden:
Build on what President Trump did in Israel; do not try to tear it down.
The forces of peace should be nurtured, not derailed.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
