— Musings —12.10.2017 10:52 AM
Some of you wanted my opinion on Jerusalem. Here’s my opinion on Jerusalem.
The pathetic irony is that @realDonaldTrump didn’t recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel to curry favor with Israelis and the Jewish diaspora. He did it to curry favor with end-times evangelical Christian nutcases. #USPolitics
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) December 10, 2017
Those end timers might not be so crazy. I’m afraid there’s a point when trump realizes that history will record him as the worst president ever and the only thing he can do to salvage his outsized ego is to simply end history – and not in a Hegelian way but in a KABOOM way!
Warren,
IMHO, Jerusalem is the hardest nut to crack. Without it being settled, there can be no two-state solution or peace of any kind.
It needs to become an international sovereign city-state. A United Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty is a peace non-starter, as is East Jerusalem under Palestinian control. In short, no peace ever, as both sides don’t want to and won’t compromise on Jerusalem. Netanyahu and Abbas are not the right actors needed for a credible peace process.
Oh good lord, I know one of those people. He is hardcore, sociopathic, and, sadly, smart. He is so invested in his beliefs that his intellect is altogether wasted. He cannot engage in reasoned discussion or argument because there is just too much dissonance.
I regard him as a religious extremist. What he might be capable of concerns me.
Doesn’t matter. It is still the right thing to do. It should have been done over 20 years ago.
Every US President for those last 20 years has also promised to move the embassy, then done nothing about it.
Ahhh, Luke! The world is so much poorer for not being populated with clones of you. Eff it then. Why not go out blazing and rub dog excrement in the eyes of those who cannot live with Jerusalem being the capital of the most civilized, democratic nation around it? (kidding, yuck, yuck!) Ya know guys, Trump is boorish but ain’t stupid. I don’t hear much clamouring of support of Palestinians who reject his announcement. Other existential threats all around … ahem, to the east. Then again, ain’t many listening anymore.
??
Could someone please explain this logic to me?
Possibly elaborate a bit as to why a man who was a New York Democrat for most of his adult life would care what a tiny minority of Christians think of him, when there are far more Jewish votes to be had from it?
There are only ~6 million Jews in the US. The majority live in New York, Illinois, California, and Florida. Of the 4, only Florida is a swing state. This may well help him with South Florida’s Jewish community, but the Orthodox vote already switched Republican several election cycles ago. That leaves the non-Orthodox (in Florida, roughly 80% of the Jewish community) and when you exclude the committed liberals among them who will never vote Republican, there aren’t that many swing votes left.
I have several time read about reasonable people turned angry far-right true believers by watching Fox News. It mainly effects older men. They get addicted to the anger.
. . . and they send lots of tweets while sitting in their underpants.
It also rules up the Muslim world, and increases the possibility of terrorist retaliation, which plays into his narrative that Muslims are all blood thirsty maniacs who want to behead your children.
Regardless, he’s simply stating the obvious. In recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he’s not precluding the Palestinians from also setting up their own capital in an East Jerusalem suburb once (if) there is a final settlement. Presumably the final border will give a part of Jerusalem to Palestine, though probably not as much of it as they want.