{"id":6137,"date":"2017-12-06T10:37:33","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T09:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6137"},"modified":"2017-12-06T10:54:03","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T09:54:03","slug":"6137","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/6137\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Embassy in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the BBC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

US President Donald Trump will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, senior administration officials have said.<\/p>\n

He is due to announce the controversial decision in a speech later.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump is also expected to approve moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but not for several years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nowhere in this article does it mention that in June the US Senate voted on a resolution<\/a> to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital which passed by 90-0. To do so would detract from the narrative that Trump is making rash, unilateral decisions which bring the world closer to war.<\/p>\n

Israel welcomes the changes but the Palestinians and Arab leaders have warned they will jeopardise any Middle East peace process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note they don’t specify which<\/em> Middle East peace process would be jeopardised, presumably because none exists.<\/p>\n

Successive presidents have signed waivers to get round the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which mandates moving the embassy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh. So basically Trump is the first President to actually uphold a law that was passed by Congress over 20 years ago. This is a bad thing, apparently.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud told Mr Trump the relocation of the embassy or recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “would constitute a flagrant provocation of Muslims, all over the world”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could it be that, having listened to Muslims all over the world spending the first year of his presidency branding him an enemy of Islam, Trump isn’t really interested in what they think at this juncture?<\/p>\n

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas warned of “the dangerous consequences such a decision would have to the peace process and to the peace, security and stability of the region and of the world”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, that might have worked ten or twenty years ago, but it’s now worn so thin you can wear it as a mask and still watch TV.<\/p>\n

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya called for a “day of rage” this Friday and said “Palestinian people everywhere [would] not allow this conspiracy to pass”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Business as usual, then.<\/p>\n

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country could sever ties with Israel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I doubt there are many in Israel counting on ties with Turkey since Erdogan’s rise to power.<\/p>\n

France, the European Union and the Arab League have also expressed concern.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Arab League? We have proxy wars raging in Syria and Yemen, Qatar and Saudi Arabia at each other’s throats, Iran and Turkey sending troops to prop up Arab governments, Libya overrun by jihadists and Egypt heading in the same direction. I didn’t even realise the Arab League still existed, but the minutes of their AGM must make interesting reading.<\/p>\n

By recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital President Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise. There is no other obvious reason he is doing this now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fulfilling campaign promises, enacting Senate resolutions, upholding the law as passed by Congress? Is there nobody who can save us from this monster?!<\/p>\n

Administration officials said he would simply be acknowledging reality<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A rare trait among modern politicians.<\/p>\n

Jordan and Saudi Arabia are custodians of Islam’s holy sites and have issued strong warnings that this move could inflame the Muslim world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay, we’ll add it to the list.<\/p>\n

It sounds like the Palestinians will get nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Except for the four or five hundred million dollars per year<\/a> the US sends them, of course.<\/p>\n

Perhaps there is a wider strategy at work but it looks like a workaround so the president can satisfy his pro-Israel voters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And comply with the Senate, Congress, and the law in a manner that his predecessors refused to.<\/p>\n

In other news<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The BBC is to launch a new scheme to help young people identify real news and filter out fake or false information.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They’re perfectly placed to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the BBC: US President Donald Trump will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, senior administration officials have said. He is due to announce the controversial decision in a speech later. Mr Trump is also expected to approve moving the US … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,12,60,20,44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6137"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6141,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137\/revisions\/6141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}