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Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Trump recognises Jerusalem as captial of Israel
Defiant Trump confirms US will recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel
My announcement marks the beginning of a new approach to the conflict’
Palestinian president says US has abdicated its role as mediator
Donald Trump
has defied overwhelming global opposition by recognising Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel, but insisted that the highly controversial move
would not derail his own administration’s bid to resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a short speech delivered at the White House, Trump directed the
state department to start making arrangements to move the US embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a process that officials say will take at
least three years. “I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,”
Trump said. “While previous presidents have made this a major campaign
promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.” Trump said: “My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet on Friday to
discuss the move, after a request by eight countries on the 15-member
body, including the UK, Italy and France. Trump stressed that he was not stipulating how much of Jerusalem
should be considered Israel’s capital. Palestinians see East Jerusalem
as the capital of their own future state, and Trump did not rule out a
future division of the city. “We are not taking a position of any final status issues, including
the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the
resolution of contested borders. Those questions are up to the parties
involved,” the president said.
Q&A
What will US recognition of Jerusalem mean for the peace process?
But
the move marks a break with years of US precedent – and with general
global opinion, which sees the fate of Jerusalem as a matter for
comprehensive “final status” negotiations between Israelis and
Palestinians. British prime minister Theresa May said Trump’s announcement was
“unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region”, and said the
UK did not intend to follow suit. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, also condemned the move. Israel’s government rushed to congratulate Trump for the speech,
which the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described as an “important
step toward peace”. But the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas,
said that the US had effectively abdicated its role as a mediator in
the region. The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said:
“President Trump just destroyed any policy of a two-state solution.” The move was also criticised by Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. In a social club in the heart of Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp,
young Palestinian men grew increasingly angry as they watched the speech
translated into Arabic on a Palestinian television channel. “This is shit!” shouted a man called Abu Atya. “He’s just said
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. This speech is going to cause big
trouble.” Another man, Hamdi Dyab, grew incredulous and agitated as he watched the speech. “He’s saying he’s going to move the embassy,” he said. “This is very
dangerous speech. Things don’t look good. We are calling for a new
intifada.”
Trump argued that continually delaying recognition and the embassy
move by signing waivers, as his predecessors had done, had not brought
peace any closer.
“After
more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace
agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. It would be folly to
assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a
different or better result.” Trump presented his decision as the recognition of “the obvious” and “the right thing to do”. “Today, Jerusalem is the seat of the modern Israeli government. It is
the home of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, as well as the Israeli
supreme court,” he said. “It is the location of the official residence
of the prime minister and the president. It is the headquarters of many
government ministries.” The president suggested that the acknowledgement of Jerusalem’s role
in the state of Israel would actually have a positive effect on
negotiations. “This is a long overdue step to advance the peace process and to work
towards a lasting agreement,” Trump said, but he did not explain how it
would help negotiations in the face of such an angry reaction from
Palestinians and their supporters. Some observers have suggested Trump’s announcement represented a
political gift to his close ally Netanyahu, in the expectation of future
concessions at the negotiating table – but it was unclear what
Netanyahu would offer in return and why the US move was made in advance
of substantive talks. After announcing his order for the state department to start work on
moving the US embassy, Trump sat down at a table in the White House
diplomatic reception room and did something that seemingly had the
opposite effect: signing another presidential waiver on the 1995
Jerusalem Embassy Act, which ordered the transfer of the diplomatic
mission from Tel Aviv. White House officials said there was no contradiction, and that the
waiver signing was necessary to prevent a cut in state department
funding stipulated by the act until the new embassy is actually opened.
They said previous presidents had used the waiver to stop any progress
on moving the embassy, while Trump was directing practical work to
start. In his speech, Trump said: “This will immediately begin the process
of hiring architects, engineers, and planners, so that a new embassy,
when completed, will be a magnificent tribute to peace.”
Vice-president Mike Pence stood behind Trump as he delivered his
address, symbolising the support of Christian conservatives that Pence
represents, but it was unclear how the move squared with the efforts of
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his special representative on
international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, to engineer a peace
proposal with the support of the Israelis, Palestinians and regional
powers like Saudi Arabia. Peter Welch, a Democratic congressman who has organised briefings
with Greenblatt on Capitol Hill, said he was mystified by Trump’s move,
as the Kushner-Greenblatt initiative appeared to have been showing
promise. “I thought a trust-building process was underway that was having
positive impacts,” Welch told the Guardian after the speech. “But the
president woke up and with this provocative announcement threatens to
undo everything his administration had been doing to build trust and
make progress. “The president has been going over there establishing good ties with
the Sunni states, he obviously has close relationships with the Israeli
government, he was making progress even with the sceptics in the
Palestinian Authority, and with a single announcement he blows it all
up.”
Betty MacDonald Fan Club, founded by Wolfgang Hampel, has members in 40 countries.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography interviewed Betty MacDonald's family and friends. His Interviews have been published on CD and DVD by Betty MacDonald Fan Club. If you are interested in the Betty MacDonald Biography or the Betty MacDonald Interviews send us a mail, please.
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Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members are Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter and described as Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I, Betty MacDonald's nephew, artist and writer Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald fans and beloved authors and artists Gwen Grant, Letizia Mancino, Perry Woodfin, Traci Tyne Hilton, Tatjana Geßler, music producer Bernd Kunze, musician Thomas Bödigheimer, translater Mary Holmes and Mr. Tigerli.
