On December 6, President Donald Trump took the seriously controversial step of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and beginning a plan to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Predictably, violent protests broke out in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, featuring the familiar scene from the past few decades at similar moments, of Palestinian youth burning tires and throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and firing rubber bullets (Wall Street Journal, 12/8/2017, p. A8; Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC, 12/7/2017, p. 12A).
At an emergency meeting in Cairo, Arab foreign ministers demanded the U.S. reverse its decision (Charlotte Observer, 12/11/2017, p. 6A). No specific action against the U.S. was approved, however. In contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called President Trump’s move “historic,” and noted Israel has held its capital in Jerusalem for 70 years, and that the Jewish claim/connection to the city dates back 3,000 years, according to the Charlotte Observer (12/11/2017, p. 6A).
The question then falls on good people caught between the Israeli Jewish position and the Arabic Muslim stance, what position is best, on President Donald Trump’s recent moves?
First, I understand that the peace process, namely, negotiations toward a two-state solution, has been stalled, for many years. At least since 2000, when then-President Bill Clinton gave an election-year push in Mideast peace talks that failed miserably, at least since then the peace process has been stalled, essentially, in a fragile and tense stalemate, and have gone nowhere. In the light of over 15 years of virtually no substantial progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, I can understand President Trump’s decision.
Nonetheless, I cannot agree. I cannot go as far as France's President, Emmanuel Macron, has gone, when he called Trump’s move “dangerous for peace,” according to the Charlotte Observer (12/11/2017, p. 6A). As I already pointed out above, in my opinion the peace process has been stalled for a long time. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process was already going nowhere, and the current situation was merely continuing to ossify.
Siding with Israel so blatantly, however, in this ongoing standoff, by embracing Jerusalem, on the Israeli side, this move by the U.S. President, I cannot follow. President Trump's decision ignores the feelings of the Arabic Muslim people, leaders across the Arab world, and all of the displaced Palestinian people.
If it were up to me, I would have kept the U.S. affiliation with Israel through Tel Aviv, and not taken a distinct side in deadlocked talks on Jerusalem, and East Jerusalem. Taking the Israeli side on that long-standing dispute, I would see as a mistake. I would vote Tel Aviv, and not Jerusalem, but that choice was not up to me, I am not the American President, and so far as I know, President Trump did not put the issue up for a vote.
What to do from here? What can be done? Adapt to another policy change by President Donald Trump, and continue from here.
As for the cause for Mideast peace? I cannot claim to have the answer, any more or less than President Bill Clinton thought he had the answer in 2000 in the grand peace initiative that failed. All I do know is, do not give up on the cause of peace in the Middle East, and on the cause of peace and justice in Palestine and Israel.
To quote the Reverend Jesse Jackson, on a different issue, we must “keep hope alive.” In this context, we must try, we must strive for hope, even though the outlook right now may appear bleak.
Despite this setback to Mideast peace, and despite the already sorry state of the peace effort, still, I feel, we must keep our hope alive. The alternative, as usual in the ugly wars in the Arab world and the Mideast, is too disturbing to contemplate.
Although I disagree with President Trump’s decision, I continue to stand for the cause of peace in the Middle East.
--Nicholas Patti
Charlotte, NC
