{"id":103346,"date":"2017-12-11T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=103346"},"modified":"2017-12-10T19:31:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T19:31:29","slug":"trump-mideast-much-more-than-a-kiss-of-death-to-palestinians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/12\/trump-mideast-much-more-than-a-kiss-of-death-to-palestinians\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-Mideast: Much More than a \u2018Kiss of Death\u2019 to Palestinians"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Southern aerial view of the Temple Mount, Al-Aqsa in the Old City of Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa Mosque is considered to be the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.
Credit: Godot13. Attribution: Andrew Shiva \/ Wikipedia \/ CC BY-SA 4.0. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.<\/p><\/div>\n

7 Dec 2017<\/em> – US President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital does not represent only a \u2018kiss of death\u2019 to the two-State solution, but also a strong blow in the face of 57 Muslim countries, let alone igniting fire in this easily inflammable region, providing more false arguments to criminal terrorist groups to escalate their brutal attacks, in addition to taking a step further in Washington\u2019s new conflict with Iran and the \u2018restructuring\u2019 of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

These are the main conclusions both Middle East analysts and international policy experts reached as soon as Trump announced on 6 December 2017 his decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thus recognising as capital of Israel this Holy City, home to essential shrines of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Old City\u2019 of Jerusalem has been steadily considered by Palestinians to become the capital of their future State, should all international agreements \u2013including the United Nations General Assembly\u2014implement their commitment for the two-State solution, one Israeli and one Palestinian.<\/p>\n

Israeli captured Arab East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and since then has gradually annexed against all international protests and non-recognition. The \u2018Old City\u2019 in Jerusalem hosts Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.<\/p>\n

Palestinian leaders have already warned that Trump\u2019s move could have dangerous consequences, calling for massive popular mobilisations that are feared to lead to new bloodshed in the occupied West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is much more than a kiss of death to the longstanding international consensus to establish two-States as the sole feasible solution,\u201d a former Egyptian high-ranking military official told IPS under condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Trump\u2019s] decision will add more dangerous fuel to the current rekindled flame over hegemony dispute between Shias lead by Iran and Sunnis lead by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, which fire President Trump has now contributed to strongly blow on.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the retired high military official who participated in secret regional negotiations over the Middle East conflict, \u201cThe US has visibly shown its strategy to support the Sunni States in the Arab Gulf\u2026 Just see president Trump\u2019s new weapons sale deal \u2013worth 100 billion dollars\u2014with the Saudi regime, and its tacit support \u2013and even physical involvement\u2014in the ongoing genocidal war against Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulf Sunni Arab countries are home to a high percentage of Shias who have been systematically ruled by Sunni regimes. In some of them, like Bahrain, it is estimated that the Shias represent up to 60 per cent of the total population in spite of which they are considered minorities.<\/p>\n

Oil, that \u201cBlack Gold\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Egyptian analyst would not exclude a new armed conflict between the Gulf Arab Sunni states and Shia Iran. Such an armed conflict would break the already fragile stability in the region, leading to a strong rise in oil prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis eventually would clearly benefit the US fossil energy sector, would weaken the oil-dependent European economies, let alone striking a strong blow to the also foreign oil-dependent China.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatred, Terrorism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another immediate, dangerous consequence of President Trump\u2019s decision is a feared new wave of terrorist attacks against US, Israel and Western interests worldwide.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Palestinian radical movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, has already urged Arabs and Muslims worldwide to \u201cundermine U.S. interests in the region\u201d and to \u201cshun Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

On this, Lebanese Muslim Shia cleric A. Khalil, expressed to IPS his \u201cdeep fear that the [Trump\u2019s] decision will help criminal terrorist groups, falsely acting in the name of Islam, to exploit the furious anger of lay people against the US-led aggression against Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen\u2026 to commit more and more brutal, inhumane attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will tragically and dangerously unleash a new wave of hatred and Islamophobia that will only add fuel to popular anger, to the benefit of terrorist groups, added the cleric.<\/p>\n

For his part, Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Egypt\u2019s Al-Azhar \u2013 which is considered the world\u2019s highest institution of Sunni Islamic learning\u2013 announced on 5 December 2017 that Al-Azhar rejects Trump\u2019s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US president\u2019s decision denies the rights of Palestinians and Arabs to their holy city; it ignores the feelings of one-and-a-half-billion Muslims as well as millions of Arab Christians who have a connection to Jerusalem\u2019s churches and monasteries,\u201d he said in a statement issued following Trump\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Egypt\u2019s Coptic Orthodox Church and Al-Azhar issued statements warning of the \u201cserious potential consequences\u201d of Trump\u2019s plan to recognise Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital and to relocate the US embassy there.
\n
\n\u201cPolitically Correct\u201d Words<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, politicians have reacted to president Trump\u2019s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel. Here some examples:<\/p>\n

Mahmoud Abbas, president of Palestinian Authority, alerted of its \u201cdangerous consequences,\u201d while Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas chief, talked about \u201cigniting the sparks of rage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed his country\u2019s firm stance on preserving the legal status of Jerusalem within the framework of international references and relevant UN resolutions, stressing the need to ensure that the situation in the region is not complicated by measures that undermine the chances of peace in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia expressed \u201cgrave and deep concern,\u201d while King Abdullah II of Jordan warned of \u201cdangerous repercussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haider al-Abadi, Iraqi prime minister expressed \u201cutmost concern,\u201d and Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, secretary general of the Arab League, which groups all 22 Arab countries, characterised Trump\u2019s decision as a \u201cdangerous measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Jerusalem is a \u201cred line for Muslims,\u201d threatening cutting relations with Israel.<\/p>\n

And Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, opposed Trump\u2019s \u201cunilateral action,\u201d while Frederica Mogherini, the European Union\u2019s foreign policy representative, called for resolving Jerusalem\u2019s status through negotiations.<\/p>\n

Will words and \u201cpolitically correct\u201d statements reverse this new situation? Most likely they will not, at least if you judge by what\u2019s happened over the last 98 years, i.e. since the then British Empire released its 1919 Balfour Declaration granting Israel a national home in Palestine.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Baher Kamal, Egyptian-born, Spanish national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of\u00a0<\/em>Human Wrongs Watch<\/a>. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, harmonious coexistence defender among human beings and with Nature, with more than 43 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 Dec 2017 – US President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital does not represent only a \u2018kiss of death\u2019 to the two-State solution, but also a strong blow in the face of 57 Muslim countries, let alone igniting fire in this easily inflammable region, providing more false arguments to criminal terrorist groups to escalate their brutal attacks, in addition to taking a step further in Washington\u2019s new conflict with Iran and the \u2018restructuring\u2019 of the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":103347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}