Trump on Jerusalem

In December, 2016 President Barack Obama instructed his United Nations ambassador to abstain from a Security Council resolution condemning Israel as an occupying power, thus delegitimizing its possession of the Western Wall and East Jerusalem.

America’s most anti-Semitic president, having armed and financed Iranian terrorism, took the occasion to stick it to Israel one last time. Alan Dershowitz denounced the Obama policy:

What he did was so nasty, he pulled a bait and switch. He told the American public this is all about the settlements deep in the West Bank. And yet, he allowed he representative to the U.N. to abstain --which is really a vote for-- a resolution that says the Jews can't pray at the Western Wall, Jews can't live in the Jewish Quarter [of Jerusalem] where they have lived for thousands of years.

This afternoon, President Donald Trump will undo a considerable amount of the damage by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and by starting to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Since Israel has been the laboratory for Islamist terrorism, it is good to see an American president who does not cower in fear when threatened by the Palestinian Authority or the president of Turkey. In truth, as soon as Arab governments seemed to be threatening Donald Trump, he had little choice but to stand up against Islamist terrorism.

Roger Simon offers some sage remarks:

But the real question is how the Palestinians themselves will react once the dust has settled. Will they continue decades of self-destructive violent protests that have led many of us to believe they never had an interest in a two-state solution in the first place, that it was all posturing for handouts? Or will they grow up and realize the time has come to negotiate to a conclusion and accept the responsibility of their own state and the adult compromises that would naturally entail?

And, of course, the war on terrorism is meaningless unless we and Western European countries get serious and coherent about terrorism and stop funding a Palestinian Authority that rewards the families of terrorists. Blood money for killing Jews.

Simon quotes a report in the Allgemeiner about a vote on the Taylor Force bill:

The Taylor Force Act passed the US House of Representatives by unanimous consent on Tuesday, confronting the Palestinian Authority with the prospect of a massive cut in US aid for as long as it maintains its policy of paying monthly salaries and other benefits to the families of slain or convicted Palestinian terrorists.

Named in memory of Taylor Force – the former American army officer stabbed to death during a knifing spree by a Palestinian assailant in Tel Aviv in March 2016 – the legislation prevents the transfer of funds “that directly benefit the Palestinian Authority” for a six-year period beginning in 2018 unless the PA verifiably ends its so-called “martyr payments” policy. The Taylor Force Act also requires the PA to repeal any laws enabling or favoring the payments policy, as well investigate terrorist acts for the purpose of “bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

Simon also adds points that we have been making on this blog. The balance of powers is changing in the Middle East and the Palestinian cause has become a lost cause:

The global chess game has changed.  Saudi Arabia, as we all know, is terrified of the Iranians and has found itself a covert ally of Israel against the mullahs.  The Palestinians are aware of that and not happy about it.  They are in a box.  Trump and Congress have chosen an auspicious time to make a move.  Various players will undoubtedly yell and scream in public and say something totally different in private.  That is the way of the Middle East (and America, unfortunately, these days).

Simon sees it as an opportunity for the Palestinians to get over their maniacal Jew-hatred, hatred that has consumed generations of their children and enter the real world:

It is perhaps the last best chance for the Palestinians to grow up, break free of their endless pattern of self destruction, and give up looking for excuses for another pointless intifada.  Unfortunately, too many of those players enjoy the status quo, profit from it, or resist change in general, like the self-righteous European leadership.

As of now it looks as though President Trump will call the bluff. Good for him.