My take on Trump’s Jerusalem speech

When I came into office, I promised to look at the world’s challenges with open eyes and very fresh thinking.

Not sure about open eye or fresh thinking but for sure different

We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions and repeating the same failed strategies of the past. All challenges demand new approaches.

OK but make an approach that makes sense

My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. In 1995, Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act urging the federal government to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize that that city — and so importantly — is Israel’s capital.

Why so importantly if you are genuinely interested in peace.

This act passed Congress by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, and was reaffirmed by unanimous vote of the Senate only six months ago. Yet for over 20 years, every previous American president has exercised the law’s waiver, refusing to move the US embassy to Jerusalem or to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city.

And you signed two waivers already as well.

Presidents issued these waivers under the belief that delaying the recognition of Jerusalem would advance the cause of peace. Some say they lacked courage, but they made their best judgments based on facts as they understood them at the time.

Nevertheless, the record is in. After more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Not because of the waivers but because of Israeli intransigence which you have now further emboldened

It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result.

True what is needed is a genuine fair approach not pre determining outcomes before negotiations commence.

Therefore, I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.

I’ve judged this course of action to be in the best interests of the United States of America

really. Please tell us how violating international law, going against all your allies and half of your own population to embolden an occupier is in the best interest of America

and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

For sure not the Palestinians

This is a long overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement.

How?

Israel is a sovereign nation with the right, like every other sovereign nation, to determine its own capital.

Sure on its territory but not on other people territory that Israel occupied

Acknowledging this as a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace.

How?

It was 70 years ago that the United States under President Truman recognized the state of Israel. Ever since then, Israel has made its capital in the city of Jerusalem, the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times.

Since then Israel refused to honor UN resolutions to allow Palestinian refugees to return and has since 50 years also occupied the rest of mandatory Palestine and has unilaterally annexed east Jerusalem to Israel which no one has recognized until now.

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. It is the location of the official residence of the prime minister and the president. It is the headquarters of many government ministries. For decades, visiting American presidents, secretaries of state, and military leaders have met their Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem, as I did on my trip to Israel earlier this year.

So. All these offices are in West Jerusalem. You didn’t say West Jerusalem

Jerusalem is not just the heart of three great religions, but it is now also the heart of one of the most successful democracies in the world.

Maybe for Jews but certainly not for its citizens or for those under its military occupation

Over the past seven decades, the Israeli people have built a country where Jews, Muslims, and Christians — and people of all faiths — are free to live and worship according to their conscience and according to their beliefs. Jerusalem is today — and must remain — a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the Stations of the Cross, and where Muslims worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

So, all these religious locations are in occupied East Jerusalem. Why are you recognizing those sites as well.

However, through all of these years, presidents representing the United States have declined to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In fact, we have declined to acknowledge any Israeli capital at all. But today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.

WHY?

That is why, consistent with the Jerusalem Embassy Act, I am also directing the State Department to begin preparation to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 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.

If ever built it will be a sign of the absence of peace

In making these announcements, I also want to make one point very clear: This decision is not intended in any way to reflect a departure from our strong commitment to facilitate a lasting peace agreement. We want an agreement that is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians.

Haha. You must be kidding.

We are not taking a position on any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem or the resolution of contested borders.

So exactly which Jerusalem are you recognizing?

Those questions are up to the parties involved. The United States remains deeply committed to helping facilitate a peace agreement that is acceptable to both sides. I intend to do everything in my power to help forge such an agreement.

Including pressuring Israel to end its occupation. I doubt it?

Without question, Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in those talks. The United States would support a two-state solution if agreed to by both sides.

You are giving Israel a veto power. This is not a symmetrical conflict. One side is occupying the land of the other. You can’t even say on your own that you support two state solution. You have to give Israel the right of veto without providing guidance on any other solution. As the secretary general of the UN said. There is no plan B to the two state solution.

In the meantime, I call on all parties to maintain the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites, including the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al-Sharif. Above all, our greatest hope is for peace — the universal yearning in every human soul.

You violate the status quo and then you want everyone else to respect it?

With today’s action, I reaffirm my administration’s longstanding commitment to a future of peace and security for the region.

You reaffirm your undivided support to Israel, period.

There will, of course, be disagreement and dissent regarding this announcement.

Every country in the world and the Vatican are against you.

But we are confident that ultimately, as we work through these disagreements, we will arrive at a peace and a place far greater in understanding and cooperation.

Ultimately like the ultimate peace deal?

This sacred city should call forth the best in humanity — lifting our sights to what is possible, not pulling us back and down to the old fights that have become so totally predictable. Peace is never beyond the grasp of those willing to reach it.

Some clever script writer must have written that. It doesn’t sound like Mr. Trump’s language

So today we call for calm, for moderation, and for the voices of tolerance to prevail over the purveyors of hate. Our children should inherit our love, not our conflicts.

You scream fire in a crowded cinema hall and then you want people to be calm.

I repeat the message I delivered at the historic and extraordinary summit in Saudi Arabia earlier this year: The Middle East is a region rich with culture, spirit, and history. Its people are brilliant, proud, and diverse, vibrant and strong.

True but not relevant here.

But the incredible future awaiting this region is held at bay by bloodshed, ignorance, and terror.

It is held up by occupation, colonial settlement and apartheid rule

Vice President Pence will travel to the region in the coming days to reaffirm our commitment to work with partners throughout the Middle East to defeat radicalism that threatens the hopes and dreams of future generations.

Your decision has just given extremists a great recruitment gift.

It is time for the many who desire peace to expel the extremists from their midst. It is time for all civilized nations, and people, to respond to disagreement with reasoned debate, not violence. And it is time for young and moderate voices all across the Middle East to claim for themselves a bright and beautiful future.

Start with the extremists in the Israeli government including the Prime Minister

So today, let us rededicate ourselves to a path of mutual understanding and respect. Let us rethink old assumptions and open our hearts and minds to possible and possibilities. And finally, I ask the leaders of the region — political and religious, Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Christian and Muslim — to join us in the noble quest for lasting peace.

On what basis on the basis of your dictates and your decisions to violate international law by predetermining the outcome of the talks on Jerusalem?

Thank you, God bless you, God bless Israel, God bless the Palestinians, and God bless the United States.

Israel and Palestinians. They get to have a state and a capital and Palestinians are orphaned.

Thank you very much. Thank you.