Dividing Diplomacy

Promises Made. Promises Forgotten. Promises Broken. That’s the way politics is everywhere in the world. “Vote for me and I promise you that I will…” Easy to say. Difficult to fulfill.

For many years the United States, in a bill passed by the American Congress authorizing the move of its embassy to Jerusalem, each successive president has taken advantage of the waiver to withhold approval, a waiver which has been renewed and refused every six months.

The premise for the refusal has been that Jerusalem is not “officially” recognized as the legitimate capital of the Jewish State of Israel by any nation in the world. It is considered “disputed” or “occupied” territory in defiance of international law.

But who, except we Israelis, really gives a damn about “ma yomru ha goyim”… what will the nations say of us? They dare not wish to be exposed as anti-Semites but being anti-Zionist is acceptable. Even some Jews, here and abroad, refuse to recognize our legitimate and historic right to Jerusalem.

We have not forgotten that in 1948 shortly after our independence, members of the Neturai Karta, joined by other anti-Zionist Jewish sects, raised the white flag of surrender to the invading Jordanian Legion who ultimately captured East Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea. Those lunatic-fringe Jews chose to live under Jordanian rule rather than living in the Jewish Zionist reborn state.

Many of them were guests of Yasser Arafat and many were welcomed in the courtyard of the Iranian ayatollahs. They are less of a danger to us than the Palestinians but they are equally despised by all patriotic Israeli Jewish citizens and are considered as traitors to our state. They willingly accept our money and health insurance benefits but they withhold their sons from joining the IDF or doing voluntary community service.

Next week, Prime Minister Netanyahu will be visiting the newly elected American president in the White House. Unlike Mr. Milchan, Bibi will not be given expensive cigars nor bottles of fine champagne and expensive jewelry for Sara.
Instead, he will be treated to the flip-flopping words of a president who promised and is unable to keep his promise.

Sanctions against Iran are already in effect. Bibi cannot expect more. Under the last days of the Obama regime, Israel received an abundance of military weapons. It cannot expect more at this time. Nor should Bibi even dare to request more,
So what will the two statesmen talk about?

Netanyahu will ask about the progress of moving the American embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump will explain the difficulties of convincing a billion Arabs and Muslims world-wide of the efficacy of the plan. He will remind Bibi of the need for face-to-face negotiations with the Palestinians before a decision can be made to move the embassy.
But face-to-face is often two-faced. Both Israelis and Palestinians pretend to talk about a two-state solution but neither of them really mean it. Annexation of Judea and Samaria is a Jewish dream but is considered illegal under international laws and the Geneva Convention.

So I have a proposal to make regarding dividing diplomacy. Let the American embassy be built in Jewish West Jerusalem while an American Diplomatic Mission (not called an embassy) can be built in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem. The needs of both populations can be addressed to the two respective diplomatic compounds…one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.

This does not divide Jerusalem, God forbid. It only divides diplomatic addresses. And if president Trump is reasonable he will approve my proposal. But don’t hold him to any promises!