The US Embassy Move to Jerusalem vs. The "Peace Process"

by Denis MacEoin  •  December 19, 2017 at 4:30 am

• The Palestinians do not want peace. They want victory, a victory that will lead to the elimination of Israel and the expulsion of the Jews.
• The 1968 charter of the PLO has never been changed, despite decades of promises that it would be modified. Although secular in character, it advances much the same attitudes as those found in the Hamas charters. In Article 2, for example, it defines "Palestine" in boundaries encompassing the entirety of Israel: "Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit". This means that calls for a Palestinian state based on that definition are also calls for the destruction of Israel.
• All attempts at normalization between Palestinians and Israelis or between other Arab states and Israel are routinely dismissed as treachery, a position that endangers the lives of any Palestinian who seeks peace.
• Meanwhile, Western leaders, including religious figures such as the Pope, are enchanted with the fantasy that a peace process exists, and forever chant the mantra that nothing must be done to interrupt it. President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is the first time any world leader has stood up to the threats of anger and violence.

Like his predecessor Yasser Arafat (left), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) is doubtless correctly convinced that any deal he might sign would propel him to be "drinking tea" with assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel.

On December 6, US President Donald Trump fulfilled a promise that was made by Congress on November 28, 1995 in its Jerusalem Embassy Act -- to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and to mark this by moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient city. That move, according to the Act itself, was to "be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999". Trump's declaration that the US will now implement the Act has been a historical démarche. So why has it taken so long to act on this agreement?

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