3981

Next, he will move US capital to Queens.

3982

Brooklyn will never give it up.

3983

3984

Despite everything, he’s still going forward with this disaster.

President Trump on Wednesday plans to upend decades of U.S. policy by formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordering the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to that city, senior aides said, a decision that could derail the White House’s peace efforts and spark regional unrest.

Trump will make his pronouncement in a midday speech after months of deliberation within his administration and consultations with governments in the Middle East. But in a sign of the complexities of such a shift, White House aides emphasized that Trump will sign another six-month waiver maintaining the embassy’s current location in Tel Aviv because the process of moving it will take at least three or four years.
[…]
The president began informing his counterparts in the region of his decision Tuesday, prompting warnings from several countries that the move would inflame Muslims and disrupt progress toward a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians. U.S. allies in Europe, including France, also have opposed such a change in policy, and the State Department sent a classified memo to embassies in the Middle East late last month warning of potential anti-American protests.

3985

It’s perhaps the quintessential demonstration of the total lack of any coherence or thought behind current US government actions. This helps absolutely no one. Even the Israelis, other than the hard-right, probably have little interest in such a decision; it only complicates things, without doing any good. In addition to what was said upthread about undermining decades of US policy, such as it is, it also takes away one of the very few bargaining chips we had with Israel. By doing this also without any quid pro quo from the Israelis, it weakens our position vis a vis them, and certainly pisses off (even more) a bunch of folks who, really, we don’t need to piss off any more.

The worst part of it is, I’m pretty sure Trump has zero clue about any of the history or complexities of this situation. Had, say, G. H.W. Bush done it, you could at least say, “well, I think it’s dumb, but there is at least a good chance there’s an actual policy or reason behind it.” Here, it’s like “Hey, it’s Tuesday, let’s move the US embassy to Jerusalem!”

3986

This is just more dominance politics from Trump. If Arabs hate it, it must be the right thing to do. No such thing as a win/win in his world.

3987
3988

It’s weird, because half of those guys hate the Jews.

3989

Means to an end. But for Trump himself, probably just a great way to piss off many Muslims.

3990

I think it’s meat for the other members of the base and also a side hope that maybe we’ll get another Yom Kippur War or the like.

3991

Half of twice those guys, anyway.

3992

This Jerusalem thing, regardless of it being a terrible decision, is just another distraction.

3993

Well, it’s that too. Don’t forget that this was one of his big campaign promises. They’ve been working on it for months. (Heh, “working”, but anyway.) It’s really all of these things.

3994

I didn’t know which city, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the Israelis consider their capital. An earlier draft of this post asked you good people that, and I knew someone would just post a link to Google.com and invite me to inquire there. So I googled and found an article from the most unbiased source I could find on Israel/everyone else relations: Al Jazeera.

They say that while Israelis do consider Jerusalem to be their political capital, no one in the entire world agrees with them. Every one else thinks Tel Aviv is their capital. Well, except for Russia, they just changed their minds earlier this year and recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. That’s kind of a funny coincidence, right, that in all the years since 1945 or whatever, it was only this year that the two Great Powers of the world decided to change their minds on this issue, together.

Is Trump following Putin’s lead, or did he just happen to hear Pence gush about this movie series starring the kid from Growing Pains that needs Jerusalem to be a capital for it to come true?

3995

Yes and yes.

To some extent, Mr. Trump’s willingness to take such a risk underscores how little progress his peace negotiators — led by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner — have made. Six months ago, when the president last had to decide whether to sign a waiver to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv, Mr. Kushner prevailed on Mr. Trump to do so, in the interest of the peace process.
[…]
Mr. Trump’s pledge was extremely popular with evangelicals and pro-Israel backers, including the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who donated $25 million to a political action committee supporting Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign. Mr. Adelson expressed anger when Mr. Trump signed the waiver in June to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv.

The White House, which has done little to lay the groundwork for the move, on Tuesday contacted pro-Israel leaders from the Jewish and Christian communities to invite them to a conference call set for Wednesday afternoon, according to an invitee who spoke about it on condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his relationship with Mr. Trump’s team.

3996

I’m not even going to try to guess what the logic is here. He’s playing 0-dimensional chess and I’m just not stupid enough to understand.

In the 2010s Israel and America are proving that democracy doesn’t work in countries where people don’t know what’s good for them.

3997

There’s an elaborate diplomatic kabuki dance that world governments do to try and keep people alive. Trump is messing up that dance, and deserves criticism for it.

But (West) Jerusalem is where the Knesset is. It’s where the Prime Minister’s residence is. It’s where the Supreme Court is. It’s where government ministries are. It’s the political capital of Israel.

3998

Coming in 2025: Trump Tower Jerusalem

3999

And it’s signed.

4000