With rioting in the Palestinian territories and condemnation flowing around the globe, 71-year-old President Donald Trump insisted that whatever the settlement with Palestinians, the Jew’s holiest site, AKA the Western Wall, would be part of Israel. Trump caused a stir Dec. 6 declaring the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Sparking violence in the Palestinian territories, West Bank, Ramallah-based 82-year-old Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] Chairman Mahmoud Abbas insisted that he would no longer deal with the U.S. as a peace broker. Abbas refused to meet with Vice President Mike Pence when he visits Israel next week, over Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem. Abbas wants nothing less than U.S. backing past U.N. resolutions demanding Israel return to the pre-1967 Six-Day-War borders, something impossible due to security
Meeting in Istanbul Dec. 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened an urgent meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation [OIC] to condemn in the strongest possible terms Trump’s decision. Yet instead of focusing on Trump, the OIC turned their age-old hatred to Israel, declaring that Jerusalem is an Arab city. Islamic countries do not accept Israel on any terms, looking, like Gaza’s Hamas rulers, to destroy the Jewish state. Erdogan doesn’t think Israel has right to the pre-1967 borders, a bitter reminder to Jews that Arab states wholeheartedly backed Adolf Hitlers’s final solution, the massacre of 6 million European Jews in WW II. Because of Israel’s powerful military, no group of Arab states has gone to war against Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hamas leader-in-exile Ismail Haniyeh renewed Hamas commitment to destroy the Jewish State.
So-called moderate Palestinian peace-partner Mahmoud Abbas has been swept up in the free Jerusalem claptrap, encouraging violence in the Palestinian territories. Trump’s attempt to recognize Jerusalem to move the peace process along was met with a violent backlash. Despite all the talk of a two-state solution, Abbas wants a one state solution with Palestinians returning to the original British Mandate of Palestine. Watching the OIC and United Nations show their fury about Jerusalem show the bitter anti-Israel bias at the U.N. and in the Arab World. Abbas’ current bravado shows how infectious the anti-Semitic-anti-Israel talk in Islamic states. Erdogan, whose predecessors the Ottoman Turks, lost Jerusalem after WW I, shows his fierce belief that Jerusalem is an Arab or at least Muslim capital. Israel’s managed East and West Jerusalem since 1967.
Beating the war drums, Ergogan and OIC can do nothing practically to change the facts on the ground: Israel controls both East and West Jerusalem. All the riots, threats of uprisings and Hamas rocket attacks across Israel’s southern border with Gaza, have guaranteed that the two-state solution is beyond Palestinians reach.. “We will not accept any changes on the borders of East Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967,” said Palestinian spokesman Abu Rdeneh. Using Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem to discredit the long history of U.S. peace efforts undermines Palestinian demand regarding East Jerusalem or anything else. Before the 1967 war, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were part of Jordan since 1948. Palestinians held not one inch of sovereign land before the Ottoman Empire was dissolved in 1922. Ottoman Turks controlled Jerusalem from 1661.to 1922.
No matter how Palestinians beat the war drums with their Islamic friends, there’s no two-state solution without negotiating with Israel. Denouncing Trump or the role the U.S. plays in peace talks, does nothing to advance the two-state solution. No U.N. or Arab-backed plan without Israel’s consent would work without U.S. participation. Rejecting the U.S. as the Mideast peace broker, Palestinians have only one path to statehood: War. Since no coalition of Islamic states is willing sacrifice their own sovereignty, it’s doubtful military action would result in anything but disaster. U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital should come as no surprise to Palestinians. Israel has managed Jerusalem, including safe access to Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy sites, since 1967. Trump officials made clear that final status, including East Jerusalem, would come with direct peace talks.
Erdogan and his friends in the Arab League or OIC are kidding themselves thinking that Israel would surrender East Jerusalem’s Western Wall to Palestinian control. Whether the Western Wall stays in Isarel’s hands should be of no consequence to Palestinians or other Islamic states. If Palestinians really want a two-state solution, they need to stop the anti-Semitism pouring out of Cairo and Istanbul and look for practical ways to get back to the peace table. Encouraging Palestinians to riot does nothing to further the peace process. Erdogan knows that Jerusalem has not been in Arab hands for nearly 100 years. Erdogan does Palestinians a disservice encouraging more war-mongering, knowing that armed conflict won’t lead to the two-state solution or Arabs’ goal of destroying Israel. More talk of conquering Israel only adds to Palestinian misery.
