Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital changed the narrative — for the better.
The critics of President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem charge that his act will change the Middle East for the worse. Arabs will respond with mass violence. Sunni Arab nations will halt their unofficial rapprochement with Israel. Palestinians will close down the peace process.
So far, none of these bleak scenarios have come to pass, but the far more illuminating lens on Trump’s recognition is what it did not change.
• The decline of Arab oil wealth and the growing political and economic weakness of the once mighty OPEC nations, such as Saudi Arabia. This long term historical arc — caused by the long-term growth in energy independence in the West in general, and the US in particular — has caused Arab nations to look to Israel not as an enemy but as a protective shield against Shiite Iran. Trump’s recognition did not, and will not, change this.
• Thousands of years of Jewish rootedness in the Land of Israel and in Jerusalem in particular. Palestinians well understand the historical stakes in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and that is why the Palestinians go to such ridiculous, not to mention mendacious, lengths to deny the Jewish connection to the land and to the Holy City. Trump’s recognition did not, and will not, change Jewish historical reality.
• Israel’s national affairs in Jerusalem. Jerusalem functions as Israel’s capital. Its Prime Minister’s residence, its President’s residence, its parliament (Knesset), its Supreme Court, and many of its cabinet departments are all in Jerusalem. Trump’s recognition did not, and will not, change this.
• Israel’s determination to fortify Jerusalem against Arab attacks. Jerusalem was divided in 1949 by Jordan, leaving Jews (not just Israelis) without access to the holiest Jewish site, the Western Wall. Jerusalem was attacked by Jordan in 1967, with bombs exploding all around the city. When Israel reunited the city in 1967, Israel undertook a massive housing program on the periphery of the city, on all four sides, to make certain that Jerusalem would never again be an easy target for Arab artillery and troops. Trump’s recognition did not, and will not, change the reality of the massive, new neighborhoods of Jewish Jerusalem.
• Palestinian suffering due to corruption. Are there enough hospitals, homes and schools for Palestinians? No. Is there enough Palestinian money for them? Yes. Then why the disconnect? Diversion by Palestinian leaders of their financial resources to anti-Israel terrorist tunnels, to rockets, to Palestinian families of terrorists (“pay-for-slay”) and to Palestinian leaders’ own pockets. Trump’s recognition did not change this — but maybe it will, because Trump changed the narrative of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, for the better.
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Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem shifted the narrative from fantasy to reality. Arabs, particularly Palestinian Arabs, have been living a 70-year-old fantasy: Israel will dis- appear. Intransigence will defeat Israel. Military attacks, terrorist attacks, international delegitimation efforts, or the “Arab womb” will put an end to Israel. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem said: Wake up to reality.
Trump’s dramatic shift in the narrative has several corollaries:
• Jewish Jerusalem is not up for negotiation. It isn’t. It never has been. It never will be. Trump’s recognition said: Reality, not fantasy, reigns.
• Palestinian denial of Israel’s title to the land on which it rests will no longer elicit automatic, universal diplomatic support.
• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the key to Middle East peace. Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem has absolutely nothing to do with recent violence in Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Kurdish territory. The world’s obsession with Israel and the Palestinians retards solutions of the far more serious suffering and dangers elsewhere in the Middle East.
• The end to Palestinian suffering is primarily up to the Palestinians themselves — not to Israel, not to the US, not to the UN, not to the EU, not to Arab nations. Palestinian suffering is primarily self-imposed, the result of three things, each an essential element in the Palestinian fantasy:
First, Israel’s legitimate self-defense measures, such as checkpoints — undertaken in response to Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli buses, nightclubs, cafes, cars, crowds and schools.
Second, Palestinian leaders’ refusal to acknowledge that in 2017 there are no Palestinian refugees — other than those on whom Palestinian leaders themselves impose refugee status.
Third, Palestinian leaders’ refusal to come to terms with Israel. Whether in the West Bank, Gaza or Jeru-salem, Palestinians’ focus on sustaining the conflict with Israel diverts them from dealing with their own poverty and political dysfunction.
• The illusion of an Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” — there is no such thing and never has been. There is no diplomatic process between Israel and Palestinian leaders that Trump’s act of recognition could put an end to. To the extent that peace has been sought, it has been a one-way effort. The Arab or Palestinian-initiated wars and intifadas in 1936-1939, 1947-1949, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1987-1991, 2000-2005, 2008-2009, 2014, 2016, and the Palestinian rejection of credible Israeli-Palestinian peace plans put forward in 2000, 2008 and 2013, testify to the longest linguistic illusion in modern diplomatic history: the “peace process.” Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital said to the Palstinians: Let’s get real.
Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News
