As expected, President Trump on Wednesday recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and announced plans to relocate the U.S. embassy there, a decision that is certain to inflame tensions in the region and throw a wrench in potential peace negotiations, paradoxically uniting the fractured middle east world against Israel and the U.S.
"I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," Trump said shortly after 1pm in the White House.
Trump said the announcement “marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and Palestinians.”
As discussed earlier, Trump’s move reverses decades of American policy in the Middle East and alienates regional allies, even as the president has made brokering an elusive Middle East peace deal a key goal.
“This is a long overdue step to advance the peace process and work towards a lasting agreement”, Mr Trump said in his remarks. He added that he was directing the US State Department to develop a plan to move its Israel embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump framed the decision as a way to put his own stamp on one of history’s oldest conflicts.
“The record is in: after more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians,” the president said. “It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result."
The move showed Trump’s inclination to prioritize domestic politics over the desires of U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe who warned the announcement could spark violence in a region that is already a powder keg.
"While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver," the president said. "Today, I am delivering."
It will hardly play out that way.
As Bloomberg notes, leaders across the Middle East, including from Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League have also spoken out against the plan, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Trump’s plan a sign of U.S. “failure and impotence.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, warned him the announcement would have “dangerous” repercussions for regional stability. Separately, the Palestinian delegate to the United Kingdom said on Wednesday that President Trump's move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel signals "a declaration of war" in the region. “He is declaring war in the Middle East, he is declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims, hundreds of millions of Christians that are not going to accept the holy shrines to be totally under the hegemony of Israel,” Manuel Hassassian told BBC 4 Radio's "Today."
The Turkish government’s spokesman on Wednesday said that the United States’ decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will plunge the region and the world into “a fire with no end in sight”.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the “whole world is against” Trump’s move. He says that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be a “grave mistake” and would “not bring any stability, peace but rather chaos and instability.”
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also blasted Washington's decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem as a display of incompetence. "That they claim they want to announce Quds as the capital of occupied Palestine is because of their incompetence and failure," Khamenei said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
The Syrian government also weighed in on the planned move. "[The move] is the culmination of the crime of usurping Palestine and displacing the Palestinian people," a Foreign Ministry official told state news agency SANA.
Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem were spotted burning photographs of Donald Trump and holding signs reading “Move the embassy to your country, not ours,” and “Jerusalem, Palestine's heart, is not up to negotiations.”
[Hmmmm...who will fill this void?]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said US President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has ended Washington’s historic role as the key sponsor for Israel-Palestinian peace talks, and called for an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership.
“These reprehensible and rejected measures constitute a deliberate undermining of all peace efforts,” said Abbas of Trump’s decision.
Abbas said Trump’s speech “represents a declaration that the United States has withdrawn from playing the role it has played in the past decades in sponsoring the peace process.”
Abbas accused Trump of “violating international resolutions and bilateral agreements,” and said the decision was a “reward to Israel for denying agreements and defying international legitimacy that encourages it to continue the policy of occupation, settlement, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”
Since the early 1990s, the US has been the key mediator for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Earlier Trump broke with decades of US and international policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said he had directed the US State Department to begin the process of moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as required by US law.
Trump maintained that his decision would not compromise the city’s geographic and political borders, which will still be determined by Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leader said he was calling for an “emergency meeting” of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee to create a “unified national position” and put “all options before it.”
The Czech Republic said in a statement Wednesday that it recognizes the pre-1967 west Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but that it will only consider moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city after talks with regional partners.
The announcement came hours after US President Donald Trump declared that his administration was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital and that he had instructed the US State Department to prepare to move its embassy from Tel Aviv. Trump made no distinction between East or West Jerusalem in his declaration.
“The Czech Republic currently, before the peace between Israel and Palestine is signed, recognizes Jerusalem to be in fact the capital of Israel in the borders of the demarcation line from 1967,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
However, the ministry noted that “the Czech Republic together with other EU member states, following the EU Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions, considers Jerusalem to be the future capital of both states, meaning the State of Israel and the future State of Palestine. The Ministry can start considering moving of the Czech embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem only based on results of negotiations with key partners in the region and in the world.”
Turkey warns Trump is 'plunging the world into a fire'
- President Donald Trump announced the US considers Jerusalem Israel's capital
- Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said the decision will 'open the gates of hell'
- Criticism poured in from Tehran to Ankara to war-ravaged Syria and Pope Francis
- But Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the move as 'courageous and just'
- He also encouraged other states to follow the US lead - with Czech Republic first
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas warned the announcement 'opens the gates of hell on US interests in the region'.
It also called on Arab and Islamic states to 'cut off economic and political ties with the US embassy and expel American ambassadors to cripple' the move.
The PLO - Palestine Liberation Organisation - said it destroys the two-state solution, while Iran said it would incite a 'new intifada'.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the United States can no longer play the role of peace broker after Trump's decision.
'These deplorable and unacceptable measures deliberately undermine all peace efforts,' Abbas said in a speech after Trump's announcement.
He said Trump's move amounted to 'an announcement of US withdrawal from playing the role it has been playing in the past decade in sponsoring the peace process.'
Abbas also referred to Jerusalem as the 'the eternal capital of the state of Palestine' and said Trump's move was 'legally null'.
But the Czech Republic released a statement after Trump's speech saying they recognise part of Jerusalem - the west of the city - as the Israeli capital.
The Central European state also said it sees Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it can 'start considering moving of the Czech embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem only based on results of negotiations with key partners in the region and in the world.'
The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet on Friday at the request of eight states on the 15-member body over the decision.
The request for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to publicly brief the Security Council meeting was made by France, Bolivia, Egypt, Italy, Senegal, Sweden, Britain and Uruguay, said diplomats.
French president Emmanuel Macron, though, agreed with the UN in saying the status of Jerusalem must be determined during negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.
President Macron branded the decision 'regrettable', calling for efforts to 'avoid violence at all costs'.
Addressing a press conference during a state visit to Algeria, Macron affirmed 'the attachment of France and Europe to the two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security within internationally recognised borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of the two states.
'France is ready with its partners to take all necessary initiatives in this direction.'
A Turkish government spokesman said the decision was 'irresponsible' and illegal.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Trump's recognition doesn't automatically make Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
Cavusoglu said Wednesday in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, that 'with one announcement by a country, Jerusalem cannot be the capital of Israel.'
Cavusoglu adds, 'You can't come out and say, `I'm a great power, I can do what I want.'
'There can be no understanding under which one can say I made such an announcement and it will become reality,' Cavusoglu insists.
Hmmm... well this is certainly wonderful news for Israel & prophecy watchers! Zechariah 12:3, referring to God making Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people of the world, seems to be coming into sharp focus with this historic turn of events. More obvious than ever, God has prepared Donald Trump to rise for just such a time as this.
ReplyDeleteI so agree on Zech 12:3...Amazing how this is coming into focus. Jerusalem - the focus of the attention of the world - wanting to "move" it...Incredible to see prophecy come alive like this.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! Thinking about that Greek word"tachos" and how things are now moving so quickly. Hold on, sibs!
ReplyDeleteYes - its amazing where we are right now - just amazing...Gog-Magog is staged and ready, Zechariah 12:3 is in focus, The EU is doing what we would expect politically, earthquakes, famine, rumors of war daily in the news and on and on it goes
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