What should have israel done instead?

I agree. Obama got flack for being too stern with Israel, but the US can’t effectively participate in any sort of peace process without doing their damndest to appear neutral. That simply isn’t a possibility after a stunt like this. it doesn’t matter whether the actual capital of Israel is Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. What matters is that more then one people consider Jerusalem a holy site.

Trump is just being a dumbass as usual, but he’s “calling a spade a spade”. Which, ok, fine. That’s not how diplomacy works though.

Maybe call it Trumplomacy?

Time to shoot some rockets then!

I wonder whose idea this was. Surely his neocon handlers approve, so why did this take so long to happen? Eh, guess I don’t even care that much.

Actually, almost everyone besides people like Bannon think this is a terrible idea.

It’s a move that says he’s sticking it to Muslims, which is all that matters.

That may be, but there are good reasons why pretty much every country in the world has not recognized it as such.

Palestine has essentially said that the US will no longer be allowed at the peace talks. Good work shitgibbon. You have set the process back by 70 years.

And just after Jared the Joker announced he was on the verge of peace in the Middle East. Such a shame we’ll never see his masterful plan come to fruition.

Pfft, we’ll just host our own mid-east peace talks, and only the U.S. will be invited.

Of course. That’s why I said Trump deserves criticism. All too often “symbolic” gestures can quickly snowball into death and destruction. Diplomacy matters, and Trump is bad at diplomacy.

But I’ve found the tone of this thread a little strange. It’s not like Trump was seen as a fair and honest broker by the Palestinians before he declared he would recognize Jerusalem as the capital. To the extent that any peace process requires US involvement, it is set back until we have a new President. That is bad, but that will not take 70 years!

Trump saw that there was not going to be any peace process. That requires two parties that actually want peace, which isn’t the case. So why not blow it up and at least get something out of it? And by something I mean pissing off a lot of Muslims and possibly inciting more violence, which only works in his favor.

Also, let’s not forget just why evangelicals are so “pro Israel.” It’s not because they love Jews. It’s because they believe a holy war heralds the second coming. So they actually share a goal with ISIS, which also wants to start a holy war.

I’m sure they’ll be happy to jump right to it after the whole Jerusalem thing.

“I’m gonna piss off the entire Muslim world. And then later tonight I’ll ask them for a favor.”

Master negotiator.

I bet the Saudis won’t even touch a glowing orb with him after this.

When even the Loc-Nar has had enough of your shit.

But as far as I know, most Israelis aren’t lobbying hard for the rest of the world to publicly declare Jerusalem as their capital. Unless they’re hard-right types, it seems most Israelis are perfectly happy to have the practical capital in Jerusalem, and the internationally recognized one in Tel Aviv. I mean, like most folks, I doubt the average Israeli gives a shit where their legislators meet to fuck things up.

This is so true. In my first stint in grad school, getting a masters in Foreign Affairs focused on the Middle East, the most fervently pro-Israel students were, no surprise, Southern Baptist fundamentalists. Pretty much everyone else was middle of the road, trying to process all the complexities, while the activists were mostly pro-Palestinian, to an extent, but these guys were more Israeli than the Israelis. And yeah, it was because of this whole second coming bit. This was, um, thirty some odd years ago but it seems little has changed.

This is precisely my experience; a small segment want it, the rest couldn’t care less

Fucking religion.

I misread that at first as “fucking region”, which would also be applicable.

Exactly. They believe that, according to Revelations, all the Jews returning to Israel is a prelude to Armageddon and a pro-Israel policy promotes that.