Abbas is quoted by Ron Kampeas that such a move “would threaten regional stability and the peace process.” What peace process? Over the past years the Palestinians have rejected uncounted proposals to establish peace. That which has not worked for years is unlikely to work presently. Mr. Kampeas then goes on and on about why such recognition would be detrimental, heighten tensions and so forth.
The bottom line is that President Trump made this declaration because it was the right thing to do.
The same issue of The Chronicle carried a half page of verbiage from Jonathan S. Tobin. Tobin thinks that otherwise, peace talks could resume. Sure. Look how successful peace talks have been before the present “madness on Jerusalem” bemoaned by Tobin took place.
In striking contrast, Yoram Hazony (president of the Herzl Institute) has provided an enlightened piece on page A 17 of the Dec. 8, 2017, Wall Street Journal, summarized: “The president withstands the howling dismay of the world’s nations to abandon a failed 70-year-old policy.” Alone among the nations of the world, he writes, Israel has been denied the sovereign right to determine its own capital. We Jews bless God as “Boneh Yerushalaim,” “the builder of Jerusalem.”
Hazony notes that every significant step in the return of the Jews to Israel and Jerusalem since the Balfour Declaration has been met with acts of vengeance. He goes on to observe that Mr. Trump has withstood the howling dismay of the world’s nations, to perform one of those rare deeds that truly have the potential to change history for the better.