views

Varied Views Of Trump’s Recognition Of
Jerusalem As The Capital Of Israel

Trump’s Decision
Is Destructive

O

Why Trump Is Right In Recognizing Jerusalem As Israel’s Capital

P

was also designed improperly to
resident Trump’s deci-
tie the hands of President-elect
sion to recognize
Trump. President Trump is doing
Jerusalem as Israel’s
the right thing by telling the
capital is a perfect response
United Nations that the United
to former President Barack
States now rejects the one-sided
Obama’s benighted decision
Security Council resolution.
to change American policy
Obama’s refusal to veto this
by engineering the United
Nations Security Council reso- Alan Dershowitz one-sided resolution was a delib-
erate ploy to tie the hands of his
lution declaring Judaism’s holi-
successors, the consequence of
est places in Jerusalem to be
which was to make it far more
occupied territory and a “fla-
difficult for his successors to
grant violation under interna-
encourage the Palestinians to accept
tional law.” It was Obama who changed
Israel’s offer to negotiate with no precon-
the status quo and made peace more
ditions. No future president can undo
difficult, by handing the Palestinians
enormous leverage in future negotiations this pernicious agreement since a veto
not cast can never be retroactively cast.
and disincentivizing them from making
And a resolution once enacted cannot be
a compromised peace.
rescinded unless there is a majority vote
It had long been American foreign
against it, with no veto by any of its per-
policy to veto any one-sided Security
manent members, which include Russia
Council resolutions that declared
and China, who would be sure to veto
Judaism’s holiest places to be illegally
any attempt to undo this resolution.
occupied. Obama’s decision to change
Trump’s decision to officially recog-
that policy was not based on American
nize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital helps
interests or in the interests of peace. It
was done out of personal revenge against to restore the appropriate balance. It
demonstrates that the United States
Prime Minister Netanyahu and an act
does not accept the Judenrein effects of
of pique by the outgoing president. It

this bigoted resolution on historic Jewish
areas of Jerusalem, which were forbidden
to Jews. The prior refusal of the United
States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital was based explicitly on the notion
that nothing should be done to change
the status quo of that city, holy to three
religions. But the Security Council reso-
lution did exactly that. It changed the
status quo by declaring Israel’s de facto
presence on these Jewish holy sites to be
a “flagrant violation under international
law” that “the U.N. will not recognize.”
Since virtually everyone in the inter-
national community acknowledges that
any reasonable peace would recognize
Israel’s legitimate claims to these and
other areas in Jerusalem, there is no
reason for allowing the U.N. resolution to
make criminals out of every Jew or Israeli
who sets foot on these historically Jewish
areas. •

This is an excerpt from an op-ed originally
published by The Hill. Alan Dershowitz is the
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, at
Harvard Law School and author of “Trumped
up! How Criminalizing Politics is Dangerous to
Democracy.”

Conflicted Over Trump’s Announcement

I

’m an Israeli, a Zionist and an
Orthodox Jew. I admit — I am con-
flicted about the Trump adminis-
tration’s recognition of Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital. And I shouldn’t be.
There is no ques-
tion that this is a
long overdue step.
But the timing, and
the potential for
harsh reactions that
may harm U.S. and
perhaps even Israeli
interests, while pro-
Joshua Krasna
moting those of our
enemies, is problem-
atical.
The international
community has lived
for 70 years with the fiction that the sta-
tus of Jerusalem is unclear and subject to
the terms of a future peace settlement.

I think that it’s an aberration that
Israel’s closest and most powerful friend
and ally, the United States, has been
unwilling to step up and cut through
the crap for so long. The fact that every
six months for 20 years, the “time
wasn’t right” for the State Department
to honor the wishes of the majority
of Americans and a strong bipartisan
majority of the legislative branch —
and instead had the president ask for a
waiver saying that a suspension of the
law written by Congress mandating the
move of the embassy “is necessary to
protect the national security interests
of the United States” — is nothing short
of bizarre.
But … we have a saying in Israel:
“Don’t be right; be smart,” and this is
why I am conflicted. Because timing is
everything.
The Muslim world is divided as never

before. Blocs have formed due to the
civil war in Syria, and there is a bloc
close to the West and closer to Israel
than ever before, under the surface and
increasingly on the surface as well.
Past experience shows us that of the
very few issues that can unify Muslims,
and of the many that can inflame the
Muslim street, one of the most powerful
is a perceived threat to Jerusalem and to
Al Aqsa.
It puts the “good guys” — Jordan,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt — on the spot, and
they are already warning about the
consequences. It will further weaken
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
in his struggle with Hamas, which
bludgeons him with his continued
willingness to engage with Israel and
the U.S. administration. It also could
provide a strong following wind to
the ships of Israel’s enemies — Iran,

continued on page 10

8

December 14 • 2017

jn

f course Jerusalem is the capital
of the State of Israel. But it is also
the capital of the State of Palestine,
currently occupied by the Israeli army and
unable to exercise its sovereignty in the
Arab parts of Jerusalem that will someday
be an integral part of
the Palestinian state.
To ignore this fact, and
instead play to the most
reactionary element of
the Israeli people and
of the Jewish people
around the world is to
not only be ignorant
Rabbi Michael
and arrogant, but also
Lerner
terribly destructive to
the possibility of the
U.S. playing a construc-
tive role in bringing an end to the Israeli/
Palestinian struggle.
Those of us American Jews who seek
an end to that struggle recognize that a
lasting peace with justice for both sides
can only be achieved through a new spirit
of generosity and repentance from both
sides. Instead, by clumsily and stupidly
wading in to this struggle and endorsing
Israel’s side on one of the central issues of
the struggle, namely the future status of
Jerusalem, Trump weakens the hand of
those in the Palestinian world who want
to achieve reconciliation with Israel and
strengthens the hands of the Palestinians
who have given up on achieving peace
through negotiations. Trump has there-
fore given a gift to Hamas just as he has
given a gift to the Israeli settlers and
extremists whose goal is to achieve ethnic
cleansing by making life intolerable for
Palestinians both within Israel’s pre-1967
boundaries and inside the West Bank,
while simultaneously weakening the
Israeli peace camp.
To those of us who seek peace, there is
no question that the Old City of Jerusalem
does not “belong” to any one religion or
people — it is a holy site for Jews, Muslims
and Christians, and should eventually
become an international city that is open
to all. West Jerusalem is already appro-
priately the location of the Knesset and
major parts of the government of Israel.
East Jerusalem, long the spiritual center
of the Palestinian state, must become its
official capital as soon as Israel is willing
to let that happen or as soon as the inter-
national community can use whatever
means are at its disposal to make that
happen.
In the meantime, Trump has pushed
that date further into the future, thereby
putting Israel and Palestine both into
danger of renewed violence and fur-
ther entrenching hatreds that must be
healed. Shame on Trump and shame on
those who support this arrogant and
destructive act. •

Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun Magazine.