Back during the 2016 campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump loudly promised that as president he would move the American Embassy to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, from Tel Aviv where it has been located for the past nearly 70 years. That promise has been made by American presidential candidates since 1995 when the law mandating such a move was passed. The promise has been broken by American presidents since that time as well. Trump, though, was going to be different. He was not going to kowtow to the demands of Middle East niceties.
Such was Trump, the candidate.
Trump the president, just like every president since Clinton, has just signed a six-month waiver that delays the movement of the embassy in hopes of achieving a Middle East peace.
Whom the gods will destroy first they make him think he can bring peace in the Middle East
The problem is that the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as the capital of their theoretical state. The other problem is that Israel’s claim to the contrary is not negotiable. But successive American governments have hesitated in following through with the promise to move the embassy out of fear that the Palestinians will do something terrible, such as incite terrorism or refuse to negotiate in good faith.
Trump, who has already complained about the perfidy of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to his face, must know how silly this objection is.
Perhaps, in his mind, Trump regards the embassy as a bargaining chip, a threat to get the Palestinian Authority back to the table.
Netanyahu expresses disappointment
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed disappointment with President Trump by stating the decision “--drives peace further away by helping keep alive the Palestinian fantasy that the Jewish people and the Jewish state have no connection to Jerusalem.” Netanyahu’s theory is that by giving the Palestinians veto over where Israel’s capital is going to be, they will become more intransigent.
Best to let them live with disappointment now so that perhaps they will be more accommodating at the negotiation table.
Netanyahu must also know that the American media, as Hot Air has suggested, will do some of his work for him by applying pressure on the issue. The media is so hostile to Trump that it will not give him a pass on breaking his word on the embassy issue.
Netanyahu, who knows that the current president is a vast improvement over his predecessor where his country is concerned, does not need to antagonize Trump by reminding him to forcefully that he is breaking a promise. All he has to do is wait until, hopefully, the president feels enough pressure to fulfill his vow.