Along comes Trump, the most untraditional and nonconformist of all US presidents, and says “enough is enough.” What has been tried didn’t work, so it’s time to try something new.
In a brief speech of 1,240 words, US President Donald Trump did more on Wednesday than “just” recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin the process of moving the embassy there from Tel Aviv. He also upended the orthodoxy that has dominated the approach to Middle East peacemaking for a quarter century.
Over the last 24 years, since the beginning of the Oslo peace process, certain tenets have come to be accepted as truths: that the only solution is a two-state solution; that there can be no long-term interim agreements; that dozens of settlements will have to be removed; that a future Palestinian state must be free of Jews; and that Washington cannot recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital until there is a final peace deal.
n a brief speech of 1,240 words, US President Donald Trump did more on Wednesday than “just” recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin the process of moving the embassy there from Tel Aviv. He also upended the orthodoxy that has dominated the approach to Middle East peacemaking for a quarter century.
Over the last 24 years, since the beginning of the Oslo peace process, certain tenets have come to be accepted as truths: that the only solution is a two-state solution; that there can be no long-term interim agreements; that dozens of settlements will have to be removed; that a future Palestinian state must be free of Jews; and that Washington cannot recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital until there is a final peace deal.
In other words, the US kept its embassy out of Jerusalem for all these years, but how did that work out for everyone?
So Trump ditches the formula, and by doing so, places all on notice that what was is not what will be, and that if one sincerely wants to move the diplomatic process, it is necessary to try a different approach.
Trump will have woken up this morning to editorial writers and pundits excoriating him for having the nerve to do something different, for having the temerity to attempt a different approach. Some of those doing the hollering will surely be those who have been involved in the diplomatic process in the past, aghast that Trump is not following the well-worn path – not abiding by the same rules.
Many will bewail “the impact this move will have on the peace process” – except that the peace process has been stuck for years. And one of the reasons it has failed is because the same assumptions have been posited time after time after time.
Beyond righting a historical wrong in denying the Jews the right to determine where their capital is, Trump’s announcement about recognizing Jerusalem could also give the diplomatic process a badly needed jolt by forcing people to rethink long-held assumptions that have led nowhere.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post