Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was a (rare) smart move by President Trump.
But the idea of sending Vice President Mike Pence to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders later this month, mentioned in his speech, is brilliant.
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.
The immediate reaction from top Palestinian officials was not so smart:
A senior Palestinian official in President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah party said on Thursday that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, due to visit the region later this month, “is unwelcome in Palestine”.
“In the name of Fatah I say that we will not welcome Trump’s deputy in the Palestinian Territories. He asked to meet (Abbas) on the 19th of this month in Bethlehem, such a meeting will not take place,” Jibril Rajoub said.
The White House response to Rajoub:
Amid indications that Abbas may withdraw from a planned meeting later this month, a White House aide said Pence “still plans to meet with Abbas as scheduled” and “believes it would be counterproductive for him to pull out of the meeting.”
Abbas will look bad no matter what happens on the 19th.
If he spurns the American vice president, he shows that he has no interest in peace, nor in a Palestinian state. It would be a slap in the face of the US, and it would piss off the most powerful man on the planet.
If he meets with him, it not only shows that Rajoub is a liar but also indicate that Abbas’ own warnings ahead of the Trump declaration that the peace process would be killed is hot air. It would show that the US recognition of reality has not changed anything, despite the dire warnings of the “experts” and Arabs themselves. And it will make Abbas answer more clearly to his own people whether he wants to work for a Palestinian state or not.
For all his many faults, Trump’s Middle East ideas are a welcome step towards demolishing the myths that the world has been accepting as truth for way too long. And real peace cannot be built on myths. Pence’s visit will show that the myth that acknowledging the reality about Jerusalem is somehow harmful to peace is as baseless as the others.
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