Posted on 12/06/2017 11:25:31 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
One year ago this month, former President Barack Obama's administration was working behind the scenes at the United Nations to slip a resolution through the body’s General Assembly attacking Israel.
It was one of Obama’s final, sneaky, and reprehensible acts in office. It put an exclamation point on his long, nasty, personal feud with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Previously, our president had gone so far as to interfere in an Israeli election and then unleashed his minions when Netanyahu had the gall to accept an invitation to address Congress.
Fast forward to this Wednesday, Netanyahu was thanking Obama’s successor in a formal televised statement for officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
We believe, and hope, Trump made the right decision — or at least one that probably won’t make things any worse than they are. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is highly complex, replete with myriad and tangled disagreements, charges, counter-charges, libels, counter-libels, offenses given, and offenses taken.
But one simple truth remained for Trump as he approached this question. In the 25 years since the Oslo talks began, not one thing Americans have done has successfully advanced the cause of peace in the Middle East, not even a little. The approaches of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, all genuinely diverse, were equally useless.
This should put to rest the idea that an American president can step in and solve this problem. And one minor consequence of this relieving, humbling revelation is that there’s no need to keep up tedious fictions such as the one that Israel’s capital is anywhere except where it actually has been for years, in Jerusalem.
Other governments don’t need to live thus with their heads buried in the sand. Russia recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in April. Hardly anyone noticed. The outrage over Trump's recognition now is born of opportunism.
To be sure, one can never be completely certain what effect this or any other event will have on the fragile alliances that are forming in order to restrain Iran’s ambitions in the region. But with Iran’s growing threat, the Sunni Arab nations have been forced to find common cause with Israel and America. That made Trump’s decision easier and guarantees that most objections are likely to be half-hearted and pro forma.
But what of the deeper question of justice between Israelis and Palestinians? The concern that this decision will cause further violence, voiced throughout America's news media, hinges on the idea that an injustice is being done. To the extent that Trump’s decision weakens the Palestinian starting point for negotiations, one might argue that the decision to recognize Jerusalem harms the legitimate merits of the Palestinian cause.
Then again, we are reminded by this week’s House passage of the Taylor Force Act that no one has delegitimized or degraded that cause as much as the Palestinian Authority itself, whose leaders probably have to be removed before any justice can be done. That bill, named after an American tourist who was murdered last year in a Palestinian terrorist attack, punishes the PA for its well-documented practice of paying terrorists to commit specific acts of violence against Israeli interests.
The PA, the beneficiary of an ungodly amount of humanitarian aid (including from Israel), concerns itself mostly with keeping those it misgoverns angry, vengeful, and impoverished. It bombards its subjects (even in its children’s television shows) with feverish anti-Semitic propaganda and indoctrinates them with denial of Israel’s existence and false hope of seizing all of its lands.
If Trump’s decision helps impose a little reality on those deceived through these measures, so much the better. It is a sharp and welcome contrast to the Obama policy of just a year ago, which hinted to Palestinians that if they held on long enough, the tide would turn against Israel. It’s nothing new, but Israel is there to stay.
*We really should build our US Embassy in Jerusalem on high ground, very large, dominant, and beautiful, IN THE RESEMBLANCE OF SOLOMONS TEMPLE, AND COVERED with high velocity bullet and blast proof structural glass, but give it highbred land based strategic weapons and defensive systems of both the Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer and Trident II SSBNs!
Our US Embassy absolutely must have a very deep underground diversive shield bunker with deep and far reaching egress points!
It also absolutely must have a large diameter kill zone with either or both Patriot or ARROW missile shield, and multiple next gen C-RAM (CIWS) at various overlapping points!
Like our subs, this US Embassy needs to be capable of everything including its own nuclear power, nuclear deterrent, and nuclear war!
Think about this. If we built our US Embassy with these capabilities, the United States would be in an unbelievable powerful strategic Middle East position which would significantly increase the safety of Israel, and ACT as a powerful deterrent to an overwhelming and high tech weapons attack from every direction!
This really could be a way to force “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH”!
It is one of the worlds most dangerous neighborhoods
We should build the US Embassy in a big way!
I never thought of any of that, but you’re absolutely right. There can never be another Benghazi.
They said it would take several years to build the embassy. I say bullcrap. They already know where the embassy will go and I wouldn’t be surprised if they already had the architectural drawings completed as well as the builders and the total costs. And with a president who understands construction probably better than anyone in the world, this can be completed by next summer.
I’d think the building, while important and central, is only part of the issue. You need to find safe housing for a LOT of government employees who need to be protected going to and from work. And they need to sell or get out of leases for current housing.
I hadn’t heard that the location was already chosen. I would think the construction might be a bit more complicated because, in an old part of town, they might prefer an old building which would need to be essentially gutted to fit in a new modern, bomb-safe design which, I agree, is probably already in drawings. But old has the advantage of looking like it’s been a part of the scene forever.
And won’t they need a greater protection detail and even more military housing? And protection not just to get to work from home, but to get to the Israeli offices safely when everyone will be out to stop all interactions cold.
I also wonder just how much the president is purposely holding action back to let the crazies show themselves as insane while their support system has time to explain the facts of financial life to those only moderately crazy.
As long as all sides ascribe “holiness” to the same piece of real estate the fighting will NEVER stop.
There is not now and there never was a reason for a Fakestinian state. There is no such thing as a Palestinian.
One year ago this month, former President Barack Obama's administration was working behind the scenes at the United Nations to slip a resolution through the body’s General Assembly attacking Israel. It was one of Obama’s final, sneaky, and reprehensible acts in office... Previously, our president had gone so far as to interfere in an Israeli election and then unleashed his minions when Netanyahu had the gall to accept an invitation to address Congress.There are two differences: one, Soetero was a muzzie and he hated Jews, Christians, and Israel (oh, and white people); and two, the Partisan Media Shills called every anti-American act he ever committed "a teaching moment". They should consider themselves schooled.
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